Former Rockstar developer Obbe Vermeij looked back on the arduous development of Grand Theft Auto III on its 25th anniversary. He noted that the game suffered from frequent crashes, poor frame rates, and numerous map bugs for most of its development cycle. True integration only happened in the final six months, with the frame rate reaching 30 FPS in the last few months.
The team long believed the final product would only manage around 20 FPS, and the project's early stages were equally chaotic. At the time, Rockstar North was still operating under the name DMA Design. Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut proactively began working on this title, while another team was developing Grand Theft Auto 2.5, an isometric game set in Miami.
After Grand Theft Auto 2.5 was canceled in 2000, Grand Theft Auto III received official approval from Take-Two and Rockstar. Vermeij stated that Everythinggj in this game was written from scratch; only two people worked on both the previous title and this one, and neither code nor art assets were carried over.
The team's creative approach was quite organic: members would propose mission ideas and test them out directly, keeping whatever proved fun, with story taking a backseat. The opening scene where Catalina attempts to kill Claude was added late in development.
Vermeij doesn't recall significant crunch during the project; his more vivid memories are of the small team relying on each other and living together. Grand Theft Auto III had a lackluster showing at E3 2001, and the team was unsure if the game would succeed, but sales did not drop off quickly after launch.