The Version Of Bully 2 You’ll Never Get To Play

For some time within the late 2000s, builders at Rockstar New England thought they have been engaged on the subsequent huge Rockstar recreation.

They have been excited to push the corporate’s tech and to carry a cult hit into Rockstar’s imaginative and prescient for the longer term. They have been excited for the prospect to show themselves as a Rockstar studio, having not too long ago been bought by the corporate. They have been excited to guide growth on Bully 2, the sequel to Rockstar’s critically acclaimed open-world journey about life in a personal faculty.

However issues don’t at all times go as deliberate, and different obligations on a launch schedule get in the way in which of ardour tasks. Rockstar New England’s Bully 2 was shelved in favor of different, extra troubled tasks in growth, like Max Payne 3 and Crimson Useless Redemption.

“[Rockstar New England] needed to be type of the golden youngster within the Rockstar factor, nevertheless it’s actually onerous when Rockstar North was the one which was producing all of the golden eggs at the moment,” one developer says. “Residing within the shadows of somebody who casts a giant shadow like Rockstar North, and making an attempt to usurp that function, it’s actually tough and practically unattainable. However man, did they fight. Oh, did they fight.”

To search out out what precisely the studio was planning with Bully 2 and why it was finally let go in favor of different tasks, we not too long ago spoke to 5 former staff from Rockstar’s New England studio and one from its New York Metropolis headquarters, most of whom requested anonymity out of worry of repercussions from Rockstar. Their story is one in all shifting firm cultures, tech that will lastly discover its approach into Rockstar video games as late as 2018’s Crimson Useless Redemption II, and disappointment over the way in which issues went.

The Title Rockstar

Within the late ’90s to mid-2000s, Rockstar Video games was on a spending spree. After the preliminary success of its huge sequence Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar purchased plenty of its third-party accomplice studios. A type of studios was DMA Design, renamed Rockstar North, developer of the primary Grand Theft Auto. One other was Angel Studios, the developer of Crimson Useless Revolver, Crimson Useless Redemption, and the Smuggler’s Run and Midnight Membership sequence, which the writer acquired and renamed Rockstar San Diego. 

Mad Doc Software program, based in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1999 by former Activision technical director Ian Lane Davis, was one other Rockstar acquisition. Davis holds a doctorate in synthetic intelligence and robotics from Carnegie Mellon College. In keeping with former builders Recreation Informer spoke to, in addition to an archived model of Mad Doc’s web site, A.I. was a core pillar of the studio’s pedigree. The web site claimed that the studio’s staff,  composed of builders who beforehand labored on franchises like Civilization, System Shock, and Thief, had an “unmatched experience” within the subject.

For its first decade, Mad Doc operated on a work-for-hire foundation, taking tasks for publishers equivalent to Activision, Sierra Leisure, Disney Interactive, and Vivendi Video games. Previous to its buy by Rockstar, Mad Doc principally developed PC technique video games, such because the Star Trek: Armada and Empire Earth sequence. 

Empire Earth grew to become Mad Doc’s bread and butter as soon as the studio took over growth on the primary recreation’s growth pack, The Artwork of Conquest. Although that preliminary launch was met with middling critiques, Mad Doc’s subsequent two Empire Earth video games, Empire Earth 2 and its growth The Artwork of Supremacy, have been profitable sufficient to result in offers with publishers like Bethesda Softworks and Rockstar. 

Bully

In October 2006, Rockstar launched Bully as a PlayStation 2 unique. The sport, developed by Rockstar’s Vancouver studio in Canada, was a subversion of the components that had made the writer’s video games well-known. The place in different Rockstar titles, just like the Grand Theft Auto sequence, gamers managed a legal free to trigger mayhem round an open-world metropolis or state, Bully put gamers accountable for Jimmy Hopkins, a highschool pupil on the Bullworth Academy boarding faculty. Relatively than kill individuals, Jimmy acquired in fistfights. As a substitute of weapons, he had stink bombs and slingshots. Relatively than pull off robberies or heists, Jimmy pulled pranks and went to class. Coincidentally, the sport was set in New England, Mad Doc’s yard.

Bully was critically and commercially profitable, receiving the best doable assessment scores from shops like X-Play and 1UP, and a recreation of the 12 months nomination from GameSpot. In March 2008, Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar’s mother or father firm, introduced that the sport had bought greater than 1.5 million copies. For comparability, Grand Theft Auto IV, launched in April 2008, bought greater than 8.5 million copies inside its first month. 

Again over at Mad Doc, Empire Earth 3, launched in November 2007, was critically panned. The corporate was in a troublesome spot, a former Mad Doc worker says. “Mad Doc, up till being acquired by Rockstar, was fairly typical of most impartial recreation studios in that it principally survived by engaged on IP from publishers, whereas making an attempt to develop and pitch its personal video games,” he says. 

These powerful instances could be alleviated by a brand new accomplice: Rockstar. After the success of Bully on PlayStation 2, Rockstar approached Mad Doc about growing Bully: Scholarship Version, a remaster with new missions, characters, and gadgets. Mad Doc led the event of Scholarship Version’s Xbox 360 and Home windows PC variations, launched in March and October 2008, respectively, whereas Rockstar Toronto developed the Wii port.

In April 2008, Rockstar introduced it had acquired Mad Doc Software program for an undisclosed quantity and renamed the studio Rockstar New England. Talking in a information launch asserting the acquisition, Rockstar co-founder and president Sam Houser stated that making Mad Doc a Rockstar studio would “improve our core expertise and additional help our dedication to creating progressive and progressive gaming experiences.”

“We’re wanting to carry our experience to bear within the character-driven, open-world tales that make Rockstar Video games titles so uniquely compelling,” Davis, who grew to become studio head of Rockstar New England after the acquisition, stated within the launch. 

In keeping with builders Recreation Informer spoke to, opinions on changing into a Rockstar studio have been constructive on the time. Some staffers, equivalent to 3D artist Tim Samuels, have been excited by the prospect of constructing video games for one of many greatest builders on the planet. “I assumed it was really actually, actually cool,” Samuels says. “It’s like, Hey, Rockstar! I imply, these guys are triple-A. They’re No. 1, on the highest. […] We simply took it in stride and began working.”

“Rockstar itself […] you say, ‘I work at Rockstar,’ individuals have been actually in awe of that,” one former developer says. “It was good to have some clout to a job. You already know? I used to be excited to work on something that they’d, as a result of a lot of the video games that they’d churned out [had] been fairly golden.”

Nonetheless, some say that they step by step began to see Mad Doc’s office tradition disappear after the acquisition, and that crunch grew to become a extra prevalent situation inside the studio as soon as it was below the Rockstar banner. 

“Don’t get me fallacious – in the course of the making of Empire Earth 3 there was crunch [at Mad Doc], nevertheless it was dealt with nicely,” says a former developer. “There have been days to make up for it. Nobody was cracking a whip over our heads. Now and again we’d have ‘hearth drills’ on Fridays. You possibly can put the hearth drills in air quotes as a result of it was actually simply the producer on the time; it was his approach of letting us out early. There was a significantly better stability between work and life.”

Shortly after Rockstar bought Mad Doc, Rockstar’s former vp of growth Jeronimo Barrera visited the studio, the developer continues. Barrera was there to subject worker questions however left some feeling uneasy about their new employer. 

“One of many first purple flags was when somebody requested about hours and weekends and stuff like that,” the developer recollects. “Jeronimo’s reply was one thing to the impact of, ‘Properly, we don’t work each weekend.’ He is like, ‘For instance, I’m not working this Saturday.’ The emphasis on the phrase ‘each,’ after which ‘this,’ have been a bit of disquieting of their impact.” (In 2019, a report from Kotaku detailed Barrerra’s fame inside Rockstar, citing a number of staff describing him as “abrasive” and “risky.” One worker additionally accused Barrera of sexual assault whereas working at Rockstar. Barrera categorically denied the entire allegations of misconduct.)

Shortly after the acquisition, builders at Rockstar New England started work on quite a few tasks. There was nonetheless work to complete on the PC model of Scholarship Version, however the studio additionally assisted within the growth of different Rockstar video games, equivalent to Grand Theft Auto IV’s two story expansions and Crimson Useless Redemption. Along with help work, Rockstar New England was given the prospect to develop its personal recreation, a sequel to Bully.

In keeping with some builders, it was an opportunity to show themselves.

Homes

The late 2000s marked a shift in path for Rockstar. For a lot of the corporate’s early historical past, it launched video games at a charge that co-founder Jamie King known as “relentless,” generally growing or publishing as many as 9 or 10 new releases a 12 months, not together with ports. Whereas the Grand Theft Auto sequence has been a large moneymaker for the corporate because the success of 2001’s Grand Theft Auto III, the majority of the writer’s library from its first decade was padded out with forgotten video games, equivalent to Browsing H3O, Austin Powers: Oh, Behave!, and State of Emergency.

After Grand Theft Auto IV launched in 2008, that schedule slowed down. Whereas Rockstar nonetheless launched loads of ports of its older video games on new platforms, which it continues to do right now, its variety of annual video games dropped to at least one or two. After the launch of Grand Theft Auto V in 2013, which went on to develop into one of the vital profitable leisure properties of all time, Rockstar stopped placing out new video games on a yearly foundation. Its subsequent tentpole launch wouldn’t come till 5 years later with the discharge of Crimson Useless Redemption II in 2018. 

The change within the firm’s launch schedule additionally marked a shift in path for its video games. Early on, Rockstar put out a hodgepodge of titles of various genres and qualities, however after 2008, the writer started to lean additional into dearer, extra prestigious releases, usually centered on an older viewers and constructed round gunplay. The corporate touted the tech behind its video games extra – equivalent to L.A. Noire’s facial seize expertise. Its growth budgets generally reportedly pushed greater than $250 million. A brand new Rockstar recreation grew to become an occasion, one thing that didn’t occur usually. 

Grand Theft Auto IV

Rockstar New England’s plan for Bully 2 was according to this imaginative and prescient, in keeping with builders on the undertaking. It was an opportunity to let the Bully sequence sit alongside Rockstar video games of the time, equivalent to Grand Theft Auto IV and Crimson Useless Redemption. It was an opportunity, as one former developer recollects, to “shoot for the moon as a result of even when we don’t fairly make it, we’re already a lot additional than if we had aimed a bit of bit decrease.”

“There was plenty of deal with character, very deep programs, seeing how far we might push that, and placing it up there alongside a GTA,” one developer on the undertaking says.

“I feel that they needed to carry that sort of [world] to the Bully universe,” one other says.

For builders at Rockstar New England, this meant making the world of Bully 2 greater and deeper than that of the unique recreation – and placing a substantial quantity of assets into its creation. Whereas Recreation Informer wasn’t capable of get an actual variety of individuals engaged on the undertaking, three individuals say virtually all the studio labored on Bully 2, sooner or later, with total headcount estimations being round 50 to 70 individuals. 

“At one level, I feel it was everyone,” one former developer says. “The studio itself, that was going to be their recreation.”

Three totally different builders advised us that the sport’s open-world map wouldn’t have been as huge as that of, say, Grand Theft Auto IV, however their estimates on its deliberate scope describe it as starting from the scale of Grand Theft Auto: Vice Metropolis’s open world to “thrice” the scale of the unique Bully’s faculty map. What it could have lacked in total dimension it could have made up for with depth. For instance, Rockstar New England deliberate to make each constructing within the recreation enterable, both by regular means or by pressured entry. “When you might see it, you would go into it,” one former developer on the undertaking says.  

Bully

“[The player] was not going to be driving a automotive anyplace, so the whole playable area [and] land dimension [was] undoubtedly going to be smaller,” one other developer says. “Principally as a result of youngsters – he’s not going to be driving – and in addition as a result of we needed these very deep programs. Like, in case you can go into each constructing, that’s plenty of work. We’d fairly not have a extremely huge world; possibly scale that again a bit of bit simply in order that we will guarantee that we’ve all these significant issues in there.”

Bolstered by Rockstar New England’s pedigree in synthetic intelligence, the studio was experimenting with methods to make the participant’s actions extra significant than in earlier Rockstar video games. Take, for instance, the honour system within the first Crimson Useless Redemption. If protagonist John Marston helps a nonplayer character, his honor score rises. But when the participant directs Marston to commit crimes, then Marston’s honor falls. Whereas this impacts how NPCs react to Marston out on the planet, particular NPCs don’t bear in mind his particular person actions.

In Bully 2, nevertheless, Rockstar New England was making an attempt to develop methods for characters to recollect Jimmy, for there to be good and dangerous penalties for his actions. 

“We actually needed to guarantee that individuals remembered what you probably did, so in case you pulled a prank in your neighbor, they’d bear in mind it,” says one developer. “That your actions had extra which means past a 20-foot radius and the five-second reminiscences of the [non-playable characters] close to you.”

Components of this method will be seen in Crimson Useless Redemption II, two builders inform Recreation Informer. Gamers see adjustments in protagonist Arthur Morgan’s conduct primarily based on his honor. If Morgan has excessive honor, he’s a extra compassionate character. If Morgan has low honor, he’s pushed by greed and apathy. Equally, if Morgan robs a retailer, he can’t simply stroll again into it a couple of minutes later as if nothing occurred. The shop clerk remembers Morgan and denies him service, asking him to depart. 

“The way in which that you simply work together with different characters on the planet, extra than simply together with your gun or together with your fist, they’ve some sense of reminiscence – plenty of that stuff [originated in Bully 2],” one developer says. 

“From what I bear in mind studying [in] among the design docs and my conversations with individuals is that you would construct relationships with characters on the planet,” he says about Bully 2. “You’d be, like, finest mates with the chef within the mansion or no matter, or the chef might actually hate you or one thing, and that will open up totally different choices. I don’t know to the extent of the place that ended up – if that acquired pared down right into a normal ‘you’re good Jimmy’ versus ‘you’re dangerous Jimmy’ or what – however I do know in among the early concepts being thrown round, you’d have that fine-grained degree of relationships to different characters on the planet.”

Past the sport’s open world, builders describe a breadth of various interactivity choices and new options. One element recalled by two builders was a progressive grass-growing system, the place grass all through the world would develop realistically and gamers might see particular person blades. “You possibly can go and mow the garden, after which it could really be decrease,” one former developer says. “You possibly can really do an excellent job, shuttle, and create strains on individuals’s lawns, that sort of factor.”

“It sounds so foolish, nevertheless it was one thing that we have been all enthusiastic about as a result of [of] the expertise behind it,” one other developer says of the grass-growing mechanic. 

As a result of Rockstar New England needed to offer gamers the choice to interrupt into homes, the staff developed a brand new glass fragmentation system, new tech made for Bully 2 that hadn’t been utilized in prior Rockstar video games – although it’d discover its approach into later titles. “When you’ve performed Max Payne 3 and also you shot some glass, as a substitute of simply the glass breaking the identical approach each time, we had constructed this entire system in order that this chunk proper close to the affect of the primary bullet would escape, and you’d see a bit of spiderweb of glass,” one developer says. “Then in case you shot some extra of the glass, little particular person chunks close to the place you really shot would fall out. [It made] it look sensible.”

Footage courtesy of Jacob Geller

Glass fragmentation in Max Payne 3

A number of individuals on the undertaking describe an in-depth climbing mechanic deliberate for the sport. When exploring the open world, Jimmy would be capable of climb bushes, fences, and ledges, on high of roofs, in addition to out of his window when sneaking out. “Bushes have been clearly a giant one; we needed the participant to have the ability to climb up the tree to cover or do some hijinks with all kinds of issues like paintball weapons or water balloons, all of that type of stuff,” a former developer says. 

Whereas the builders put plenty of work into determining how the climbing could be applied in Bully 2, they by no means acquired far sufficient into growth to fully nail it down, in keeping with three former builders on the undertaking. 

“We labored with plenty of GTA property simply in order that we might get one thing prototyped rapidly,” one developer says in regards to the climbing. “We tried to work plenty of that in. It’s like, Properly, when he’s hanging for this lengthy, how lengthy does he cling for earlier than he lets go? Will we wanna do [a] foot-over-foot balancing act in case you’re strolling alongside a department? Versus facet stepping, facet to facet, in case you have been working alongside the department however to the facet? It was stuff like that, and making an attempt to determine what labored, or what appeared one of the best because the participant.”

Housing these new options was a vertical slice of Bully 2 that Rockstar New England had up and operating. In keeping with 4 builders on the studio and one particular person at Rockstar’s New York Metropolis headquarters, Bully 2 was playable. Builders might run around the globe and work together with objects and non-player characters, and there have been some missions – equivalent to one involving go-karts, one other with a beekeeper, a Kamp Krusty-style mission, and one which had Jimmy in his underwear, even that includes a crotch bulge. 

“It was undoubtedly going to be a bit of risqué,” a former developer says. 

“There have been plenty of ’80s-kids-on-bikes films, like Goonies, that got here up as reference. Porky’s was one other generally used film for reference,” he says. “We [looked] at plenty of these sorts of issues. It’s undoubtedly in that model.”

As one developer on the undertaking recollects, the staff had mapped out all of the terrain for the sport’s world. Moreover, NPCs have been strolling round doing numerous day-to-day duties. Buildings and homes inside the recreation have been additionally beginning to develop into feature-complete, although he factors out that they weren’t in a shippable type but. 

“The sport was at the least six to eight hours playable,” says Marc Anthony Rodriguez, a former recreation analyst for Rockstar’s New York Metropolis headquarters and one of many undertaking leads on Bully: Scholarship Version. “So, totally rendered, totally realized.”

“That sounds about proper for the scale of vertical slice that Rockstar tasks have been being constructed round [at] that point,” a second supply says when requested about whether or not, throughout his time engaged on the undertaking, the sport was playable for six to eight hours. 

Two builders Recreation Informer spoke to estimate that if growth had continued, Bully 2 would nonetheless have wanted two to 3 or extra years earlier than being able to be shipped. 

However these years wouldn’t come. Over time, Rockstar started pulling individuals off the undertaking and placing them on different in-development video games that wanted assist. For the builders Recreation Informer spoke to, as soon as anybody acquired pulled off of Bully 2, they by no means returned.

Payne

Not one of the builders Recreation Informer spoke to is aware of precisely why Rockstar New England was chosen to develop Bully 2, although it’s price stating that Rockstar Vancouver, developer of the primary Bully, was main growth on Max Payne 3 presently. The builders say they felt that the chance to work on Bully 2 was an opportunity to show that Rockstar New England was definitely worth the cash Rockstar had spent to accumulate it, which was a sentiment shared by staff at different studios bought by the corporate across the identical time. 

“I imply, that’s a fairly frequent factor that – I’ll check with them as ‘New York’ – the New York workplace sort of asks of any new Rockstar studio, is for them to show that they’re definitely worth the funding,” one ex-Bully 2 developer says.

Rodriguez echoes this sentiment, saying the Bully 2 undertaking was New England’s “heavy raise” for Rockstar, although he admits the studio had a historical past with the corporate earlier than the acquisition. “This [was] not their first rodeo with working with Rockstar,” Rodriguez says. “The one approach I might state it’s, they’d a confirmed monitor file, and that was the one purpose they have been acquired.”

“The primary acquisition was to have a foothold that was nearer than [Rockstar] North and that was going to have the ability to deal with the A.I. facet of what the interplay inside this recreation was going to be, the communication instruments inside this recreation,” he provides. “Mad Doc wasn’t, like, one thing to f—ing flip your nostril up at.”

Rockstar declined to take part on this story. All different interview requests Recreation Informer despatched to present or former members of the New York workplace have been both ignored or turned down. 

Whatever the why behind it, former builders on the undertaking describe plenty of pleasure for the prospect to develop a sequel to Bully. “It was actually simply, ‘Let’s do every part that they’re asking very well as a result of we need to impress these of us,’” one former developer says.

“There [were] some late nights for positive, staying till midnight, 1, 2 within the morning,” says one other developer on the undertaking. “We have been hustling to show ourselves as a result of I feel nearly anyone engaged on Bully 2 simply completely cherished it. It was actually a labor of affection by nearly anyone that was engaged on it. I feel the general public that labored on it look again on it fondly and sort of wistfully, wishing that it could’ve labored out.”

However Rockstar had different priorities. There have been different video games within the firm’s pipeline that wanted assist and a focus. In 2010, Rockstar New England started pulling individuals off of Bully 2, builders say, having them focus solely on tasks like Max Payne 3.

This level in Rockstar New England’s historical past marks a determined shift in tone. Whereas most builders communicate fondly and excitedly about their work on Bully 2, when speaking about tasks equivalent to Max Payne 3 and Crimson Useless Redemption, their tone turns dour. 

The builders make two details relating to this particular time in Rockstar New England’s historical past. One is the crunch. Builders describe months-long crunch durations the place they’d must work late into the night time and on weekends, generally between 12- and 16-hour days. Others describe becoming a member of a undertaking solely to right away begin crunching or crunching on one undertaking simply to be rolled onto one other undertaking and having to crunch on that one, too. One developer talking to Recreation Informer makes use of the phrase “infinite” to explain the crunch on the studio.

“I imply, it was simply ridiculous,” one former developer says, describing the event of Crimson Useless Redemption. “I do know that it gained recreation of the 12 months, and that was nice and satisfying, however the method to growth was simply – it was ridiculous. It took nobody’s life exterior of labor into consideration.”

“You already know, normally you’re like, ‘Oh, I’ve gotta get this out. We wanna attempt to hit this,’” one other developer says. “So everyone works actually onerous for, like, per week, two weeks. However then when the milestone ended, they’re like, ‘Properly, let’s attempt to preemptively repair the issues that we all know that they’re going to say. So we’ll simply hold crunching till we get phrase again.’ After which we wouldn’t get phrase again for six extra weeks or one thing like that, so individuals have been sort of breaking. It was breaking individuals rapidly.”

The opposite factor builders carry up is a tradition change inside Rockstar New England. It wasn’t prompt, they are saying, and wasn’t a lot of an issue on Bully 2, however three builders Recreation Informer spoke with say that as time went on, the studio acquired farther from the tradition that had attracted them to hitch Mad Doc Software program. 

As some builders describe it, they felt they have been anticipated by different individuals inside the firm to show their dedication to Rockstar via lengthy hours, and that they’d be “harassed” when making an attempt to depart the studio. “When it got here time so that you can depart, it was plenty of simply making an attempt to get out with out being harassed on the way in which out of the door,” one former developer tells Recreation Informer. 

“The tradition simply – it simply modified,” one other former developer says. “I noticed those who beforehand I actually appreciated develop into simply sycophantic. After which there was the entire ‘our bodies in chairs’ factor, you realize? You don’t have work to do, however you’re going to be right here on the weekend, as a result of there’s some studio head that’s going to be strolling round. This doesn’t even get into the off-work hours stuff the place it was simply – it was like a hardworking frat home. There may be an age and an individual that’s actually drawn to that. Rockstar, in my view, is nicely conscious of this.”

Crimson Useless Redemption

A number of the builders Recreation Informer spoke to explain how they determined to depart the studio because the workload elevated and the tradition stored altering. One describes it as voting together with his toes. 

Others had that call made for them.

In June 2009, Rockstar New England went via a sizable layoff. Sources inside the studio advised Kotaku that “at the least 10 % of the studio” had been let go. This included the whole thing of the standard assurance division, as Rockstar shifted all of its QA to a devoted studio. Members of the studio’s artwork staff and different departments have been additionally let go. 

On the time of the layoffs, shops reported that Rockstar would assist these affected discover new jobs. In keeping with 3D artist Tim Samuels, who misplaced his job on this spherical of layoffs, that didn’t really occur. He additionally says he wasn’t advised why he was being let go. Because of the timing of the cuts – earlier than the discharge of Crimson Useless Redemption, which was the final undertaking that Samuels and others affected by the layoffs had labored on – none of them acquired bonuses for his or her work. “We didn’t even get a replica of the sport,” Samuels says. 

“That layoff was fairly devastating to lots of people within the studio, and caught with me even after I had left,” says one developer who spoke to Recreation Informer anonymously. “It by no means actually made a lot sense to me as to why it occurred, and I don’t recall there ever being an official rationalization.”

As of February 2017, Rockstar had shipped greater than 15 million copies of Crimson Useless Redemption. It’s thought-about among the best video games ever made. In April 2020, Kotaku reported that Rockstar was taking steps to deal with its crunch issues throughout all of its studios.

Eternally

Over time, information of Bully 2’s growth has unfold across the recreation trade. Increased-ups at Rockstar have additionally talked a number of instances about their curiosity within the sequence.

In 2009, Shawn Lee, composer on the primary Bully, advised The Gaming Liberty, “It seems to be like I might be doing the soundtrack for Bully 2 within the not so distant future.” In 2011, Dan Houser advised Gamasutra that the corporate may work on Bully 2 after it launched Max Payne 3, which ended up launching in Could 2012. In 2013, Houser advised Polygon he needed to make a Bully sequel. “There’s plenty of instructions I might go along with that one,” he stated. In February 2020, Rockstar introduced that Houser could be leaving the corporate the next month. 

There have additionally been a small variety of stories and leaks in regards to the growth of Bully 2. In 2017, the Twitter account Bully 2 Info posted numerous pieces of supposed idea artwork and in-game screenshots. In keeping with Recreation Informer’s contacts, the massive majority of these leaks are professional. In July 2019, YouTuber SWEGTA uploaded a video primarily based on a dialog with a former Rockstar New England worker about Bully 2 and Rockstar Video games’ resolution to shelve the undertaking in 2009. In October 2019, VGC printed a report in regards to the recreation, saying the undertaking was in growth at Rockstar New England for between 12 and 18 months earlier than petering out. The report stated that whereas Dan Houser had a script and story define as early as 2008, growth at New England occurred someday between Crimson Useless Redemption’s launch in 2010 and the tip of 2013. That roughly strains up with what Recreation Informer has heard, although builders we talked to say they bear in mind the sport being in growth between 2008 and 2010, earlier than the discharge of Crimson Useless Redemption.

Rockstar Video games has by no means stated something publicly about Bully 2 being in growth. We weren’t capable of affirm whether or not there was anybody at Rockstar New England – or some other Rockstar studio – nonetheless engaged on the undertaking. Though, one developer says a construct of the sport nonetheless existed at Rockstar New England as not too long ago as a couple of years in the past, components of which have been used as reference materials for later tasks. 

We don’t know if a model of Bully 2 will ever see the sunshine of day. However a decade after growth, those who labored on the undertaking nonetheless specific fondness for the sport and their work. And so they say they nonetheless hope they’ll get an opportunity to play a full launch. 

“It was going to be actually cool,” one former developer says. “What we had was fairly superb, particularly given the very quick period of time that we have been engaged on it. […] It actually would’ve been very distinctive, very fascinating, actually plenty of enjoyable. Quite a lot of cool and fascinating mechanics that we have been engaged on that also aren’t in different video games.”

“It’s nonetheless an idea, in my view, price exploring,” one other says, “and I feel that it could be a missed alternative for them to let it go endlessly.”

Particular thanks: Matt Leone, Jacob Geller

If any present or former staff of Rockstar’s numerous studios want to discuss their experiences, the creator will be reached by electronic mail, Twitter, or by way of Sign. The author’s electronic mail is blakehester@gameinformer.com. Attain out via Twitter direct messages for Sign info. Recreation Informer can assure anonymity to anybody that requests in change for his or her tales.