Ambitious fan uses artificial intelligence to develop his own GTA 6 and documents progress
The anticipation surrounding the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, the long-awaited title from Rockstar Games, has led an enthusiast to an unusual level of proactivity. Tired of waiting for substantial news about the game, which had its second trailer released in May 2025, developer Ziwen decided to undertake the creation of his own version of the game. He uses artificial intelligence for the project and shares the process daily on his social networks, attracting the attention of the gaming community.
The challenge of recreating an open world with AI
Ziwen’s project, started a week ago, uses Anthropic’s Claude model to assist with coding. To maximize the tool’s potential, the developer invested in the AI’s maximum capacity, the Claude Max 20x. Its goal is ambitious: launch a playable game even before Rockstar makes the official title available in November. He acknowledges the magnitude of the undertaking, describing it as “probably a little crazy”, but moves on.
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The creator also made an appeal for collaborators, looking for talents in different areas to bring his virtual universe to life. Ziwen invited programmers, modelers, level designers, composers and story creators to join the initiative, which began to be structured on the Godot Engine. Collaboration is seen as an essential pillar for a project of such complexity, even with the support of artificial intelligence.
Rapid advances and the first technical obstacles
From day one, the prototype’s progress has been documented, revealing the impressive evolution in a short period. What began as a simple movement in the void quickly took on more defined contours, showing the potential of AI in accelerating development.
- First day:a cylindrical object managed to move and jump in an empty environment.
- Second day:the project already resembled a generic game, similar to those found on digital platforms.
- Third day:the scene evolved into a kind of Roblox-style open world, with the inclusion of cars and human figures in the virtual city.
- Fourth day:There were significant improvements in lighting, modeling and textures, giving greater realism to the environment.
- Eighth day:The virtual team worked on advanced features, introducing a modeled city, superior textures, more fluid movement and a working in-game phone.
The evolution of the prototype and unforeseen problems with the equipment
The project’s latest advances are remarkable, especially considering that much of the work is conducted by “AI agents.” On the eighth day of development, Ziwen reported an unexpected incident: his Apple computer crashed. Despite the setback, the game’s evolution continued to be substantial. A short video released by the developer shows a well-modeled city, improved textures and more elaborate visual effects, in addition to cell phone functionality that simulates large-scale games.
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The next step planned by Ziwen is the full conversion of the Godot project to the Unreal Engine, possibly the UE5 version. This change in graphics engine aims to improve the animation of Non-Playable Characters (NPCs), who currently still “slide” around the scene. The transition to a more robust tool like Unreal is crucial to achieving a level of detail and interactivity expected for a game of this genre.
The game development journey in contrast to big studios
Ziwen’s initiative represents a fascinating case study in the power of artificial intelligence in independent game development. While studios like Rockstar employ thousands of professionals and invest hundreds of millions of dollars and years of work into creating titles like GTA 6, the ability of a single developer, assisted by AI, to prototype and evolve such a complex world in days is a testament to technological democratization. This shows that while a solo project is unlikely to reach the level of polish and scale of a super production, AI offers unprecedented tools for small teams and individuals to quickly turn their visions into reality, pushing the limits of what is possible in the industry.
Following the progress of this project becomes a unique opportunity to observe the emerging capabilities of artificial intelligence in the creative and technical field of video games. While the goal of matching Rockstar’s quality is a nearly unattainable goal for a single individual, even with the help of AI, Ziwen’s journey demonstrates the technology’s revolutionary potential. The official release of GTA 6 is scheduled for November 19th, setting up a race against time for the ambitious developer.
