Keith Hamilton was the lead programmer at DMA Design from 1993 to 2000.

Career

Hamilton was the lead programmer during the development of Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto 2.

Hamilton was very involved in discussions of what direction the Grand Theft Auto series was going to take. In an interview, he said "The only agreed direction was that we were basically writing a game that we would want to play ourselves. Everything had to be interactive. The player had to be able to drive any vehicle he could find. Nothing was to be off-limits. We wanted fun situations to present themselves just by all the elements coming together, not necessarily in ways that were specially designed."^[1]

Hamilton was also heavily involved in DMA Design securing a publishing deal with BMG Interactive - he starred as the fictional protagonist in a live-action short film based on what Grand Theft Auto would be about. In the same interview mentioned previously, Keith mentions that unfortunately the original version of the video was lost and he doesn't know if any copies exist.

In another interview, Paul Farley, a fellow programmer at DMA Design, said that Hamilton was notorious for "always stopping at traffic lights [in-game], much to everyone's amusement."^[2]

On October 21, 2022, speculation gripped the GTA community, as many believed that the day marked the 25th anniversary of the original Grand Theft Auto game's release, therefore also marking the start of the series. Former DMA Design music producer Colin Anderson tweeted later in the day, showing an email Keith Hamilton sent out to everyone at DMA Design on November 27, 1997. The email showed that Hamilton was inviting everyone at the studio out for drinks the following day, noting that "GTA will finally be released tomorrow". This email confirmed to the community that the actual release date of Grand Theft Auto on PC was in fact November 28, 1997.

Employment History

Video Game Credits

Lead Programmer

• Grand Theft Auto (1997)
• Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999)

Gallery

Keith Hamilton's email to DMA Design employees, confirming Grand Theft Auto's release date.

Information on Keith Hamilton on the Official Grand Theft Auto promotional website.

Steve Banks - "Keith Rap"

"Keith Rap" by Steve Banks, featuring Keith Hamilton rapping. This audio was available on the official Grand Theft Auto promotional website.

Trivia

• In the original Grand Theft Auto, during the mission Mandarin Mayhem - Phone 8: Mission 2, the player must find a character called Keith Ham Yel Tun, whose name is a tongue in cheek reference to Keith Hamilton, before he jumps off a building.
  • During the same mission, there are other meta-jokes and about the game, such as the game telling the player to collect the "Humour", the "Gameplay", the "Fun", and the "Sweary Words" around San Andreas.
• Keith Hamilton sends two text messages to the protagonist's pager in the original Grand Theft Auto.
  • KEITH SAYS: OBSERVE THE PROPER SPEED LIMITS!
  • KEITH SAYS: OBEY THE RULES OF THE ROAD!
• Hamilton's Fudge Factory, a business advertised in random pager messages in the original Grand Theft Auto is a reference to Keith Hamilton.
• In Grand Theft Auto: London 1969, one of Harold Cartwright's associates is named Keith. This could be a reference to Keith Hamilton.
• According to Hamilton himself, the "Keith Rap" was a mixture of his numerous unused lines of dialogue which he had recorded to be used by NPCs in the original Grand Theft Auto. The only line which survived and made it into the game was "he's got a gun", the rest was "secretly stitched together into that rap."^[3]
• Keith Hamilton's proprietary GXT Maker tool used by DMA Design/Rockstar North in every GTA title prior to Grand Theft Auto IV was accidentally left in the files for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition by the outsourced Grove Street Games studio in the original release of the remasters in 2021.^[4]

External Links

• Keith Hamilton's LinkedIn Profile
• Keith Hamilton's Twitter Profile

References