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Nearly canceled during development for being in such poor shape with serious technical and gameplay issues, the first Grand Theft Auto was originally conceived as a fast-paced, multiplayer cops-and-robbers game focused on high-speed chases from a top-down perspective.
Originally titled Race'n'Chase, the game was expected to launch in July 1996 after roughly 18 months of development. Instead, developer DMA Design (now Rockstar North) spent nearly 30 months turning the troubled project into what would become Grand Theft Auto.
The original Grand Theft Auto was nearly cancelled, but a gameplay bug ultimately defined it.
The finished game bore little resemblance to its original concept. In a 2011 interview, former DMA employee Gary Penn revealed just how troubled the game's development was, stating that it was on its last leg and on the verge of cancellation – not only due to technical instability but also because it simply wasn't fun.
"...The car handling was appalling. There was a point in it where you used to have a button for opening the doors and it was just rubbish. I can't remember if this is true because we used to joke about it that you even had to start the engine. It was awful, it was too sim-y."
One bug, however, proved to be the game's redeeming quality.
You could say this ultimately became the foundation of what would ultimately define Grand Theft Auto's chaotic and thrilling gameplay. Due to poor pathfinding, police AI would sometimes drive directly into the player's car, making them appear wildly aggressive. Instead of treating this as a flaw, the developers realized that the unintended police behavior added excitement and intensity. The bug was tweaked into a core feature and the rest is history.
The legacy of Race'n'Chase is acknowledged in GTA Online. There's an easter egg in The Diamond Casino Heist where an arcade game called "Race and Chase" serves as a clear reference to the original Grand Theft Auto concept.