Former Rockstar developer Leslie Benzies is launching a new game, MindsEye, in June. Naturally, people are connecting the game to GTA, which Benzies worked on while at Rockstar. Benzies has now reacted to the phenomenon of people comparing MindsEye to GTA, saying it only makes sense, but also asking fans to judge MindsEye for what it is.
"There's always comparisons, and I think that's how humans work," Benzies told GI.biz. "As kids, we're taught to put a triangle into a triangular hole, and a square into a square hole. I think we do that for the rest of our lives, and we like to describe something new as 'it's X plus Y, with a bit of Z in there'. It makes things easy for us. It's maybe humans optimizing the way we communicate."
These comparisons serve MindsEye and developer Build a Rocket Boy well in some respects and poorly in others, he said. To make his point, Benzies recalled a quote from musician Dave Grohl who said when he formed Foo Fighters that no one cared about the new band; they only cared about Grohl's previous band, Nirvana.
For MindsEye, Benzies said he hopes fans give the game a fair shake. "The guys have built something very cool, and I just hope people can see it for what it's trying to be," he said.
Also in the interview, Benzies said Build a Rocket Boy considered many different options for what would become MindsEye, but making a direct competitor to GTA was never the plan.
"I'm not sure it would've been smart as a company to say, 'We are going to compete with the biggest game on the planet.' I'm not sure that would be the best business decision to make," he said. "We went through a bunch of different designs, and to tell our story, this is what we landed on."
So what is MindsEye? And how is it connected to Build a Rocket Boy's Everywhere? Benzies explained that MindsEye is "one story in an epic universe," with this story focusing on the character Jacob Diaz. Other stories will focus on different characters in other periods of time.
"That's the way we're going to fill out the universe over time--so when you travel around, all the stories will be connected by one overarching theme, and each story will have different mechanics. And we'll give these mechanics to players within the creator tools," Benzies said.
Benzies said the team has purposefully held back information and footage for "huge parts of the game" to avoid spoilers in a story that will "take some unusual twists."
"MindsEye sits bang in the middle of our story. So, we're going to go back 10,000 years, then we're going to go forward a certain amount of time. It's the relevant piece of the puzzle that will have players asking questions of what the bigger story is," he said.
As for Everywhere, this project is "going to show up again pretty soon," Benzies said, and when that happens, the company's wider plans might make more sense.
"Everything we're working on, there's a story behind it--a big overarching story. So Everywhere will come back, and it fits into this story somewhere. I can't tell you [where], because it would be a spoiler. But that's going to reappear soon, and it will all be a part of the same product," he said.
In other news, Build a Rocket Boy co-CEO Mark Gerhard has suggested that the bad word of mouth about MindsEye is part of a "concerted effort" to trash the game and his studio.
MindsEye launches June 10 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. As for the GTA franchise, GTA 6 is set for release in May 2026.
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"There's always comparisons, and I think that's how humans work," Benzies told GI.biz. "As kids, we're taught to put a triangle into a triangular hole, and a square into a square hole. I think we do that for the rest of our lives, and we like to describe something new as 'it's X plus Y, with a bit of Z in there'. It makes things easy for us. It's maybe humans optimizing the way we communicate."
These comparisons serve MindsEye and developer Build a Rocket Boy well in some respects and poorly in others, he said. To make his point, Benzies recalled a quote from musician Dave Grohl who said when he formed Foo Fighters that no one cared about the new band; they only cared about Grohl's previous band, Nirvana.
For MindsEye, Benzies said he hopes fans give the game a fair shake. "The guys have built something very cool, and I just hope people can see it for what it's trying to be," he said.
Also in the interview, Benzies said Build a Rocket Boy considered many different options for what would become MindsEye, but making a direct competitor to GTA was never the plan.
"I'm not sure it would've been smart as a company to say, 'We are going to compete with the biggest game on the planet.' I'm not sure that would be the best business decision to make," he said. "We went through a bunch of different designs, and to tell our story, this is what we landed on."
What is MindsEye?
So what is MindsEye? And how is it connected to Build a Rocket Boy's Everywhere? Benzies explained that MindsEye is "one story in an epic universe," with this story focusing on the character Jacob Diaz. Other stories will focus on different characters in other periods of time.
"That's the way we're going to fill out the universe over time--so when you travel around, all the stories will be connected by one overarching theme, and each story will have different mechanics. And we'll give these mechanics to players within the creator tools," Benzies said.
Benzies said the team has purposefully held back information and footage for "huge parts of the game" to avoid spoilers in a story that will "take some unusual twists."
"MindsEye sits bang in the middle of our story. So, we're going to go back 10,000 years, then we're going to go forward a certain amount of time. It's the relevant piece of the puzzle that will have players asking questions of what the bigger story is," he said.
As for Everywhere, this project is "going to show up again pretty soon," Benzies said, and when that happens, the company's wider plans might make more sense.
"Everything we're working on, there's a story behind it--a big overarching story. So Everywhere will come back, and it fits into this story somewhere. I can't tell you [where], because it would be a spoiler. But that's going to reappear soon, and it will all be a part of the same product," he said.
In other news, Build a Rocket Boy co-CEO Mark Gerhard has suggested that the bad word of mouth about MindsEye is part of a "concerted effort" to trash the game and his studio.
MindsEye launches June 10 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. As for the GTA franchise, GTA 6 is set for release in May 2026.
Source