Gordon Hall has died

[bovine3dom]

There seems to be some confusion in the comments here. Rockstar Leeds [1] worked on mobile games (like the excellent GTA: Chinatown Wars) and ports of games from other Rockstar studios. It was founded as Möbius Entertainment and rebranded as Rockstar Leeds when Take Two acquired it for Rockstar. It is not the same studio that made GTA 1 - 5.

Still an enviable legacy - the studio made some of the best PSP games.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_Leeds

[NetOpWibby]

I listen to the Chinatown Wars remix track that MF Doom did with Ghostface Killah.

I also have the radio stations playing as I work sometimes. What a fantastic game.

[forgotmypw17]

I played Chinatown Wars on iPhone, and it was the only ever GTA series game which I didn't get bored of after half an hour. I finished the whole thing, and went back for more. Great game.

[ekianjo]

Yup, commented on this same topic in another reply. Rockstar Leeds is not related to the main GTA titles that most people have played.

[29athrowaway]

Most GTA games were developed by Rockstar North.

This reminds me of how the release of another confusion... when the release of Pokemon Go affected Nintendo's stock price. https://time.com/4421450/pokemon-go-nintendo-shares-tokyo/

[thisisjohnwill]

After years of lurking & a few throwaways, this is my first comment on HN as myself.

Few people we meet stand out in such a way as Gordon did for me. Unfortunately it too often takes tragic life updates to have these fleeting connections return to the surface of your daily thoughts.

Gordon was just some guy I met who was a) in the games industry and b) hosting a (killer btw) party at SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans. I had shown up looking for a job in gfx like a year too early - and got this party invite instead. Foreign concept to my engineer brain that those two were actually not only related but often on the same path... which Gordon took the time to explain to me over shots of “I don’t even know what” while overlooking Bourbon St & the still ongoing party shenanigans inside. After another half hour of “but seriously though how does one make games for a living” crash course, I left that party lighter than air.

Fast forward more than a decade and I still qualify that as one of my favorite days ever.

A few minutes given freely can make a seriously outsized difference. Take the time. Pay it forward. You’re already a mentor to more people than you think.

Thanks Gordon. Rest easy.

[smokelegend]

IMHO one of the greatest of all time games, thanks for the memories...

[softwhale]

I remember watching this video (initially posted in 2009) with Gordon Hall discussing what R* was looking for programmer wise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G15hTiOZWw&ab_channel=ATM

[cryptoquick]

They say the brightest rockstars die the quickest, but are the most beautiful. Rest in peace, it was a life not wasted.

[jimsmart]

Sad news. I worked with Gordon at a couple of places back in the 90s, in his pre-Mobius days. He was a good guy, big heart, always positive and motivational. And his sleight of hand with a deck of cards was the best I've ever witnessed. Good memories. RIP

[Flex247A]

RIP

[andreygrehov]

51? WTF?! What was the cause of death?

[throwawayboise]

Has not been made public, as far as I can tell.

[nojvek]

I have spent many years of my life playing GTA. Starting from GTA1 all the way to GTA5. Definitely a generation defining series. Are they ever going to release GTA6?

RIP. Thanks for all the entertainment and joy you have brought me and my friends.

[ekianjo]

Gordon Hall worked specifically on the mobile versions of GTA (like Chinatown wars) not the other canonical episodes in the series. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_Chinatown_Wa...)

The original GTA was from by David Jones and Mike Dailly, and the series were led by Rockstar North (ex-DMA design), not Rockstar Leeds.

[jonny383]

Thanks for the memories.

I think one of the bad things about getting older that people don't seem to discuss is the increase in death of both those you know or those you know of.

[dukeofdoom]

Yeah, watch out for Brain Aneurysm if you have high blood pressure. Internal pluming related death is probably the leading cause of early death at that age. Don't clog your pipes people! Don't sit at the computer for too long either. You can get blood clots in your legs. Take care of your heart. Go for a walk everyday

[Angostura]

And then when you get to my late parent's age - mid 90s when they died, basically all your peers are dead. Al those people with shared memories of childhood and youth. No one to reminisce with.

They coped with it well, but it must be so weird.

[s5300]

I think it just seems like most things surrounding death in the U.S. are in an abysmal state.

Mexico/good portion of the East seem to do things much better regarding it. (These are just the places I'm personally familiar with. Sure there's many others that approach death much differently than the U.S. does as well.)

[qrbLPHiKpiux]

Vice city had the best cast.

[Hamuko]

Apparently Vice City was a turning point for the franchise when it came to hiring big name cast members since apparently many of them were kinda full of themselves and hard to work with.

Not that this is really related.

[geferdeba]

Nes afe doacae picwss.

[jibanes]

wasted... j/k.

[petecooper]

Not appropriate.

[matthewmorgan]

Buried by the so-called British Broadcasting Corporation in the UK regional news section, yet if he'd been some random US 'rapper' his death would've been on the front page.

[mhh__]

That's because it isn't worthy of anything beyond the regional news at this time? It might make it onto the national TV news as a short segment, but currently the the Everard case is taking up a lot of space and the obit slot is taken up by Murray Walker who sadly recently died.

[carmen_sandiego]

Taylor Swift’s Tweets are front page at this point.