Open-World Games With The Shortest Development Times

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

9 Months

GTA 3 changed the gaming landscape in more ways than one, becoming a massive hit in the process. Vice City managed to capitalize on its success in only nine months. How did Rockstar pull it off? By treating Vice City as a gigantic expansion pack. Nearly every system – driving, shooting, etc. – was carried over, and the devs spent most of their time swapping out assets for a Miami-inspired aesthetic. New vehicles and a banger 80s soundtrack were dropped in, plus a celebrity voice cast that boosted the game’s profile.

But those nine months still show. The title is prone to the same bugs and physics glitches as its predecessor. Mission design occasionally relies on trial-and-error tedium. However, the atmosphere is still iconic, even decades later. For nine months of work, Vice City delivered a blockbuster sequel that has stuck in players’ minds, and will continue to do so, for years to come.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations

~11 Months

After Assassin’s Creed 2, Ubisoft kicked its sequel pipeline into overdrive. Revelations arrived one year after Brotherhood, and it shows. Almost everything is borrowed from the prior entries, with Istanbul’s cityscape swapped in as the main attraction. Instead, Revelations focuses on refinement in the form of tweaked parkour animations, a new hookblade for navigation, and a bomb-crafting system.

Most of the work went into cinematic fanfare and wrapping up Ezio’s story. The rushed development is clear in the recycled side content and anemic innovation, but for diehard fans, Revelations delivers a tight experience. Even if it’s built on reused assets, the map maintains a charming vibe. Eleven months isn’t enough for reinventing the wheel, but Ubisoft’s fourth mainline entry is worth it to see the conclusion of Ezio’s arc.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

~12 Months

Riding high on Assassin’s Creed 2‘s success, Ubisoft Montreal had to exploit the momentum quickly. Brotherhood started as planned downloadable content before being reimagined as a full standalone sequel, all in roughly a year. This frenetic schedule forced heavy asset recycling – the Anvil engine, combat systems, parkour mechanics, and entire sequences originally cut from AC2 were repurposed wholesale. What could’ve been a glorified expansion became much more ambitious.

The short timeframe shows its hand in the occasionally repetitive mission design, but Brotherhood introduced innovative features despite its constraints. The multiplayer mode was a franchise first. The Brotherhood recruitment system, letting players build and deploy their own assassin network, felt fresh. Most impressively, the team managed to put together a refined combat system with more polished mechanics than its predecessor. For a game that was essentially pieced together in months, Brotherhood stands as one of the series’ strongest entries.

Saints Row 4

~14 Months

After Saints Row: The Third, Volition got to work building a sequel in record time. Saints Row 4 shipped in just over a year, and the process left scars all over the game. Originally planned as a DLC expansion, SR4’s environment is a replica of the previous game’s city, with only minor cosmetic tweaks. The difference? Superpowers. By incorporating mechanics like flight, speed, and telekinesis, Volition turned a recycled playground into a hilarious superhero fantasy.

The short dev time meant rampant bugs and a slew of other technical problems at launch. Be that as it may, the daring premise (alien invasion) and all the chaos that results from it make the jank worth it. Saints Row 4 is a Frankenstein’s monster assembled from old assets and new ideas, one that shouldn’t work, but does.

Fallout: New Vegas

18 Months

When Obsidian was contracted to make a new Fallout, they were given eighteen months to build an open-world RPG. They succeeded…but only barely. New Vegas should have its own “Wanted” poster for its launch bugs and unfinished features, much of which traces back to the punishing schedule. Dialogue and quests are built on the same tech as Fallout 3, with new scripting layered on top like spackle.

Many locations are empty, and whole questlines had to be cut or reworked at the eleventh hour. Despite this, New Vegas is conspicuous for its writing and world-building. Obsidian spent their limited time shaping memorable factions, nuanced choices, and a dizzying amount of branching dialogue that ensures that no two playthroughs are identical. The world may be technically flawed, but it’s alive in ways most open-world games only dream of.