Although he's certainly made more appearances than his brother, Sam Houser, especially in recent years, Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser does not do many interviews, so his career-spanning sit-down with IGN is a gift for anyone raised on the studio's award-winning titles.

The Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead co-creator spent an hour on everything from a near-bankrupt start to the project he counts as a failure. He never touched Grand Theft Auto VI, which he left Rockstar before it took shape, so treat this as more of a history lesson with a walk through memory lane than GTA 6 news.

Here's everything we learned from one of the most brilliant minds in the video game industry.

  1. 9/11 reshaped Grand Theft Auto III and gave the series its cover art. Houser revisited how the aftermath of September 11 delayed GTA III, trimmed a little content and led Rockstar to scrap the original box art, which is how the now-iconic grid of character tiles was born. The studio behind it was nearly broke at the time and GTA III pulled Take-Two back from the edge only after a slow-burn run that started with the game being ignored at E3.

  2. His own top five leaves out Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Asked to rank his five favorite games he worked on, Houser went, from five to one, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Red Dead Redemption, Bully, Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption 2.

  3. Trevor almost did not exist and Michael is the real villain. Houser said the GTA V synopsis stalled late one Sunday night, with Michael and Franklin in place but no third lead until Trevor arrived from "my otherwise fairly empty head." The twist he built in was that Trevor "had a moral core" however appalling, while Michael "has no moral core whatsoever," a charming liar who betrayed his best friend.

  1. He calls Max Payne 3 a failure and takes the blame. "I failed," Houser said of the 2012 game, which "wasn't as successful as it should have been." He pointed to fans missing Sam Lake's writing and said a large share of that was on him, though he remains proud of how polished the game is.

  2. Rockstar tried to make Agent three times and gave up. The long-teased open-world spy game never came out because Rockstar "could not get it right" across "two or three different teams," Houser said. He thinks the form is the problem, since a spy story pushes you forward while an open world wants room to wander.

  3. Killing John Marston split the team before it split the fans. Houser weighed ending the Red Dead Redemption hero with lead designer Christian Cantamessa, worried about how an open world keeps working once the protagonist is gone. When the game shipped, players were divided and some were "livid," which Houser took as proof the story had connected with them.

  1. A "Kick Me" sticker saved Bully. Houser said the troubled game clicked into place when a designer added a post-it you could stick on a character's back, after which an NPC would run up and kick them. Seeing that work was the moment he knew Bully had an identity without cars or guns.

  2. Ray Liotta made GTA: Vice City's Tommy in about four days. Houser said the late actor recorded his lines for Vice City in roughly four days and brought an authenticity "we'd have struggled with anyone else to find." He added that, "my writing is awful and he made it sound good."

  3. Axl Rose recorded his GTA: San Andreas part at 1 in the morning. Houser said the famously reclusive singer agreed to voice a DJ but would only do it at midnight, then showed up around 1am, nervous but "a lovely guy" who had "never done anything like this before."

  1. He is building three new worlds at Absurd Ventures. After leaving Rockstar, which he called "terrifying, not freeing," Houser is developing three universes at his studio Absurd Ventures, American Caper, A Better Paradise and the Absurdiverse. A Better Paradise, an open-world game, is in full production.

  2. The speed round, for the fans. Houser named the rocket launcher his favorite GTA weapon because "it made the game ridiculous." He called Goodfellas the best crime movie "because it's Goodfellas," picked Zelda on the Nintendo 64 as the most influential game ever and said the first game he bought with his own money was Tetris.

None of it is GTA 6 news, but it is the back catalog that made the November 19 launch the most anticipated in gaming. For a man who thinks his writing is awful, Houser built one of the biggest stories in entertainment.