---
title: 'GTA 6 Could Learn a Few Lessons From Bully, Rockstar’s Schoolyard Gem'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=wYWemF-axX4'
video_id: 'wYWemF-axX4'
date: 2026-06-24
duration_sec: 570
---

# GTA 6 Could Learn a Few Lessons From Bully, Rockstar’s Schoolyard Gem

> Source: [GTA 6 Could Learn a Few Lessons From Bully, Rockstar’s Schoolyard Gem](https://youtube.com/watch?v=wYWemF-axX4)

## Summary

The video argues that Grand Theft Auto 6 should take design cues from Rockstar's 2006 game Bully, rather than just trying to outdo GTA 5 or Red Dead Redemption 2. It highlights how Bully's smaller, denser map, gated regions, and mechanics that build emotional connection create a more focused and memorable experience. The core message is that restraint and quality of content matter more than sheer size.

### Key Points

- **Bully's compact, dense map** [2:19] — Bully's map is small but packed with distinct locations like a library, gym, carnival, and insane asylum, with no wasted space.
- **GTA 5's empty space** [1:56] — GTA 5's map is larger but has empty space outside Los Santos, unlike Bully's focused design.
- **Gated regions in Bully** [4:34] — You cannot leave Bullworth Academy until the second chapter, making the eventual freedom more satisfying.
- **Curfew system builds emotion** [6:20] — After 11 p.m., prefects patrol and send you to bed if caught, creating tension and relief.
- **Strong identity through specificity** [8:03] — Bully's specific setting gives it a strong identity, unlike GTA 5's more generic world.

## Transcript

Everyone has their own expectations for
Grand Theft Auto 6. While many hope it
will live up to the dizzying standards
set by GTA 5 [music] and Red Dead
Redemption 2, I'd actually like the next
installment in the franchise to be less
like recent hits and more like GTA 4,
San Andreas, and the original Red Dead.
Games that had more restraint and as a
result more focus. [music]
Above all though, I wish the upcoming
game would take a page from the textbook
of one of Rockstar's most overlooked
titles Bully.
>> Welcome to Bullworth Academy.
>> [sighs]
>> I'm sure you'll be very happy here. Very
happy indeed.
>> Developed by Rockstar [music] Vancouver
and released in 2006, Bully is often
described as GTA with kids. Instead of a
career criminal, you play as unruly
teenager Jimmy Hopkins. [music] The
setting isn't some big modern metropolis
ruled by rival gangs, but a [music]
stuck-in-time New England-style boarding
school aptly named Bullworth Academy,
where students are divided into
different [music] cliques like jocks and
greasers.
>> GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS? YEP, TIME FOR A
BEATDOWN.
>> YOU STEAL bikes instead of cars and when
[music] you break the rules, it's not
the cops that come for you, but
headmasters and hall monitors. Despite
the critical and commercial success it
enjoyed upon release, Bully is sometimes
remembered as the stepchild or black
sheep [music] of Rockstar's catalog. Not
only do I disagree, but I'd go as far as
saying that Bully is actually Rockstar
[music] at its best. Charming,
atmospheric, and far removed from the
direction the developers have taken
[music] since.
>> So, my friend, are you as they say in
>> Sure.
>> Are you English?
>> Well, no. I just speak this way because
I'm very insecure.
>> Though similar to a game like Grand
Theft Auto 5 on the surface, it was
created with a completely different
design philosophy and that's exactly why
it's the perfect blueprint for GTA
[music] 6. A game that shouldn't simply
be GTA 5, but more. Bigger isn't always
better. GTA 5's map was larger than any
other game in the franchise up to that
[music] point, but most of the area
outside Los Santos turned out to be
empty space.
>> [music]
>> Unlike in say Red Dead Redemption 2,
where the rolling meadows and barren
mountainsides served a thematic purpose.
The back country of GTA [music] 5 is not
a living breathing world so much as a
playground for police chases and sandbox
[music] shenanigans. Bully has one of
the smallest maps of any Rockstar game,
comprising only Bullworth Academy itself
[music] and the surrounding town. But
because space is so limited, hardly any
of [music] it went to waste. The campus
includes a library, gymnasium, and
dormitories, while the town features
[music] a carnival, BMX park, and an
insane asylum, to name just a few
distinct and memorable locations. Put
simply, Bully shows that it isn't the
quality of a virtual space, but the
quality of the content within that makes
the game world believable [music] and
immersive.
>> Why'd you fight? Just to prove you're
tougher than me? That's right, and don't
you or your boys forget it.
>> Fortunately, there are already some
indications that GTA 6's design
philosophy will hearken back to
Rockstar's Bully days. Though the game's
map is rumored to be more [music] than
two and a half times as large as GTA
5's, its Florida-inspired setting
promises to create a much more striking
and cohesive visual footprint that
should compensate for any empty space.
Instead of a cookie-cutter California no
man's land, we'll get Sunshine State
idiosyncrasies, luxurious seaside
boulevards, alligator-infested [music]
swamplands, state-of-the-art theme
parks, and white beaches littered with
the worst kinds of tourists. GTA 5
[music] gave us a bastardized version of
Los Angeles and little else. GTA 6 will
draw inspiration from a variety of
specific real-world cities [music] and
biomes, including Miami, Tampa, Orlando,
the Keys, the Everglades, and more. I
don't think we should be free to dive
into those very locations from the
get-go, though. Bully demonstrated the
value of limiting player freedom,
another quality of open-world design
that's long fallen out of fashion. In
GTA 5, you only need to complete
Franklin's prologue before you're free
to explore the map in its entirety.
[music]
But, this lack of restriction comes at a
cost, as reaching a location that's
always been accessible to you isn't
nearly as satisfying as visiting a place
that you were previously unable to get
to. Older Rockstar [music] games did
this constantly and to great effect. San
Andreas takes you to three different
cities, each of them unlocked at
different parts of the story. Similarly,
the original Red Dead Redemption doesn't
let you go to Mexico until several hours
into the game, though there are
admittedly one or two ways to glitch
yourself across the border. Its sequel
also restricts player freedom to some
degree, keeping the prologue confined to
the snowy Grizzlies West region. [music]
In Bully, you cannot leave Bullworth
Academy until the second chapter. Far
from annoying, this setup gives you an
opportunity [music] to thoroughly
explore the school, which will remain
your base of operations throughout the
game. Better still, the map opens up at
a moment when you're just beginning to
get bored with the place, because we
were made [music] to yearn for a change
of scenery. Our new found freedom tastes
all the sweeter. GTA 6 will hopefully
return to the days of the gated regions.
While Vice City is clearly the game's
key metropolis, I'd like to see it as an
aspirational [music] destination, a land
of neon lights, loose values, and
criminal profit that takes a little work
[music] to get to. Places like Port
Gelhorn and the Leonida Keys could be
stepping stones [music] to the big city,
just as San Andreas had us master Los
Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas in
sequence. This leads to another even
more valuable lesson that GTA 6 can
learn from Bully. In GTA 5, there's a
huge disconnect between [music] you and
the characters you control, except for
when we play as Trevor, whose volatile
personality not only reflects, but
actively encourages the most haphazardly
destructive [music] ways to play the
game. We rarely get to experience the
characters' emotions along with them.
>> How have you been?
>> Oh, simply wonderful. And you?
>> Somewhere stuck between joyful and
peachy.
>> And [music] boy, story and gameplay
mechanics work side by side to make you
identify with Jimmy and share his
motivations. After being confined to
campus grounds for the first chapter,
he's eager to go into town. You're
excited too.
>> I promise you, after this, things are
never going to be the same again.
>> So excited, in fact, that you'll
probably spend a solid hour just vibing,
[music] riding around on a stolen bike
before starting the next mission.
Another mechanic that helps ease you
into Jimmy's shoes is the game's curfew
system. [music] After 11:00 p.m., the
school becomes overrun with prefects who
will send you to bed if they catch you,
filling up your trouble meter. The
higher the meter, the more suspicious
and hostile certain NPCs will behave
towards you. Avoiding punishment puts
you on edge while making it back to the
safety of your dormitory draws out a
sigh of relief. Emotional responses like
these are hard to come by in GTA V,
where the frequent, over-the-top police
chase action quickly turns numbing the
mundane. The same cannot be said for GTA
IV or San [music] Andreas, where
character writing and plot development
actually made you care for their
protagonists. In Bully, the lower stakes
and slightly subtler tone allowed events
to escalate at a more gradual,
satisfying [music] pace, ensuring the
story remained engaging right until the
final face-off with its main antagonist,
a sociopathic, unmedicated fellow
student named Gary.
>> Why'd you do it, GARY?
>> BECAUSE I CAN.
>> Unlike its predecessor, GTA VI
does seem poised to treat [music] its
playable characters as actual people
rather than vehicles for chaos and
carnage. Dual protagonists Lucia and
Jason, we're told over and over, will be
Bonnie and Clyde-style partners in
crime. And as in Bully, story and
gameplay could conspire to put the
player in the middle of that, no doubt,
complicated relationship.
>> Trust.
Trust.
>> Perhaps the most The thing that Bully
can teach GTA VI
is the importance of restraint when
designing a game. Rockstar wanted GTA 5
to [music] be big, as big as it could
possibly be both in terms of content and
appeal. But by prioritizing size and
variety, the developers gave the game a
much weaker sense of identity than GTA 4
or San Andreas, both of which were made
with different goals in mind. Thanks to
the specificity of its setting, Bully
has perhaps the strongest identity and
atmosphere of any Rockstar game out
there.
>> Fantastic.
>> Though full of over-the-top caricatures,
Bullworth Academy can be a genuinely
oppressive place, the kind of harsh
environment that forces an otherwise
well-intentioned kid like Jimmy to
toughen up and treat others as shiftily
as they treat him. The feelings a game
evokes stay with you long after you
finish playing, [music] strengthening
your memory of the overall experience.
Though I haven't done a full playthrough
of Bully in years, I can still picture
Bullworth Academy's layout in my head.
But drop me anywhere in GTA 5's gigantic
back country,
>> [music]
>> a place I have spent probably way more
hours, and I'd struggle finding my way
back to civilization without looking at
the mini-map. Despite persistent
pleading from the game's cult following,
Bully is unlikely to receive a sequel
anytime soon. Gone are the days where
individual subsidiaries like Rockstar
Vancouver, long since part of Rockstar
Toronto, could work on their own
original IPs. Whatever Rockstar's next
game will be, it almost certainly won't
be Bully 2. Still, if Rockstar has found
a way to inject additional purpose and
show extra restraint [music] in its new
massive open world, there's a small
chance that the franchise's feisty
spirit will live on through Grand Theft
Auto 6. If you liked this video and want
to see what GTA 6 could learn from GTA
4, be sure to check that out, too. And
for everything else Grand Theft Auto, be
sure to stick [music] with IGN.