Video games let us do things we never could in real life, whether it’s nailing a 30-yard touchdown at the Super Bowl, or slaying a giant monster at the end of a medieval dungeon. Every once in a while though, a game will appear where the highlights don’t just come from those individual moments – the entire experience offers endless inspiration from the time you set foot in its world.

This spring Rockstar Games delivered just that with the Western-themed shooter, Red Dead Redemption. This immersive sequel to the company’s 2004 hit Red Dead Revolver has captivated gamers, selling over five million copies in less than a month of release, and receiving glowing reviews from critics who have praised the depth of its storytelling and gameplay.

On the heels of this acclaim, we were pleased to be able to spend the day with 13 Full Sail graduates from Rockstar San Diego who helped bring Red Dead’s world of New Austin to life.

This includes Game Development graduates Chris Bourassa (Multiplayer Designer), Danny Bulla (Senior Mission Designer), John Diaz (Mission Designer), Donald Jones (Mission Designer), Jason Jurecka (Tools Programmer), Jason Knobler (Programmer), Ryan Paradis (Ambient Designer), and Nicholas Zippman (Game Designer); Computer Animation graduates David Finlay (Terrain Artist), Peter Jackson (Facial Animator), Scott Schoennagel (Terrain Artist), and Grant Werner (Terrain Artist); and Recording Arts and Game Development graduate Cory Shay (Senior Audio Programmer).

“I didn’t realize how many of us there were at first, but I think it helped so much,” says Danny Bulla. “You all know the same jargon and lingo, and are always quoting the same teachers. In this industry it’s really about how you can vibe together on a team, and if none of us got along, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did on this game.”

The Rockstar team spent nearly five years perfecting Red Dead Redemption, and the results have managed to recreate the authenticity of the American West right down to the epic skylines, sleepy border towns, and rugged inhabitants. Speaking about this attention to detail, the group explained that their biggest challenges were capturing the more subtle moments of the environments, while adding something new to the open-world gameplay popularized by another of the company’s hit series, Grand Theft Auto.

“To me it’s about the extra pastoral things that you can do to pass time in the game,” Donald Jones says. “My parents would never get into a Grand Theft Auto game, but they’re obsessed with Red Dead Redemption, and it’s really gratifying. What they love most is just riding around and hunting animals and finding random things in the world to do. So I think it speaks to gamers in a different way, and it speaks to people that might not usually get into what Rockstar’s about.”

“This game just feels a lot more organic,” says Nicholas Zippman. “It’s a very peaceful experience at times, and then it can suddenly go to a very violent experience. And that’s very different from what people have seen before, and something that makes it stand on its own.”

The developers also spent extra attention to the development of characters and story for the sequel, making the most of the extra horsepower of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 to tell a narrative on par with a classic Hollywood Western. And while they each knew the individual components they were working on were good, they didn’t fully realize the scope of the game’s quality into until they were able to sit down and play it from beginning to end.

“Things calmed down a bit [near the end of the production cycle], and we just started playing it,” says Chris Bourassa. “We all invested so much time into this game, but it didn’t really start to hit me after I sat down and played through it, and had so many moments where I was like ‘Wow, this is an amazing game.’ Playing through the flow of the story and seeing everything come together has been so rewarding.”

Red Dead Redemption marks the first published game for many of these Full Sail grads, and it’s hard to imagine a better way to make your debut. The Rockstar brand commands considerable respect among hardcore gamers, and the quality of the experience they created has only strengthened their reputation as innovators in game design.

“Until you finish a game you don’t know what it’s like – it’s like an affirmation of your skills and what you can do,” Zippman says. “I never would have predicted what I was able to accomplish on this game, and that blows my mind.”

“This game couldn’t have even been made three years ago when we first started working on it,” says Josh Bass, Art Director at Rockstar. “It could have only been made in the last year and a half – with the technology of our engine, the right people, and our company working at a different level collaboratively. Everything had to line up in order to make this game end up where it is, and I think this is just the start of what these guys, and our studio, is going to be able to do right now.”