Dazed magazine's Autumn 2026 issue, which went live digitally on August 26 alongside the Rockstar statement on the leaks and the day before the Extended Look premiere, includes interviews with several members of the GTA 6 team. Destructoid's August 26 coverage of the piece flags the studio detail that will surprise most readers: one of Rockstar's Los Angeles branches is dedicated almost solely to the design of in-game pedestrians. The feature also names Jillian Carr, a Miami-based stylist brought on in 2023, who shaped the fashion logic for Vice City's population. Her account of the work: 'Vice City is built around vanity' because of social media, celebrity culture, and tourism.
The NPC work goes beyond body count or animation volume. Dexerto's August 26 report on the Dazed piece details that the population is built on neighborhood logic rather than reused templates, so residents near Little Cuba move and dress differently from the population around Mount Kalaga National Park, and the distinction runs across every region. More than 50 real street artists created murals for Vice City locations, including the Stockyard district, which takes cues from Miami's Wynwood. On character appearance, sleep joins food and exercise as a variable that shifts how Jason and Lucia look over time, with extended periods without sleep altering their facial features. Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson is quoted on the body system: 'We want to enable as much self-expression as possible, without losing the essence of the characters.'
This covers ground separate from what the Extended Look showed on August 27. The video demonstrated how police track clothing and how body shape changes with habits, but it did not detail the studio structure behind the NPC work, the real-world artists commissioned for Vice City's murals, or the fashion consulting. The Dazed piece also puts Rockstar's development team at more than double the size it was during Red Dead Redemption 2. The full Dazed Autumn 2026 issue goes on sale September 10.