So here’s one for anyone who’s ever played GTA and thought, “Yeah, this is great and all, but where’s the Greggs? Where’s the Asda car park fights? Why isn’t anyone wearing a hi-vis in the pub at 10am?”
What’s the Big Idea?
For years, I’ve been working on a multiplayer roleplay framework—a toolkit that’s been the backbone of my Blackoak project. But deep down, I’ve always wanted to make something that feels like home. Not LA. Not Vice City. Not even London. We’re talking a proper, gritty, slightly damp sandbox set in South Wales.
Think The Getaway meets Grand Theft Auto, but with roundabouts, council estates, and the occasional rugby club punch-up. There’s a whole world of UK-based RP that just hasn’t had its moment in the sun (which, to be fair, is pretty much how it is in the Valleys).
Building a Bit of Blighty
Armed with Blender, I started knocking up models of streets and buildings from Newport, Ebbw Vale, and Cardiff—places I know, places I’ve wandered past with a Tesco meal deal. I threw them into Unreal Engine and started messing around. Drove up and down the battered high streets of Ebbw Vale in a digital Fiesta. Made shops you could actually go inside (imagine that!). It was the closest I’ve come to coding the weather to be “mildly miserable.”
This project is still a sandbox in the purest sense—just me mucking about, seeing what a South Wales RP world could look like if we actually bothered to build it from scratch, not as a mod slapped onto a US city.
Why Bother?
Because someone has to. Mods are great, but I wanted to see what would happen if the whole game was built with the UK at its heart. A place where the cops sound like they’re from the Rhondda, not Los Santos. Where your biggest heist is robbing a post office that closes for lunch at 2pm. Where “going on the rob” might just mean nabbing a trolley from Morrisons.
What’s Next?
Honestly? This one’s on the back burner while Blackoak takes centre stage, but it’s not dead. The code, assets, and bad puns are all there waiting for me to come back. At some point, I’d love to return, polish it up, and let people run riot in a digital Wales that actually feels like Wales—awkward rain, chip shops, dodgy nightclubs, and all.
If you want a GTA-style sandbox that’s more “bloke down the local” than “Hollywood action hero,” keep your eye on this space. This might just get a revisit when I need a break from the Blackoak madness.
Fancy a go? Bring your best accent and a thick skin—the Valleys can be rough, even in pixel form.
