At the moment, everyone's attention is on Grand Theft Auto 6, but several generations of consoles have passed since the release of Bully Rooney, and I believe the world still deserves a sequel.
The development of Bully 2 was originally in a remake of the first game, subtitled Scholarship Edition, which began after completion. Rockstar Games put a studio called Mad Doc Software in charge of the remake, and so satisfied with what they did, they bought the studio and renamed it Rockstar New England. There are about 50 to 70 people working on the game, led by this newly bought studio.
The team wanted to expand everything in the first game so that it would become a title series on a par with titles like Grand Theft Auto. In a sense, it will give birth to a new universe of Bully Rooney characters in video games, if the second game succeeds.
An interesting thing to note here is that the team didn't work primarily on Bully 2, and they were often redeployed to other projects in development, such as the DLC expansion for Grand Theft Auto 4, Max Payne 3, and the first Red Dead Redemption. To make matters worse, there is extreme stress on these projects, resulting in 12 to 16 hours a day, and those who want to go home or don't want to work on weekends are discouraged by top management.
Developers who were reassigned to other projects were initially told that the situation was temporary, however, for the most part, they did not return to the development team for Bully 2. When these employees ask to be reassigned to the game development team, their requests are often ignored by top management.
Eventually, the development of Bully 2 came to a halt and other games were prioritized, and the project was thought to have been canceled around 2009 or 2010. Sometime in 2009, Rockstar New England also had a layoff period, affecting about 10% of the studio's staff, including the entire QA department and many graphic designers.
Surprisingly, after the release of Red Dead Redemption, the development of this game restarted, still under the responsibility of New England Studio. This time, Rockstar's iconic Rage engine was used, and Steven SS and Drew Medina were involved in the game's production as artists. The team on this project was so excited that they even volunteered to work overtime to speed up the development schedule, which led to some people staying in the office until midnight. They want to prove themselves to Rockstar and show them that they are capable of making their next big game.
Over time, the game was eventually considered canceled again in 2013, as Rockstar turned their attention to another game, which was Grand Theft Auto 5. This time, due to all the problems that Rockstar has brought to the studio, the momentum at this time has been broken, the original story may have been abandoned, and the team didn't know what to do with the next story.
Regardless, there is a playable version of the game that lasts between 8 and 10 hours, and it shows a lot of what the developers want to do with this ambitious sequel. That version was never shown by Rockstar, and they didn't respond to anyone who tried to talk to them about it, and sadly, it was never leaked either. The only leaks we have are some concept art from the game's development cycle in 2008 that vaguely show what some possible characters or NPCs would look like in some environments.
As of 2023, the game hasn't been developed again since it was last canceled, and if Rockstar is brewing something in the dark, it's kept under tight secrecy, and no one knows anything about it except the company itself. The last time Rockstar officially spoke about the game was in 2013, when Dan Hauser said they had a lot of ideas for a sequel to Bully Rooney.
All of this is a huge pity, as Dan Hauser seems to really want to make this game. Shawn Lee, the composer of the first game of Bully 2, once said in 2009 that he would soon start making music for this game. However, now that Dan Hauser has left the company, even if the game is developed again in the future, it reduces the likelihood of having the same gaming vision as him.
Even though only one early version of the game existed, and Rockstar never allowed the team to allocate their time reasonably to develop Bully 2, there is a surprisingly high level of detail about the gameplay of this ambitious sequel.
One of the main features of Bully 2 is that it is planned that the NPCs in the game, whether they are the main characters or random civilians, have real behavior. The developers wanted to push the game world to interact with the player and expand on the honor system in Red Dead Redemption 1, which would change some minor interactions, but unlike Red Dead Redemption, which didn't really change anything substantial, the team at Bully 2 wanted to make it more immersive.
One of the ways they achieve this is by using AI to make NPCs' reactions more realistic, and they also want NPCs to have better memories, that is, they will remember what the player has done at a certain moment. For example, you can be best friends with the chef of a mansion, or you can intimidate him into hating you. Your attitude towards other characters then translates into their attitude towards you every time they see you.
The game's open world isn't meant to be as big as Red Dead Redemption 2 or GTA 5, so your relationships with a limited number of characters will feel more personal and changeable. Almost every interior scene in the game is accessible, some of which are normal, while others need to be broken into because the player does not have legal access to them. Breaking in allows the player to play pranks on people and maybe even steal their stuff.
The game will also feature a progressive grass growth system, which will grow in a realistic way, and the player can mow the lawn. Then, after some time, it will grow again. Jimmy Hopkins can climb trees, climb hedges, climb steps, and jump around rooftops, and he can also break windows to sneak away. The main idea behind these moves is to give players creative ways to hide, as stealth plays an important role in the game.
The game uses a lot of GTA resources to create rapid prototypes, so some of the game's features are just in a rough state, not the kind of granular state that the developers wanted. Several missions have been created in the game, such as a mission with racing cars, a mission with Jimmy wearing only underwear, a mission with a beekeeper, and a mission inspired by an episode of Kusti the Clown from The Simpsons, in which the kids of Springfield go to a bad summer camp named after Kusti the Clown.
The NPCs in the game have daily routines where they do random tasks, which makes them feel more integrated into the game world. The game is not yet close to a state ready for release, and it will take at least two to three years before it is fully developed. The game's terrain is fully mapped and the environment has a lot of detail. There will be some mini-games in the game, but we don't know what they will be, except for one that involves mowing the lawn. A tripwire prank has also been added to the game.
There will be no possibility of driving in the game, which will subtly make the map feel bigger, and the excuse for this is simply that Jimmy is not of legal age to have a driver's license.
The game will once again feature Jimmy Hopkins as the main character, and we will see his mother and stepfather. Jimmy's step-siblings will also appear. Other characters include Abe, a war veteran in concept art, Nick, an honest character in concept art, a chef who works in a mansion, and a beekeeper.
This game will have a brand new town, but we don't know its name. It would be close to the style of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and three times larger than the map of the previous game, but not too big, as they wanted to prioritize accessible interiors over environments with a lot of useless buildings.
The theme of this game is influenced by The Simpsons, the previous game, as well as classic 80s movies like The Goonies and the sex comedy Stay in School. There will be a summer camp in the game at some point.
The story of this game is a direct sequel to Bully Rooney, and we get to see more of Jimmy's personal life. Dan Hauser wrote a script and story synopsis for the game in 2008. We don't know much about the story, aside from the fact that we might see the protagonist go to college.
Since many of the game's features have been outlined, and even some have been developed, they have been used in other games developed by Rockstar Games. While we don't know the details of each feature, we do have some direct examples.
In Max Payne 3 and most modern games, when you shoot glass, it gradually cracks in a realistic way, and then only shatters when it is shot in enough places, unlike in the old games where the glass shattered immediately. This feature was originally developed for Bully 2.
The upgraded honor system in Red Dead Redemption 2 contains some ideas originally planned for Bully Rooney 2, such as the fact that NPCs will remember your attitude towards them to a certain extent. For example, if you're causing trouble or robbing in a small town or a shop, if you go back to these people, they'll let you go or they'll be visibly scared of you. In addition, some dialogues will also change depending on your honor level.
NPCs doing daily tasks is one of the things that can be clearly seen in Red Dead Redemption 2, and it seems to be done in a similar way to Bully 2. You can always find your gang doing something specific in the camp, and sometimes you can even meet them on the map, like sometimes you can find your uncle kicked out of the bar because he doesn't have enough money.
Luckily, even if Bully 2 still comes around at some point, the use of these traits in that game won't feel like a repetition because that game takes place in a completely different environment. Obviously, step-siblings or parents acting in random patterns in the mansion are not the same as outlaws in the Wild West fighting in bars or shooting people from Pinkerton Security.
Do you want to see the return of the Bully Rooney series after all these years, or don't care? Let me know in the comments below.
