Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily developed by British development house Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design), and published by its parent company, Rockstar Games. The name of the series references the term "grand theft auto", used in the United States for motor vehicle theft.
Most games in the series are set in fictional locales modelled on cities, usually either Liberty City as New York City, Vice City as Miami or the State of San Andreas as the States of California and Nevada, San Andreas has three cities Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas based on Los Angeles and San Francisco from California; and Las Vegas from Nevada respectively. The first game encompassed three fictional cities, while subsequent titles tend to emphasise a single setting. Gameplay focuses on an open world where the player can choose missions to progress an overall story, as well as engaging in side activities, all consisting of action-adventure, driving, third-person shooting, carjacking, occasional role-playing, stealth and racing elements. The series focuses on many different protagonists who attempt to rise through the ranks of the criminal underworld, although their motives for doing so vary in each game. The series also has elements of the earlier beat 'em up games from the 16-bit era. The antagonists are commonly characters who have betrayed the protagonist or his organisation, or characters who have the most impact impeding the protagonist's progress. Film and music veterans have voiced characters, including Ray Liotta, Dennis Hopper, Samuel L. Jackson, James Woods, Debbie Harry, Axl Rose and Peter Fonda