Stanford student creates viral ‘GTA’-style game using real SF streets…
A new video game impressed by the wildly common “Grand Theft Auto” franchise is producing buzz for letting gamers explore every inch of a digitized San Francisco.
Thijs Simonian, a Stanford University laptop science student, launched the home made game that he said he constructed with data from Apple Maps.
Players can hold glide over San Francisco landmarks.
The game’s creator said on Monday that it had logged 884 hours of playtime. X/@cdngdev
In clips he shared on social media, a participant may be seen moving into vehicles to drive alongside the metropolis’s roads or even using a hold glider to fly across its iconic skyline.
Simonian reported on Monday evening that that game had logged 884 hours of playtime and customers “walking” 15,913 miles of San Francisco.
i turned the complete precise metropolis of san francisco right into a video game!
with apple maps data, i made it so you may climb buildings, ‘steal’ vehicles, and explore wherever. and you’ll play it!! pic.twitter.com/fA8NdTUH1k
— Thijs (@cdngdev) August 24, 2026
As more people performed, Simonian said he added more options in response to the demand, including teleportation to any tackle, multi-player capabilities, avatar selections and shareable location hyperlinks.
“This is so fun, I get to build new game features all night while hundreds of people try them out!” he wrote.
“Genuinely this made me emotional,” wrote one person who said he lived in San Francisco for 20 years. “Was weird as hell walking around my backyard.”
Others also had enjoyable exploring searching for out their outdated houses.
“Hang gliding past my old condo,” wrote angel investor Bobby Goodlatte, who shared photos of the property from the game.
“Genuinely this made me emotional,” wrote one former longtime resident. X/@cdngdev
As more people performed, the creator said he added more options. X/@cdngdev
Some provided tongue-in-cheek jokes associated to the metropolis’s efforts to maneuver away from a popularity of being crime-ridden.
“Climb buildings and steal cars? So a San Francisco simulator,” commented crypto govt Steven Lubka.
“You can already steal cars in San Francisco, this isn’t that impressive,” wrote another person.
One used the game to comment on the housing disaster in California and the Bay Area.
“Housing supply is so bad in SF they’re makings video games where you can explore it,” a person joked.
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