Multiplayer was planned for the game, but had to be scrapped due to time constraints. There were four planned modes:
Liberty City Survivor: Standard death match similar to GTA 1 and 2.
City Circuit: Racing on pre-set routes round the three islands.
Car Jack Crazy: Players race to collect a list of vehicles and return them to their garage.
Special delivery: All players fight over a package which must be taken to their base.

The game started out as a 2D reimagining of Grand Theft Auto III for the Gameboy Advance. The original developer, Destination Software, moved the project over to another developer, Crawfish. However, Crawfish announced they were closing down a week after this announcement. Former Crawfish developer Anders Granlund shared screenshots from the original build of the game.

During development the Police Car was much more square and boxy, as seen in an early screenshot.