Geoff Johns (chief creative officer and writer of multiple New 52 books) has been confirmed as overseeing the new Arkham game, Arkham Origins. Game Informer has unleashed a bunch of behind-the-scenes clips and information, click the jump to see more.
Geoff Johns
Geoff Johns is pretty much big cheese at DC Comics and he has his hand in almost every DC Universe character even Batman. He is not only Chief Creative Officer at DC Comics, but he has written tons of DC books and the most recent book he has done with Batman is Batman: Earth One. Now, he has been confirmed to oversee Batman: Arkham Origins. The writers of the game are Dooma Wendschuch and Corey May of Sekretagent Productions, the team behind games such as Assassin’s Creed and the earlier Army of Two entries. Here’s what Johns has stated about writing the game:
It’s called Arkham Origins and it really is the introduction of what Arkham means. Arkham evokes a sense of insanity and chaos
embodied in the twisted minds and colorful villains of the Batman universe. That had to start somewhere. This is really more about Batman’s initiation into that insane world.
We talked about what would be interesting to explore, what story they wanted to tell — it was all character based at first. The story is the first thing we spoke about, and what the world would be like, what Batman would be like, what certain characters would be like. You would see characters roll back like Penguin or characters you’ve seen before, what they looked like, what their relationships were, and how that would eventually evolve into the Arkham games.
According to the art director, Jeremy Price, he concurs with Johns about the game being an initiation step for Batman into the insanity of the universe. Price comments about how Batman is younger, brasher, and this is how the costume design of the character is portrayed in the game. Johns discusses more about the Batman’s costume design below:
Character design was something we talked a lot about and went through very meticulously. There’s a lot of debate on all sorts of characters. Every single character in there, you’d start with the Arkham and Arkham City version and then look and scroll it back and say, “Well, where were they back then?” Those designs reflect that. I’m excited for people to see them. There’s one in particular I found very interesting that evolves throughout the first game. You’ll see a character start somewhere and eventually end up and match right up with Arkham, which is cool.
There are cosplayers out now trying to replicate the Arkham Origins version of Batman’s costume. So, the design of the Arkham Origins is spot on and exciting fans to the fullest. According to Martin Carrier, studio head of Warner Bros Montreal, he states that Warner Bros Montreal has been working on Origins since 2010. So, this game has been in production for a while now and trying to play on a lot of the elements of Rocksteady’s Arkham games by which they nailed the tone of the Batman universe. Geoff Johns comments about the progress of the game and what Arkham Origins will open up for the rest of the DC Universe below:
It’s a lot of conference calls at first when we’re talking big, big picture. We try to do at least video conference calls and talk about it. Eric [Holmes, creative director] was out here and Ames [Kirshen, executive producer WBIE] and I would go out and have drinks or
whatever and talk about it in general. The day-to-day is really trying to support them and let them tell what their vision is. With all my friends that love comic books it’s just the same type of thing – “Wouldn’t this be cool?” It was an absolute pleasure. We’re constantly talking about things that are either story-driven, character-driven, or game-driven. It changes all the time.
We talk a lot about Deathstroke because he’s not traditionally a Batman villain. He’s a DC Universe villain. You’ll see how the DC Universe actually opens up a little bit in some of this stuff coming up like [Batman: Arkham Origins] Blackgate. There’s a reason Deathstroke’s in the game and there’s a story that he has that opens us up to a bigger DC universe. There are some nice surprises in there. You want to keep people guessing and keep them unsure of what’s around the next corner. Part of the reason the Arkham games work so well is the storytelling is just phenomenal. The gameplay’s amazing, but the storytelling’s just as good.
Deathstroke is a formidable villain to fight Batman on all mediums of comics, TV shows, and now games. The coolest thing about this villain is that he is so bad ass to begin with. As far as this character is concerned, he is perfect for this game. However, if Deathstroke is being used to open up more of the DC Universe; will we be expecting more characters from the universe to appear in this game? Or better yet, will we be expecting more games that may not be Batman related to be making appearances such as Superman game with Rocksteady influences? These are all speculations at this point, but if Arkham Origins is going to be the doorway for more things to come such as Superman, Green Lantern, or Wonder Woman game. Then, let’s start signing off now because the fans just squealed at the idea of that being possible in the near future.
See the clips of how Arkham Origins came about from start to finish and see the art direction of the game below. To read more about the interview, go the source link below.
Comment down below, DKN Facebook, or DKNewsCom.
Source- Game Informer
