Sefton Hill Discusses Batman: Arkham Asylum

In an interview with Kris Graft at Gamasutra, Sefton Hill, the director of Batman: Arkham Asylum discusses the success of the latest game, and what went right (though he skirts around talking about the negative issues brought up about poor boss fights).

Among the topics broached, the lack of any vehicular sequences was answered with the following:

We didn't have a flying or driving section in the game, that's true. There was a lot of discussion about that. Obviously, the vehicles are a part of Batman. We decided that we would make vehicles a part of the story, so rescuing the Batmobile plays a significant part, and the Batwing delivers the Line Launcher.

What we don't want to do is take on too much. Some of the things that we really wanted to achieve were for Batman himself, so we didn't want to overstretch with a driving section with its own mechanic and requirements, and take that development time away from the things that were important for Batman himself.

That phantom sound an internet away is a round of applause from my own two hands, as I was one of those people who rolled my eyes and muttered small, expletive-laced sentences whenever another driving/flying sequence occurred in Gears of War 2. I particularly liked his reasoning that it pulled away from strengthening the player's feel for playing Batman, and needlessly introduced a function that was both wholly new and unnecessary.

Hill goes on to discuss that the success of the game is in large part due to focusing on strengths, rather than broadening the scope of the game to include as many 'features' as possible, in a bullet-point studded back of the game box manner in which it can be easy to become enamored. This includes the vehicular sequences and meant focusing on the polishing of what already did exist.

Other points of interest for some include: how they dealt with the franchise, love of Batman, influences on the game, getting the combat system right, and the studio's feel for how cut-scenes should be used (while I like how he believes in fewer cut-scenes, I am personally not sure if I agree behind other philosophical statements of the why behind it).