Batman: Arkham Knight: Behind Designing the Batmobile

Despite the hiccups in certain versions of the game, Batman: Arkham Knight is an intricately designed, highly detailed experience. It touts itself as being as close to actually being Batman as is possible. Recently, the designer of the game’s Batmobile, Ian Ball, sat down to discuss just what went into such an epic undertaking.

"“You were just using it as a transport method and Batman can already travel around the city pretty well by himself. So to just get in a car, drive somewhere, and get out didn’t feel that exciting.”Unlike most other Batmobiles, the one in Arkham Knight is also a Transformer. In pursuit mode, it’s a racing machine, able to track down enemies with speed, but in battle mode, it’s something altogether different. The car’s body raises up from the ground, and a canon sprouts from the top, armed with anti-tank rounds and non-lethal bullets “designed to deliver minimum long-term trauma and render combatant immobile.” It looks sort of like a souped up, Batman-themed version of Halo’s Warthog, and its gyroscopic wheels mean that it can move laterally, perfect for taking down slow-moving tanks."

"This multi-functionality is what defined the look of the vehicle. It’s a Batmobile born of function over form. The strafing battle mode meant that the wheels had to be in a particular spot, while the rear seats were implemented because the game has missions where you have to transport prisoners from one place to another. And while many versions of the Batmobile feature a cockpit well toward the rear of the vehicle, the team at Rocksteady went a different way; since you can eject from the car, it made more sense for the driver to be at the front so you could fly forward and clear of the vehicle. These elements defined the core of the car, and from there it was about refinement. “We just added in the little details to make it more Batmobile-like,” Ball says. “The fins, the bat symbol on the front grill, and other details like that finished it off in terms of the look.”"

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You can read the full write up on The Verge.