Gotham Knights: Designing Mr. Freeze, and Giving Him a Gang to Play With – IGN First
The important thing to know about the Gotham Knights faction is that it’s not However A minion of a named villain. Enemy gangs in Gotham’s dark streets are mercenaries rather than cultists, though they are sorted into affiliations by street crime and gear preferences.
Let’s talk today: the Regulator faction and classic supervillain Mr. Freeze. The Regulators are a gang present in this version of Gotham, a group of technologically enhanced neadwells who steal advanced goods and transportation and augment their power with ill-gotten gains. While you can see them doing their own thing while cleaning the streets, they allied themselves with Mr. Freeze and consequently adopted his penchant for ice-enhanced elemental attacks. In effect, Freese hires a regulator for part of his story.
This led to a very interesting design challenge for the Gotham Knights art team. can Work together, but don’t always have to?
Interestingly, the process was organic rather than forced. The team wanted to include the iconic Freeze, but his ties to the gang came out later. At first, it was all about building a recognizable villain without feeling too familiar.
“When you get a villain like Mr. Freeze, I mean the guy has so much history. When you get it, it’s a challenge for our team. “It’s ‘Where are we going from here?’ [versions of the character] It worked really well.For us, kind of a starting point was where he fit in our Gotham City, on a technical level? Therefore, he is some of the most advanced technology in our Gotham. “
I’m not saying this version of Freeze is pure sci-fi fantasy. The key for the design team was to create a person whose high technology is rooted in reality.
“A lot of the references were medical devices,” says Evans. “It’s a molded, cool, almost sci-fi shape that’s influenced by part lines and product design. But he can still figure it out. The mechanical connections are still there. It’s still relevant.” It’s not just sci-fi blobs that require imagination.”
To help build advanced technology that feels wonderfully realistic in a way, the art team…used some advanced technology to make it happen.
“
“We started experimenting with using VR in our concept art pipeline pretty early on,” says Evans. “What’s great is that when you’re designing a weapon or part of a character, it really helps the artist just to have it actually floating in front of you in the right scale. […] Then export that rough mesh and export it right into your game engine. It seemed like a really natural and quick pipeline. I also used it on Mr. Freeze. “
“Just VR [adds] That concreteness,” Wu adds. “If you [have a gauntlet in front of you], you feel like you can wear it here and now. And you can immediately see all these different perspectives in real time. It’s very helpful. “
Using VR, the team was able to capture not only what Mr. Freeze would look like as part of the design, but how it would feel to have him around in an interactive space, allowing the iconic character to helped build a concrete new version of But of course, so far only known supervillains can be pushed. The team checked early on to pinpoint why Freeze would be immediately identifiable even to casual comic book fans.
“The dome, the goggles, his face,” explains associate character art director Jianli Wu. Mr. Freeze’s lore is iconic. We don’t want to deviate from it. Because when anyone sees it, they know it’s Mr. Freeze. However, he wants to take his tech level up a bit and bring his own flavor to his designs. We want to stay true to his IP, but at the same time we want to offer something new. It’s kind of a philosophy we have for many of the characters in the game, from his character to someone like Mr. Freeze. “
On the other hand, regulators that is A brand new addition to the universe. There have been a few DC supervillains called the Regulators over the years, but the Gotham Knights faction seems to have nothing to do with them. did.
“Our approach was to first design the factions as independent factions,” Evans explains. “Our fictional regulators are fantasies of these hackers, safe crackers, and various other tech-related criminals. Regulators are getting technology from the most futuristic or cutting edge places in Gotham. Perhaps it’s STAR Labs or something.
“And they’re making weapons and gear, and they’re all visible from the outside. The base layer has this kind of modern, brightly colored athletic wear. But on top of that, this tech. There is a layer, in the base unit it is a smaller element, [but] Some of the more advanced archetypes could have things like fully-enhanced arms with upgraded weapons.
In the gallery above, you can see that progression, with visual representations of how the game increases enemy strength with you. There are various difficulty levels for champions. For the Regulators, as their importance to the gang grows, we see how much they apply stolen technology to themselves. .
The Regulators include Brawlers, Shooters, Snipers, Shockers, Drone Masters, and others who are trying to defeat the Knights using their technology in a variety of ways. It wasn’t until that faction philosophy was established that the team realized they had created the perfect mercenary squad for their power suit take on Victor Fries, but it needed a little more work.
“We connected regulators with Mr. Freeze,” says Evans. “It just seemed like a natural fit based on their technical level, artistic, written, etc.”
“At one point, I remember doing the regulator all over again,” continues Wu. Yeah, I think it’s just one of the inevitable things with certain parts of the project. “
After that redesign, things really came together.Regulators can be found all over Gotham under normal circumstances, but they also come across pockets tailored to Freeze working presumably under the direction of supervillains. It appears to be the regulator that helps him freeze the top of Elliot Center for the boss fight (we saw Some 2020 footage of the game).
They make a natural team, but they feel more grounded in business than in dedication.It’s part of Gotham Knights’ more grounded take on the legendary Comic Book City. We’ll go into more detail on that in a moment, but if you want to learn more right now, watch the first 16 minutes of the game, revealing 28 unlockable superhero suits. how were they designed?
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News.follow him twitterAny tips? Want to talk about possible stories?please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
