Recently I had the chance to throw some questions at the game design team at Knight Models.
With the new Batman Rulebook about to hit, I thought it would be great to get a little insight into the creation and development of the game and crews.
The answers have been tweaked a little as I don't speak Spanish and English is thier second language.
Hendybadger - "What were your plans and aims while designing the game?"
KM Team - "The first part of the development for game game like the Batman Miniature Game is to learn about the characters. We have read tons of comics since we were children but there are so many characters to remember and for some we only know a little about them. So we hit the comics and videogames hard.
The first idea for the game was to simulate the Arkham City video game, but later we expanded to the wider Batman background because its SO HUGE!!!!
75 Years of history from DC Comics.
To develop a crew, the first thing we have in mind is how to represent the character (their lore and abilities) the best we can in the game. People want to play the characters they know and want the character to do what they do in the comics.
We can't see Batman without a Batclaw or Bane without Titan. When we have the ideas clear we go and test to make the rules for each as playable as possible for a tactical skirmish game.
We hope people like the different ways to play each crew. We are very happy with the way things are now going. In the future you can see the Wonderland Gang which have the mechanics we are the most proud of so far."
Hendybadger - "What changes during the development process?"
KM Team - "We need to adapt some rules for the different crews. In game we love different forms of play. Specific rules for some characters and crews etc.
We have to keep this in mind as we need to combine it with the merchantability of the products.
This is the most difficult part to implement in the game, but we are very happy with the final result.
For example, we know Batman and Joker will be some of the best sellers as they are the most charismatic characters from Batman lore so the crews need to be the easiest to play.
This idea came to us because miniature gaming is a very specific hobby but with the Batman license it could bring new people into the hobby.
So Joker and Batman need to be easy to play in a very specialised game.
It's very difficult to create a simple miniature game. Even more so if you can do a lot of very cinematic things."
Hendybadger - "What types of crews did you end up with?"
KM Team - "Basically, looking at the personality of each character, the Henchmen are a continuation of the Leader. We create the Leader and work with ideas based on them
For example,
The Penguin is a very rich person who always uses other characters or Henchmen to help make his business plans.
The Joker is very unpredictable and you never know what he is going to do. I think the Kaos Agent trait represents this well.
Black Mask is a criminal who uses brutality towards people to get on the favourable side of the dirty business he has in Gotham"
Huge thanks to Knight Models for these answers.
I will see if I can get them to answer some more for us in the future.
Is there anything you would like to ask the designers of the Batman Miniature Game?
Head over to Knight Models to see what they has been working on.
Until next time,
- Hendybadger
Thank you for this interview. As someone who doesn't do video games - but has always had his interest piqued by the Batman Arkham range because they look so sweet - I was interested to see that this grew out of a desire to bring that ethos to the table. But now we can mix in comic book Bats, 60s TV Bats, cinematic Bats etc.
ReplyDeleteHopefully there will be another one soon. ;)
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