10 Things All Superhero Games Can Learn From Batman: Arkham
9. Dont Be Afraid Of Delaying
One of the most widely contested and controversial topics currently underway regarding gaming is the so-called dev-cycle i.e. the amount of time allotted to a developer before a game goes gold and is ready for release. Many developers are burdened with unrealistic deadlines and release dates to meet in order to satisfy the upper echelons of the publisher they are bound to. 2014 was a particularly notorious year for buggy, unpolished titles, with annual releases being the biggest culprits of terrible releases (Here's looking at you, Assassins Creed). Whilst not an annual release, Beenoxs latest Spidey-title was an adaptation of the sequel to 2012s Amazing Spider-Man reboot, and thus had to work for a release that would coincide with the release of the film. The finished product was in many ways lacklustre, but also had the potential to actually be something quite special. Not to engage solely in hypotheticals, but had Beenox been given the ability to set their own pace and deadline, it is quite possible that they may have been able to craft a title that was both robust and innovative. Since 2009 there have been three released triple-A Arkham games, or one every two years. Arkham Asylum saw delays, as has Arkham Knight, indicative of Rocksteadys tried and tested approach to game development. Point being: If you let developers work to their own time-scale, theyll be able to construct a good quality title.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
