A Heartbreaking Glimpse of a Steampunk Batman Game

[The Wooster]

A Heartbreaking Glimpse of a Steampunk Batman Game

Don your etched-brass goggles for some concept art from the Gotham by Gaslight game that never was.

While Rocksteady has done a stellar job of adapting the more mainstream, "comic book" version of Batman into a pair of jolly-good games, the more esoteric interpretations of the Dark Knight haven't had as much luck. Gotham by Gaslight for example. A game based on the one-shot, Victorian-era take on the perpetually-scowling vigilante penned by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola. The game was apparently being developed, or at least planned, by F.3.A.R developer Day 1 Studios, but the project seems to have been quietly smothered in its sleep, leaving us with nothing but the following UI concept art.

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The menu designs above were posted by graphic artist and UI designer, Julie Farrell. You can see more of her work, including a few more, slightly less exciting, pictures of the Gaslight UI, here. [http://www.juliefarrell.com/?page_id=1342]

Now, just in case you needed reminding how vast, uncaring and fundamentally unfair the universe is; while this Batman game will never see the light of day, this one [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdTlD80ms4A] most certainly did.


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[Ignatz_Zwakh]

Such a pity. The Arkham games are pretty nifty, but I must admit to being quite taken with this concept.

 

[RA92]

Hey, they can't run with the current Batman, forever. Maybe then...

 

[Arkley]

I would play the hell out of a steampunk Batman game. This project should be restarted.

 

[Scrustle]

Is it just me or does it seem that it's really hard to actually get a Steampunk game to do well? Hardly any successful games right now are based on the Steampunk aesthetic, and it's not rare to hear some kind of Steampunk game was cancelled or never even got of the cutting room floor. Such a shame.

 

[Duruznik]

There was going to be a steampunk Batman? And it got cancelled?!

...Excuse me for a minute, I have to go cry in the corner for a bit...

 

[Ohlookit'sMatty]

This is quite heartbreaking but I'm just about to start playing in a Steampunk LARP& this would have made an epic character concept

-M

 

[F'Angus]

Wow this looks like it woulda made one Helluvah game. I would've loved to play that.

 

[Movement_Machine]

No steampunk batman? Goodbye cruel world :?(

 

[weirdee]

Eh, well it sounds good, but so did the more recent Spiderman games, up until they actually made them, so what can you do

let's just be grateful that we have a good game at all

 

[SilverHammerMan]

I saw this a couple days ago, one of the pictures, which I don't see here for some reason, was of a loading/instruction screen that seemed to point to the game being a shooter.... So yeah, I'm not disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, I love me some Batman, but as a shooter? No. Still, cool concept, I really do have to read the comic this was based on sometime.

 

[Baresark]

I'm not surprised a one shot Batman didn't take off. Even avid comics fans may have missed a one shot. I collected comics, ad nauseum, for years. And the only thing I was ever interested in was continuity. Though I was a Marvel man. It seems that it would have appealed to a more niche audience. I even know some people who would have avoided the game because it was in a Steam Punk setting. I personally hate anything about the boring ass Victorian Era. So, it was lose lose when it came to my friends and myself.

I remember Batman Forever. I rented it when it first came out. My god, what a bad game. The music is enough to make your ears bleed. But, if you notice, it was Published by Akklaim. All the developer did was use Mortal Kombat as an inspiration to controls. Only, batman threw nothing but high punches. He even used the same sweep. And when he was dazed it was the same animation when waiting for a finishing move. Just a terrible game.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Yeah because that's what I think when I watch Batman "You know what would make this better? If it was even less believable and set in the 19th century!" I can only imagine the ungodly steam powered grappling hook Batman would have to use. That'd work as a quick gag or cut away but I don't think Batman meets steampunk is really grounds for a game to stand on. Course Batman meets proto-cyberpunk did okay.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

Anything Batman is infinity uninteresting to me, fortunately

 

[SmugFrog]

With buttons like "fire" and "reload", I'm sure this would have been just another FPS. Just because the concept is a novel idea doesn't mean it would have been good. It looks like they were going with a style like Bioshock.

 

[1337mokro]

Yeah because that's what I think when I watch Batman "You know what would make this better? If it was even less believable and set in the 19th century!" I can only imagine the ungodly steam powered grappling hook Batman would have to use. That'd work as a quick gag or cut away but I don't think Batman meets steampunk is really grounds for a game to stand on. Course Batman meets proto-cyberpunk did okay.

Really? You cannot enjoy anything if it's not grounded in absolute ironclad laws of physics and realism? Guess you hate all comicbooks and sci fi.

If reality stops you from enjoying fiction.

Then you missed the point of fiction

The Point

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You

 

[wooty]

I never really understood all this steampunk/cyberpunk/british-1980-era-punk-rock stuff to be honest, but I guess thats all down to taste.

OT:................................I wouldnt play it.

 

[370999]

I never really understood all this steampunk/cyberpunk/british-1980-era-punk-rock stuff to be honest, but I guess thats all down to taste.

OT:................................I wouldnt play it.

Dunno I kind of like it. It just seems like the iPod future asethetic in that it's kinda overdone. Steam punk batman is like samurai batman, It just seems a bit gimmicky to me. Could be good but I think it#'s odd that people get boners over the word steam punk.