Creator of canned Gotham by Gaslight game speaks out about the frustrations of game-making

Day 1 Studios (MechAssault, F.E.A.R.) was working on a Batman game set in the 19th century with a storyline involving Jack the Ripper until an unsuccessful pitch doomed the whole project.

The game, titled Gotham by Gaslight and modeled after the Elseworlds comic of the same name, would have been published under THQ's soggy umbrella.

Joe van den Heuvel, owner of CloakWorks and the Shroud cloth simulation engine, shared his thoughts on the game's cancelation:

Everyone that saw it loved it. There was a spark that I hadn’t seen when working on other games. Even with nothing else going on – no combat, no gameplay, everything missing – just that environment and the feeling from it was attractive to everyone on the team. When it was canned it was soul destroying. It was a big disappointment.

He compared the experience to the challenges struggling developers face as they try to make a name for themselves. "I feel like for some young developers, they may have created something fantastic, but the project they’re on gets canned for whatever reason," he said. "Then, they’re out of a job, have nothing to put on their resume, and don’t have anything to show off to help them secure a new position. It’s tough out there."

Despite the premature closing of Gotham by Gaslight, Van den Heuvel found success with his company CloakWorks and Shroud, technology that simulates cloth physics with little footprint.

Rocksteady has succeeded with its own take on the Batman universe in games like Arkham City, but would you have liked to play a dramatically different version of the Caped Crusader's adventures?

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