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The Art of Rocksteady's Batman
En el año 2009, se lanzó un nuevo videojuego de Batman, un juego que no se parecía a nada de lo visto hasta entonces en el mundo. ¿Su nombre? Batman: Arkham Asylum. Lo que seguiría a lo largo de los siguientes seis años fue una trilogía de videojuegos que cambiaría para siempre tanto la franquicia de Batman como el concepto de juego.
La franquicia Batman por Rocksteady: Arkham es un reinicio fresco y oscuro de una de las mayores historias de superhéroes de todos los tiempos. Todo un superventas.
Incluye ilustraciones conceptuales, bocetos y piezas de diseños ya finalizadas de los tres juegos; se completa con entrevistas a desarrolladores del juego y detallados pies de foto que comentan la atmósfera y el rol jugado por cada ilustración mientras atravesaba fases desde su concepción hasta su conclusión. Editor original: Abrams.
La franquicia Batman por Rocksteady: Arkham es un reinicio fresco y oscuro de una de las mayores historias de superhéroes de todos los tiempos. Todo un superventas.
Incluye ilustraciones conceptuales, bocetos y piezas de diseños ya finalizadas de los tres juegos; se completa con entrevistas a desarrolladores del juego y detallados pies de foto que comentan la atmósfera y el rol jugado por cada ilustración mientras atravesaba fases desde su concepción hasta su conclusión. Editor original: Abrams.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published April 14, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 16, 2015
The book pretty much tells all you need to know about the process behind Rocksteady's amazing Batman: Arkham trilogy. Comments by creators showcase how the games and their ideas they came about from start to finish, and a great amount of art is included for good measure. Some of it has been revealed before, but there's quite a bit of never-before seen material as well.
That being said, I couldn't give the book the full five stars for two main reasons: keeping mum about Arkham Knight's full story and missing art. I would have hoped that the game developers and/or the author would be more forthcoming when discussing the final game's story and, more importantly, highlighting certain story decisions and designs when it comes to characters. The Red Hood, for instance, was marketed long before the release of the game, but isn't tackled here, while another more major player is missing as well. The book was released after the game and is meant to showcase its art and development, so reading it now makes it feel incomplete.
When it comes to the art, there is an unfortunate number of pieces missing from this book. Firstly, Carlos D'Anda created designs for most of Batman's rogues gallery for Arkham Asylum, and it's a real shame to have nothing more than his final interpretation of the main players included here.
Secondly, I would have preferred to have all advertising material showcased as well. There are a couple of images from Asylum missing, as well as some of Arkham City's great quasi-monochrome character posters, such as Two-Face and Mr Freeze (two of my favourites, as it happens). Most lacking of all is the third game's material, which is missing entirely. Including the character posters released in the run-up to the game's release, for instance, would have been a great way to showcase most characters' final design. Speaking of which, there's a worrying and distinct lack of Scarecrow, of all people. His redesign for Knight is brilliant, and featuring no comment or material on that front but including his henchmen seems like an enormous missed opportunity.
I'd still wholeheartedly recommend the book for Batman fans, superhero fans, fans of the games and aspiring video game creators and enthusiasts. As a a distillation of the process behind these brilliant games including art, it works well enough. With each game probably having enough material for its own book, however, readers who are not new to art books may feel that there's something missing.
That being said, I couldn't give the book the full five stars for two main reasons: keeping mum about Arkham Knight's full story and missing art. I would have hoped that the game developers and/or the author would be more forthcoming when discussing the final game's story and, more importantly, highlighting certain story decisions and designs when it comes to characters. The Red Hood, for instance, was marketed long before the release of the game, but isn't tackled here, while another more major player is missing as well. The book was released after the game and is meant to showcase its art and development, so reading it now makes it feel incomplete.
When it comes to the art, there is an unfortunate number of pieces missing from this book. Firstly, Carlos D'Anda created designs for most of Batman's rogues gallery for Arkham Asylum, and it's a real shame to have nothing more than his final interpretation of the main players included here.
Secondly, I would have preferred to have all advertising material showcased as well. There are a couple of images from Asylum missing, as well as some of Arkham City's great quasi-monochrome character posters, such as Two-Face and Mr Freeze (two of my favourites, as it happens). Most lacking of all is the third game's material, which is missing entirely. Including the character posters released in the run-up to the game's release, for instance, would have been a great way to showcase most characters' final design. Speaking of which, there's a worrying and distinct lack of Scarecrow, of all people. His redesign for Knight is brilliant, and featuring no comment or material on that front but including his henchmen seems like an enormous missed opportunity.
I'd still wholeheartedly recommend the book for Batman fans, superhero fans, fans of the games and aspiring video game creators and enthusiasts. As a a distillation of the process behind these brilliant games including art, it works well enough. With each game probably having enough material for its own book, however, readers who are not new to art books may feel that there's something missing.
March 29, 2025
I love Batman yo
August 20, 2015
Good for what it is: a look at the art of the trilogy with some behind-the-scenes features. Enjoyable for a once-over, but probably nothing to buy unless it's heavily discounted or you're just a big fan of the Arkham-verse.
July 28, 2020
Never gets old, flicking through this one. It's great to read about the design process around one of my favourite game series of all time.
The only negative I have is that not enough time was spent discussing the design of some of the characters. Other than that, it's been a great book to flick through again and again. Really, really cool.
The only negative I have is that not enough time was spent discussing the design of some of the characters. Other than that, it's been a great book to flick through again and again. Really, really cool.
October 3, 2017
I have not played any of the games, but I really wanted to see the graphics and artwork they did leading up to the release. I have to say it was really cool to say the least.
June 9, 2022
Nice overall of the production and impact of the Arkham Trilogy. Includes some neat artwork and development concepts of locations and characters.
March 1, 2017
If you like the games and all things Batman then you'll like this. Love the different art styles as it goes into the games art style.
May 13, 2016
It was amazing to see the art progression. Video games aren't what I normally think of when I think of art but the level of detail here is awesome. There are sections for the villians, the sets, the props, and even the programming.
Harley approves. Why? Because this book shows how her costume evolves and also includes her Ph.D. diploma and some weapons of choice. Here she is in the first game, Arkham Asylum.
Note to Goodreads librarians: The title of this book is actually The Art of Rocksteady's Batman.
Harley approves. Why? Because this book shows how her costume evolves and also includes her Ph.D. diploma and some weapons of choice. Here she is in the first game, Arkham Asylum.
Note to Goodreads librarians: The title of this book is actually The Art of Rocksteady's Batman.
June 11, 2016
4,5 tähteä. Paljon mielenkiintoista tietoa pelitrilogian tekemisestä ja kosolti ihanaa konseptitaidetta. En voi kuitenkaan antaa täyttä viittä tähteä, sillä teoksessa ollaan hyvin vaitonaisia viimeisen osan, Arkham Knightin tarinasta, minkä takia myös paljon taidetta puuttuu. Olisin halunnut nähdä konseptitaidetta Arkham Knightin tarinan avainkohtiin liittyen ja lukea, miten tekijät olivat päätyneet tiettyihin ratkaisuihin juonen suhteen.
Lukuunottamatta tätä yhtä miinusta, teos on erinomaista luettavaa Rocksteadyn Arkham-pelien ystäville.
Lukuunottamatta tätä yhtä miinusta, teos on erinomaista luettavaa Rocksteadyn Arkham-pelien ystäville.
January 17, 2016
First the good/great: the visual contents are amazing. For an art book that's pretty important.
And the bad: Arkham Knight, presumably because it was still an ongoing project during this volume's creation is poorly served; Arkham Origins is *completely* ignored and even with the very specific title of this book that seems harsh; and finally, the text is perfunctory, bordering sometimes on flat-out bad.
And the bad: Arkham Knight, presumably because it was still an ongoing project during this volume's creation is poorly served; Arkham Origins is *completely* ignored and even with the very specific title of this book that seems harsh; and finally, the text is perfunctory, bordering sometimes on flat-out bad.
April 4, 2016
It's hard to believe that when Arkham Asylum was released in 2009 that people had very little faith in the game. Up until that point games based on superheroes didn't have a very good track record. Then Asylum came out and proved that it was possible to make a good superhero game.
This is an oversized hardcover volume that covers the development of all three games in the trilogy. Lots of concept art, as well as finished art used for marketing, and commentary by the artists and developers.
This is an oversized hardcover volume that covers the development of all three games in the trilogy. Lots of concept art, as well as finished art used for marketing, and commentary by the artists and developers.
April 22, 2019
This is a definite must have for any batman arkham game and comic fan like myself a wonderful large book with lots of information on the arkham trilogy and what went into makuthe highly successful game trilogy
April 14, 2016
A look at the art and its development of the video game trilogy.....makes me want to start playing them!
May 23, 2016
Mostly spoiler free and full of so much cool reference for how they created these fantastic games.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews