Camouflaj is beginning to move on from Batman: Arkham Shadow.
The development studio behind UploadVR's Game of the Year for 2024 will continue with bug fixes for the game, but the Batman: Arkham Shadow team is starting to close the book on this chapter of the Arkham saga starting at version 1.4, Camouflaj studio head Ryan Payton revealed to us during an interview.
The 'Game of the Year' update marks the addition of an Extreme difficulty setting, plus a variant of New Game+ called “I Am The Knight” which “restarts your campaign if you trigger a Game Over.” Completing the game in the mode unlocks a “gold-accented variant of your Batsuit and gadgets”.
There's also three new Predator Maps, an Infinite Combat challenge inspired by the “Scarecrow Nightmare” from Arkham Asylum, more than 500 bug fixes, six new Echo collectibles and more.
Meta-owned Camouflaj released Arkham Shadow in October 2024 with monthly updates following until now.
“We're making interesting discoveries. It's really difficult. It's one of the reasons why it can take a long time for some of these VR games to come out,” Payton said. “I feel like when I go into a flat screen game in a world that I'm very interested in, all I can think about the entire time is – I wish I was in VR for this. It feels like I'm looking at this world through the window rather than being in the world.”
What's Next For Camouflaj?
Camouflaj's technical talent demonstrates an ability to develop top tier immersive gaming experiences within severe technical constraints progressing through:
We selected Arkham Shadow as our game of the year for 2024, as did many others, and so we're naturally wondering what's next for the Arkham franchise and for Camouflaj?
There are many ways we could have approached the topic with Payton over a half-hour conversation this week. I did my due diligence by tossing it into the space between us as I sat in the UploadVR Studios from New York, Don punched Gotham's villains from Missouri, and Payton delivered his comments from Japan.
It was all a bit bittersweet until we started imagining ourselves becoming Wolverine.
Superpowers In VR
WayneTech's Rescue Vision looks a lot like Anduril's EagleEye. Marvel's What If On Apple Vision Pro shows a path forward for embodying VR superpowers based on hand tracking, while Ace Virtual Shooting put a “handset” in my home last week for target shooting with the equivalent weight of a firearm.
Gamers on Quest today use held controllers but hand tracking is improving steadily. There's a new hyper-sensitive generation of watches and bands like the one demoed with Meta's Orion glasses that can do very interesting things paired with immersive VR, too. Deadpool & Wolverine as a co-op VR game, for instance, could see a player with controllers becoming the dual-wielding shooting mercenary Deadpool while their teammate with open air hand tracking (and optionally enhanced by haptic bands) could become the brutally physical Wolverine.
Imagine the feeling metal claws that can seem to feel like they're sliding out from your wrist. That's been the dream of Arlen, one of our VR Gamescast viewers, and we covered the idea on our last VR Gamescast episode.
Of course, Camouflaj doesn't have to make a superhero VR game next, and they could make anything. Even though Payton says he would love to keep working on Arkham Shadow - and we would love a VR sequel to this standout VR game - Rocksteady is reportedly returning to this particular superhero franchise for flatscreen.
Meta is obviously in transition too, with the ongoing push to Horizon Worlds and Meta Connect in September this year will likely represent the company's biggest slate of announcements yet. So it seems we'll have to wait and see what Mark Zuckerberg and his team decide to do next with this accomplished development group.
“I think we've probably done over 10,000 code check ins into the game since launch,” Payton told us. “I think it's been somewhere around 2,000 to 3,000 bugs have been resolved, and that's not even kind of talking about the content that the team just desperately wanted to make or add to the game, including the new post credit scene at the end of the game, we added a new cinematic to the game with 1.3, all these different challenge maps. We're just so passionate about this game. We love this game, and it doesn't hurt that the game was received well. So, it's just like this kind of positive feedback loop, this like flywheel that we have here. And yeah, it is bittersweet.”
Watch the full discussion here:
And watch other recent devcasts below:
- Job Simulator developer Andrew Eiche noted the fold-up bed in his room
- Darknet & Ironstrike developer E McNeill gamed out his bitcoin losses
- Airspace Defender creator Rafael Brocado introduced us to the absolutely delightful elemental education experience Tablecraft.
- Don Carson at Mighty Coconut walked us through the Art & Principles of Walkabout Mini Golf Course Design.
Henry Stockdale
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