Gotham Knights developers explain Nightwing glider, Red Hood mystic leap designs

Following some extended gameplay earlier this month, the developers behind Gotham Knights have given more of an insight into the designs of Nightwing's glider and Red Hood's (somewhat surprising) mystic leap.

During a Q&A on the Gotham Knights Discord, creative director Patrick Redding revealed Nightwing's Flying Trapeze was inspired by "a couple of ideas" including some classic issues in the Nightwing solo book that saw the DC hero using his "aerialist moves with jet-powered gliders".

Additionally, the team wanted it to feel as though Nightwing had been through the late, great, Batman's arsenal.

"We liked the death-defying angle of him looking at all the various stealth drones in Batman's arsenal and calculating that he could just get away with hanging off one of the smaller models and still be able to maintain or gain altitude with it," said Redding.

"[The Flying Trapeze is] designed to feel a bit improvised, and dependent on his extreme athleticism, which fits Nightwing's approach to everything. Flying it has such a different feel from Batgirl's cape-gliding, and it blends really well with his bigger parkour and leap moves, as well as with grappling."

Meanwhile, the developers looked for a "unifying theme" for each of the four heroes' evolution to knighthood. For Red Hood, this meant tapping into some more of his lore, including his resurrection in the Lazarus Pit.

"We really liked the idea that as Jason starts to confront the trauma of dying and being brought back, he begins to be able to tap into some lost abilities," explained Redding.

"In the same way that he's tried to reinvent himself from anti-hero to hero while retaining his strengths, he discovers he can channel these mystic talents in ways he finds familiar: Through his physicality [and] in how he moves, but also in how he fights and even how he uses his weapons.

"We'll see that the Mystic Leap is just one manifestation of those powers," he finished with a tease.

Those eager to give these new characters a go on the game's release (which will be on 25th October) can preorder the game now. This can be done through PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store, Steam and Epic Games Store, so plenty to choose from.

However, as we reported earlier this month, its worth remembering Warner Bros. has cancelled the planned PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Gotham Knights.

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