Paul Dini talks Batman Arkham Asylum

The Emmy award-winning scriptwriter chats to Yahoo! UK Games about this week's chart-topping videogame. Paul is celebrated by fans for his long association with Batman, most notably "Batman: The Animated series". However his contributions to the "Lost" television series also earned him recognition. We quiz Paul on Batman, his knack for compelling female characters, and the possibility of breaking into movies.

Yahoo!: Is Batman a passion of yours or has Warner Bros basically just hit on you as the guy that gives them exactly what they want?

Paul Dini: Err... 50/50. I mean I really love Batman and always have as a kid, and fortunately I appear to be one of the go-to guys for various Batman projects. I'm happy to jump into the Batmobile from time to time and have a new adventure - whether it's for animation or a game or whatever. I really loved the opportunity to work on this game, I thought it was just great. It has everything I love about Batman.

Y!: Is this the first videogame project you've been involved with?

PD: I've been involved with a few others here and there as a consultant or furnishing some ideas. I produced some animated sequences for a Batman game from about 12 years ago, but this was the first time I really got into it and worked as close as I would on an animated feature with the team producing the game. [This involved] spending several weeks over a period of a few years here in London, working around the clock on the stories, watching them create the animation and things like that.

Y!: Are you a keen gamer yourself or has this been your first real connection to gaming?

PD: Well, I used to play games a lot about 12 years ago then I sort of did an intervention on myself because I realised I was playing too much - thinking of reasons not to go to work or showing up late. Finally I realised I had to pull myself away from it. But my brother still plays so when we get together for Christmas or something we'll sit down and play for a while.

Y!: You're familiar with how a lot of gamers prefer to skip past all the talkie bits in games to get straight to the action? Was this something you considered when writing for the new game? How does this compare to the Graphic Novel project with Alex Ross where fans pour over every word and line?

PD: Absolutely. We wanted to trim all the fat away and make it a straight ahead really great gaming experience. I knew early on that a lot of gamers would be picking it up and playing all the way through. I've had that with games where I've just wanted to get from one level to the other. But I also knew that a bunch of Batman fans would be interested in the game. And we have such a wonderful quality of animation that it would be a shame not to make the cut scenes everything they could be. Whereas we couldn't have the same depth as you might have in a movie as far as the characterisation or the plot or anything, we did try to give it that special feeling of the character. We wanted every line in the dialogue to shine and try to make it for both: so if you're a Batman fan you'll see familiar characters, but it's also a big, fun entertainment experience if you're a gamer looking for a straight-ahead gaming experience.

Y!: Because it's the joker, I think anyone would hang around to hear a funny line rather than, say, Metal Gear that takes itself very seriously.

PD: I had a lot of fun writing. There are some case sessions that you uncover in the game where you can listen to recordings of the villains talking to therapist. That was a real chance to let loose and get inside the Riddler's head - I wrote some very disturbing stuff for him. And the Joker, back when Harley was a therapist, it was so much fun to write and Mark Hamill did just a beautiful job of voice characterisation.

Y!: Do you know Mark well, do you work closely with him on the dialogue?

PD: I know Mark reasonably well. He's a very nice man and his family are very sweet. We're long overdue to get together for a dinner. I saw him recently at Comic Con in San Diego where we presented the game together and we went out together and chatted for a bit. He's a great guy and it was swell talking to him.

Y!: You created Harley Quinn her for the Animated Series and several more gutsy female characters such as Jingle Belle and Ida Red. After your experience writing for Lost, do you see yourself creating a live action series around any of these ‘gals'?

PD: Well, I go back and forth on that. I've had a number of offers to make a Jingle Belle movie, and I'm really not sure where that stands right now. I need to talk to more people about that. As far as Harley goes, she's pretty much set in the Batman universe; she's part of a bigger thing. So whatever happens with Batman I guess some point she'll show up in the movie or something. At one point she was a character in a short-lived TV show called "Birds of Prey", she was a major adversary. But she wasn't in costume. She had retired from combat but she was still evil.

Y!: Harley is brilliant, though I don't know enough about the girl providing the voice...

PD: Ah that's Arleen Sorkin, an American comedic actress. She's best known for a soap opera called Days of Our Lives playing a kooky, free-spirited girl. I always liked the voice that she did so when I was looking for a voice for Harley I suggested her and it was perfect.

Y!: Harley has a new look for the game. Did you have any input with that or did the videogame guys say, Hey look we put her in a mini-skirt and blouse. What do you think?

PD: We discussed that early on. The whole jester costume that she usually wears just didn't work for the game. She had been in Arkham for a while and worked herself up to being an assistant to a doctor who appears in the game, Doctor Young, but at the same time she's secretly working on the outside with The Joker. When she was let out she didn't have her traditional red and black costume so she took it upon herself to have fun with the nurse's outfit and come up with something that was reminiscent of the Harley Quinn outfit but still a little different and also in the same way mocking the role of a nurse. Also there was something about naughty nurses that we liked [laughs] so we said, Okay let's dress her up as a naughty nurse. But it's very much in keeping with Harley's personality. She'd do something that's impish looking. But they still kept the flavour of the character and it has worked really well.

Y!: We felt that the game is a great introduction to all the main characters in the Batman universe, while not necessarily overdoing it.

PD: You try to make the characters as accessible to people as you can. This isn't really a kids' game. There are other iterations of Batman and really the same characters that are a little bit more for kids.

There's a show called "The Brave and the Bold" out now in the States which is more of a nice, comedic ‘Disney' style take on Batman. And there are toy lines where they have very gentle, chubby versions of Batman and the Joker and the whole thing is played for laughs.

But you look at the hardcore gaming audience and we're talking about an age from 14 to 50, so there's a big crossover with graphic novel readers - it's an older mindset. At the same time we didn't want to hurt people with a lot of back story or origins. You figure it out pretty quickly that Harley Quinn is a demented nurse who loves the joker. Or Killer Croc - he's a monster locked in an insane asylum that looks like Godzilla, but you don't want to know who he is or how he came to look like a crocodile.

I'd say there are a fair amount of gaming fans who know the parameters of the basics of Batman's world, and for those who know nothing about him... you know, it's pretty easy to catch up!

Y!: What is it about Batman that is always appealing to a huge audience?

PD: I think, number one, he was the first of his kind. There were other avenger type characters like Shadow, but Batman was the first to take that masked hero role and used it with superheroes just when they were coming out. He put his definitive mark on it. There's so much there - a wealthy man who devotes his fortune to fighting crime, all the gadgets and gizmos he's got on his belt, and the idea that he trains himself to fight these criminals. A lot of it is the world he inhabits. If he was just fighting gangsters it may not be all that interesting. But when you put in characters who are all these bizarre, funhouse mirror images of him - like The Joker who smiles but yet is terrifying - it gives his world more resonance. Those become as interesting and entertaining as Batman himself.

Thank you to Paul Dini and the folks at Eidos PR. "Batman: Arkham Asylum" is out now for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It will be released for PC on 18 September.