LEGO is not only a brand of building blocks, but a driving force behind a series of fantastic adventure video games based on some of the most popular franchises and IPs in video game and entertainment history.
These LEGO titles were part of any modern gamer’s upbringing, whether through exposing them to incredible Hollywood productions like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, or by immersing them in the fantastical and heroic worlds of comic books. Speaking of comics, this next LEGO game focuses on perhaps one of the biggest comic book characters to date—The Dark Knight, Batman.
During Gamescom 2025, we got to speak with Jimmy Sedota, TT Games’ Design Director working on LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. He shared the team’s reasoning behind going for a Batman game this time around, the combat, the gameplay, and a whole lot more.
LEGO Batman was also the recipient of our Best Gamescom 2025 Game Award.
Here is the full conversation.
Note: Parts of this interview were edited for the sake of text clarity and avoiding repetition.
So, why Batman? Why a LEGO Batman game and not something like a LEGO Justice League game or another property from DC’s library?
Jimmy Sedota (Assistant Design Director, TT Games): Yeah, I think because Batman has so much history now. You know, we’re over 80 years of Batman lore and history. And so, we felt like there’s so much there. You could make a whole game just focused on that, which is what we’ve been doing. So, there’s so much to pull from. We’re pulling from film, television, the animated series.
We’re looking at comics, of course, and games. And there’s so much there, so much depth there for us to tap into, that it just felt like the right time to come back to it.
When I was playing the game, it did feel very much akin to the Arkham series by Rocksteady. When you were thinking of the direction of the game and the gameplay itself, did you look at the Arkham games for inspiration, or was it more about taking bits and pieces off of things to make a complete Batman experience?
Sedota: Yeah, it was more the second. We absolutely love the Arkham series. I’m a huge fan of that series. What Rocksteady did really [was] create kind of a unique genre of combat. So, of course, we looked at that as reference and took inspiration from it.
But it wasn’t just that, right? I mean, it was looking at other games and, again, other films and comics, everything. There’s going to be natural commonality there. Batman is all about fighting and encountering lots of enemies and using stealth, and using his gadgets, and gliding, and the Grappler Launcher. So, it’s natural that there’s going to be some similarities there, even if we weren’t setting out to build something unique, which is exactly what we wanted to do.
We built the combat from the ground up, based on what we thought was going to be the best LEGO Batman experience. You know, co-op. We have couch co-op. That’s important for us. So, that’s something that is unique to what we’re doing. [There are also] multiple playable characters over the course of the game.
And then, of course, the humor. So, trying to keep things fun, family-friendly. Popping a guy over the head with a frying pan. You know, just keeping things light in tone, but still feeling like it is an authentic Batman experience.
How difficult or how unique was it to try to find ways to incorporate that Batman style while still keeping the authenticity of those other characters in the game?
Sedota: Yeah, it’s definitely something that we looked a lot at, thinking about co-op in particular, and making sure that all the characters could stay together. Because it is very easy to be like, well, Batman’s the best, so we’ll make him the fastest. But then, if I’m not Batman, I’m left behind, right?
So, we wanted to make sure that the base and the core mechanics were very similar and balanced in a way that was the same across them, but then giving them their own unique flavor. So, whether that’s the art of the gliders and what they look like [as] every character has their own version of that and what that looks like. The same with vehicles and driving and all that. You’ve got the Batmobiles and the Tumbler and the Batcycles, but all the other characters have multiple vehicles that they can use that are each unique to that character and, I think, fit the character.
The last thing is an example with Gordon. It’s subtle sometimes, but if you notice when you look at Batman grapple, he’s very cool. He knows what he’s doing. Gordon’s kind of, his legs are kicking, and he’s a little bit unsure of himself, but he gets there.
So, that’s something we feel adds personality and a unique trait for Gordon, but still allows it, mechanically, to work similarly.
Looking at the history of TT Games and your recent project, like Star Wars, it feels like you’ve learned a lot of lessons, especially when it comes to the free world aspect LEGO Batman has. And, obviously, you’re trying to make Gotham City a playground, right? So, I’m trying to understand where the team looks to when creating its own version of Gotham City that fits the LEGO theme?
Sedota: Yeah, so, a lot of it comes from story. A lot of story often unlocks and kind of helps guide a project. So, when we were looking to build the story, we knew that, obviously, Gotham had to be a big part of it and not just a secondary thing to do on the side.
The main story will go through a lot of levels, like you saw with Ace, but the main story will also take you through missions that take place in Gotham. Then we have all the extra open-world content, deciding activities, all these things that you can do. And so, we wanted to make sure that it felt more like a single, cohesive kind of experience.
We’re not just kind of recreating film by film by film, [but] taking all this reference from all these different films in this project, and comics, and animation. We felt like the game structure of it needed to be a little bit different, but still similar to things we’ve done in the past. But it is an evolution.
Let’s talk about the design aspects of the characters themselves. As you mentioned, you’re taking a lot of aspects from different TV shows, games, etc. For instance, we see Heath Ledger’s Joker, then we see what I believe is Danny DeVito’s Penguin. When actually figuring out how those characters should look, how did the team decide, well, we want to take this aspect of that and then mix it with this to create a more complete experience?
Sedota: Yeah, so I think there are a couple of things. So, one, it was looking at what are the most iconic moments from the films, and the things that we then wanted to put into the story. And so, sometimes that influenced it. Such as some of the stuff with Heath Ledger, some of those iconic scenes, we wanted to maybe pull that version in. And then some of it was just making sure that we weren’t too focused on one movie or one comic.
We wanted to really make sure that we had a pretty good balance of pulling from the different films, the different comics. So, Gordon will be referenced from one set of films, whereas Batman has a few different versions in terms of the suits and the outfits. We [also] wanted to make sure that we had good variety across all the mediums so it wasn’t too heavily skewed towards one thing or another.
I assume, at least for now, that the team is more focused on the Bruce Wayne story, right? From the start to when he becomes the eventual Batman we know. But are there going to be any kind of hints or looks at other stories other than Bruce Wayne during the game? And if so, can you hint or talk a bit about that?
Sedota: Yeah, I mean, we definitely do some of that. Because it is a Batman story, but it’s not just about Batman and Bruce Wayne. He’s the star of the show, but it’s [also] about the Batman family.
I think a good example [are] the seven playable characters we talked about. Our Robin is Dick Grayson. He becomes Nightwing in our game. So, it’s a Batman lore story, but it’s not about Bruce and Batman. So, that’s an example that I can definitely talk about where we do tell a story about a character and their arc within the story that’s not just focused on Batman. But [our game is] definitively a Batman story.
So, we do try to cover as much as we can.
Does the LEGO Batman universe work with the DC universe or with the James Gunn team? Or is it more your own take and your own DC Extended Universe [story]?
Sedota: Yeah, this game is very much about our take on that universe, for sure. And it is really a mash-up of all this different stuff. And we’ve made it our own. It’s our telling of the legend of Batman. And so, yes, there’s gonna be things that are gonna be seen in multiple films and multiple stories. But we’ve woven it in a way that is unique to us. So, we’re taking reference from everything we can.
But it’s more Batman universe than it is wider DC universe.
Outside of Batman, if you personally could LEGO-fy and tell the story of any other DC universe character, other than Superman, who would it be?
Sedota: There’s so much to draw from. I’m a huge Batman fan. I won’t give you a specific character, but there’s still a lot that we can tap into that I think would be really exciting for us to look at.
I think the thing is there’s a lot of potential. I think with the DC universe, there are so many characters to focus on. It really is hard to pick one. I love animated series. You can tell we know our stuff, right?
[But] I can’t pick one. There’s too much. I’m sorry, there’s just so many things.
Is there any prospect of a DC character outside the Bat Family appearing in this game in some form in the future, whether it’s DLC or otherwise? Or is the main focus just to stay within Gotham City and the Bat Family?
Sedota: Yeah, we’re focused very much on the Bat Family and staying within the Batman universe. But a lot more will be revealed as we get closer to launch, so I think you’ll be surprised by how many things we are tapping into. But yeah, we’re very much a definitive Batman game.
