Comic book junkies take heart! The ZAM team had a chance to sit down with the DCUO devs at GDC 2010, and we came away with nothing but excellent info. Read more to find out!

ZAM: But that also leads you into another problem, right? How do you – as an artist – make the player character feel special?

Mike: That’s very true…how do you make someone feel special next to Batman? But conversely, Batman and Superman are just guys in leotards, boots, gloves, and a cape. Where do you go from there?

So what we’re going to do is do just that, start characters off in their own customized suit. And players have to feel that those suits are really cool and in their own sort of DC style. We also want players to feel like they can do things to their suits that make them feel better and better and better as they go along in the game.

Think of Batman when he goes up into space. He always comes up with this Batman-inspired suit that he utilizes to maneuver in space. So we utilized that concept and pushed on that direction: How do we make you feel as cool as Batman… in space?

It’s a great way to look at it, because the great heroes – when they go into tricky situations – always find some piece of equipment that helps them in their situation. So we give players that option – they can deck out their characters to make them look great in a battle suit, or they can choose to stay in that same leotard and tights all the way through the game.

You’ll get the same buffs and points that you would get off your equipment, we just have an option that allows you to turn the look of those equipment pieces off. And this was seriously one of the biggest challenges we had to take on with the game. Really, how do you make someone feel like they’re progressing when they’re only wearing their underwear.

ZAM: When should we expect to actually see more about the character creation process?

Mike: E3 baby! You guys are going to love it. We have a very robust character creation system… it’s not as robust as some “other” super hero games, but we’re not focusing on that part of it. We’re focusing on getting you into the game as quickly as possible.

And a lot of people ask us about that, why aren’t we as robust as these other games? The answer to that is we still have to feel like we’re a Jim Lee inspired character. If we let you mess with all of your proportions, the next thing you know you don’t even look like a DC Universe character.

ZAM: You don’t have that ripped Jim Lee look.

Mike: Yup. Exactly. We want to keep it all in tune to what the DC IP is all about. We needed to actually limit people in their customization so they don’t go outside that box; we want people to stay in those Jim Lee proportions.

ZAM: What kind of footprint will DC Universe Online leave in the actual existence of the DC license? Will you be creating new characters that might be included in future DC products?

Mike: The nice thing is that the DC folks are actually working with us very closely to make sure that we own our little part of the DC Universe. You’re running the same storylines and meeting the same people that are there, from Lois Lane to Superman to all those characters.

But we’ve also been given our own identity, especially when we’re working with folks like Marv Wolfman; it gives players something beyond just “I read that in a comic book, I want to experience it.” It may start there, but the storyline those guys wrote is sooo huge.

ZAM: Are you getting chances to work with some of the older, iconic super heroes? Like the old Flash with the pith helmet?

Mike: We’ve got so many characters in the works that we’re just hanging onto. For the first launch, we really just want to give players the universe that they’re accustomed to. But then, as we move along through expansion packs, it’ll start to open up, and that’s really exciting for us. DC is great about pulling the “what’s next” or “what’s around the next corner” trick, and that’s really what we’re trying to hone in on with our product as well.