The game was developed for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox side by side, with a PC version initially described as "possible". Creative director Emmanuel Valdez said that "for the longest time we were debating whether or not to bring it out for GameCube," before deciding "there's just not a lot there in the GameCube market right now." There were also plans to port the game for the PlayStation Portable. The game engine for "Darkwatch" features middleware engines RenderWare, Havok and Quazal, while Autodesk MotionBuilder was used to create character animation and motion capture.