During a pre-Gamescom 2024 remote briefing event held by Bethesda, we learned more about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle through a remote presentation and subsequent roundtable Q&A with two key developers: Game Director Jerk Gustafsson and Creative Director Axel Torvenius.
This time, the developers at MachineGames focused on showing off gameplay: how Indiana interacts with the world around him, how he traverses the environment, and how he deals with the enemy. They also highlighted some of his key tools: the camera and journal.
The developers claimed to have made the gameplay experience as interesting and authentic as possible. They described Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as a game rich with detail, intriguing environments, and hidden secrets, evoking a sense of curiosity. For the temples of Sukhothai, they studied photographs and drawings from early expeditions to imagine what these temples actually looked like. Back then, they were much more overgrown, hidden away in the wilderness, and, of course, less renovated and reconstructed.
Throughout the game, players will encounter several well-guarded secrets and hidden ruins, such as the Sunsparker Chamber, a mysterious underground temple where an ancient artifact of great value can be found. This space was forged with forgotten techniques by builders that have since fallen into oblivion.
The game was designed around the charm and resourcefulness of the heroes, Indiana and his Italian journalist companion, Gina. This race for answers will take players to ancient crypts, lost civilizations, and much more. The focus of this game is adventure. MachineGames wants exploration to feel truly rewarding with all of Indy’s tools, and it’s up to players to find clever and even unexpected uses for each of them.
That includes Indy’s camera. Snapping photos may reveal historical insights and important clues. Similarly, the journal acts as a complete guide. It starts as a blank slate but becomes a detailed archive of the journey with maps, photos, and letters. It’s a reminder of where Indiana has been and, for the sharp observer, a hint about where to head next.
The developers also discussed finer aspects of gameplay. Sometimes, Indiana will have to enter restricted areas; that’s where disguises come in. Borrowing familiar mechanics seen in many games, players should keep far from those enemies with a sharp eye for spotting trespassers. Of course, the game features the whip, arguably Indy’s most important tool. It’s a powerful weapon in combat and a crucial tool for traversing lost ruins.
The key to the game’s combat is carefully choosing the right approach. It is possible to outsmart enemies by stealth and smartly using the environment, such as picking up a nearby object to distract, stun, or subdue enemies while remaining unnoticed. In a brawl, Indiana must stand his ground with powerful combos, blocks, and defensive parries. Melee combat was designed to look and feel exciting. Precisely timing and mixing these moves is critical to landing a knockout combo or classic finisher, and these brawling skills can be seamlessly combined with the whip, revolver, and anything else within reach for creative combat.
Just like Indy, players will navigate buried tombs and activate forgotten puzzles while avoiding deadly traps. Clues from the journal, traversal, and decryption are just a few things you’ll need to figure out the solutions. Every puzzle was designed to fit seamlessly into the world, ranging from smaller challenges, hidden and forbidden secrets, to epic obstacles leading to greater mysteries.
As players complete missions in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, they’ll earn adventure points to expand Indy’s skillset. There will be dozens of upgrades that let you customize his abilities to your playstyle; for example, the ability called True Grit gives Indy an extra chance to come back from a fatal blow.
The developers also explained that players are encouraged to take off the main path and uncover new missions, mysteries and secrets. The game’s open areas provide the freedom to find your own adventures. Exploring with a keen eye is essential to making discoveries. The authentic locations set in 1930s you visit have a clear goal driving the story forward, but the team hopes players always feel enticed to explore the world and discover the many secrets lurking around every corner.
As a reminder, the game is officially scheduled to launch on PC and Xbox Series S|X this year (although a rumor suggests a PS5 version might be released in 2025). On PC, it will support NVIDIA DLSS 3 and full ray tracing.
In terms of the game’s timeline, where does it take place?
Axel Torvenius: It is set near 1937, after the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie, and it takes place a fairly short amount of time just after that movie is set in the timeline.
We saw adventure points pop up when Indy snapped photos. How are these used in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?
Jerk Gustafsson: We have something in the game that we call adventure books. Those are items that you find in the world for exploration and playing the game, completing activities and missions. Also, through just exploration and discovery, you will be rewarded with adventure points. Each adventure book contains a skill, and you can use these points to unlock the skills. It’s pretty straightforward, but we think it really works well for this type of game.
Can you talk more about how the journal and the camera work?
Jerk Gustafsson: So, the journal is one of the core tools we have in the game. We like to see the journal as this guide that documents your journey from the very start to the end. Everything you do is basically documented in this journal throughout, and the camera plays a big part in that because we use the camera to take photos, and those photos you take are also added to your journal. The camera is also a very useful tool for solving puzzles because we use it a lot for taking photos for clues and additional information, and also for hints to solve puzzles. Everything is very connected and works well together, so we are quite happy with the results.
What was the process/challenge of transitioning from Wolfenstein to Indiana Jones?
Jerk Gustafsson: I think I will take that one as well. It’s actually a very good question because I’ve been thinking about it a little bit more lately, actually because we could see it on the team as well, that the step from going from what we are so used to doing with these pretty guns blazing, crazy shooting experience that we have done to something that is much more lighthearted, much more matinee in many ways, has been a pretty big step but also very fun. It has taken some time to do that transition for sure. But it’s something that I think has been very refreshing for the team and the studio. It’s been fun to work in many different ways.
How has the team worked to capture the comedy of the film series to make Indiana Jones and the Great Circle feel authentic to the franchise?
Axel Torvenius: A lot of focus has been going on specifically trying to analyze and look at the tone and the beats, specifically from the older movies, and we’ve been trying to dissect and pick out the cherries in terms of making sure that the comedy the tone and that whole vibe is translated into the game experience in several different ways. We have parts of it in gameplay. We have interesting things and fun nods to it, like in a fistfight where you take down a guard with a finishing move, Indiana shakes his hand and he’s like, oh, my knuckles are hurting.
We have a lot of it represented in cutscenes, dialogue, and how the narrative is written. We’ve been trying heavily to incorporate those aspects throughout the entire game experience, not only in cutscenes and narrative but also in gameplay and the minute-to-minute gameplay, basically.
I think that is also part of this whole transition into something that is much more matinee, like I mentioned before. Just going from something that is very action heavy and to focus on something that is more adventure heavy. Internally, we even call this machine games adventure to still have some of that action in there because we still have action in there And quite a lot of focus on the story itself, but also everything that involves these great adventures for visiting cool places around the world.
You get to explore these hidden temples that have been closed for thousands of years, bypass deadly traps, and then encounter a lot of cool and colorful characters from different cultures around the world. It’s very adventure focused and I think that is the big difference for us as a studio. You will see a lot of that in the experience when you play the game, that it’s something rather unique for us.
How big are the environments in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and are there secrets to find off the beaten path within them?
Axel Torvenius: We can say that this is by far the biggest game MachineGames has made so far. We have some sections of the game that are more open and some that are more linear. But the sections that are more open allow for a lot of exploration, and we have much content to explore that is not only tied to the golden path and the story path. There are plenty of opportunities to explore the environment and find secrets and hidden things. You will see there is a lot in there.
What was your approach to figuring out the perfect ratio of action to more methodical moments of exploration and puzzle-solving?
Jerk Gustafsson: Also a very good question. I think the starting point for us was to try to just ignore the shooting part because we know it so well, and we know that we can do it well. So it’s never something that would concern us. We know that we can get that right.
Very early on, we did this pie chart with different types of experiences, everything from stealth to hand-to-hand combat, navigation, and traversals, especially including with, which is so important for a brand like this and started to focus on those things that we knew were going to be very challenging, especially in first person, like the game is played in with hand-to-hand and the whip combat. That was our starting point. Start with and focus on the things that we know would be difficult to develop first and then move back to the more easy stuff later.
Did you ever think of making Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in third person view, or was the goal always first person?
Jerk Gustafsson: No, it was always first. That might sound weird, and I totally understand also that it’s unexpected for a game like this, but for us it’s just such an obvious choice. We have been working with first-person games for over 20 years. I just realized that it was like 20 years ago now since we released Riddick. So it’s something that is very much part of our DNA. It’s too important for us in the way we make games.
In general, for me, it’s all about presence, and I think presence also leads to the immersion that we’re looking for. When it comes to a character like Indiana Jones, I want to play and be the character. I want to look and explore the world through his eyes.
For me, that’s a very important part of everything we do here, so it was a very easy choice. We also mix in some third-person elements here. We have very much gone back to our own history with games like Riddick and The Darkness, where we also mixed first-person and third-person perspectives. Everything is not in first person, even though the core experience is.
I think we have taken the path that we felt very secure in taking, but also a path that makes this type of game very unique, especially since we draw so much inspiration from the old classic point and click games as well and focus so much on the immersive adventure part.
Axel Torvenius: I just want to add that there’s a great opportunity here as well for us because we do have a large section of the game that is about mystery, about solving puzzles, it’s being up front and close to ancient relics, ruins, and scriptures. There is an intimacy to the adventure in the sense that you get really up close and can really inspect things, which is actually pretty nice how it plays out in the game now.
You mentioned Riddick. Many dev team members worked on it before forming MachineGames. Was Escape from Butcher Bay a direct influence on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?
Jerk Gustafsson: In a way, yes. We did a game before Riddick, but Riddick was the first game where we really started to create this formula that we continue to work based on with strong character-driven storytelling mixed with a lot of variation in gameplay.
Even though everything from Riddick forward has been very focused on very mature, violent stories, and high intensity action, it’s still very much what we want to do, even with this game. It’s just that it shifts the tone quite drastically towards something that is much more matinee and that has been rather refreshing and nice for the team and fun for the team to work on. We feel very happy about where we are, but yes, Riddick was absolutely an inspiration for this game, too.
Will there be separate difficulty scaling for puzzles versus combat?
Jerk Gustafsson: Yes. We do have the option to tune down or lower the, I wouldn’t say, make it easier but in a way, the complexity of the puzzles can be reduced a little bit for difficulty settings.
We will also, of course, have some options when it comes to difficulty in general. We call the setting the, you have the action experience that you can tune difficulty on, and then you also have the adventure experience where you can tune the difficulty on, and puzzles are part of the adventure experience. We like to think that we give the players more options than we have ever done before in our games, so that’s fun, too.
Can you speak to how difficult the puzzles might be in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle? Or are there any puzzles if they’re too difficult? Are there hints given if needed?
Jerk Gustafsson: It’s also a pretty good question because I’m one of those guys who doesn’t really like very difficult puzzles. I like to just enjoy the experience and don’t be so challenged by them. But with that said, we do have a mix because I like a lot of variation and it’s not like we have, some unique puzzle mechanic that just goes across the entire game. We try to do and create every puzzle in a very, in a different, unique way.
We have those big set piece or hero puzzles that are very much part of the main storyline. But, like Axel talked about, providing a lot of different content and a lot of optional content as well to players also allow us to do a number of, and quite a lot of them actually, these more challenging puzzles as well, but they are all optional when it comes to that level of challenge. But those who are looking for puzzles that can be hard to solve will also be happy.
How dynamic will missions be? Can you choose to go in guns blazing, use stealth, or a mix of both?
Axel Torvenius: We’ve been trying to push to make sure that you should first try to use your wits and your whip to some extent to look at the environment and think and understand that there are optional ways of coming through obstacles. The only solution in this game is absolutely not to shoot your way through. You can potentially, in some scenarios, do that, but it’s very dangerous in this game to fire a gun. It’s dangerous to be shot at, and it’s dangerous to shoot at.
We are trying to push the balance. You can use a gun, but we are balancing it towards more about being clever, how you solve a situation and how you navigate around an enemy rather than through them. It’s funny actually, because in the beginning of the project, especially within the team and going back to everybody so used to do guns blazing, everybody was very concerned that, because I also want to allow and give the players the ability to do everything they have at disposal, so I never want to prevent the player to use their gun or the revolver in this case, and there was a lot of concern about that. ‘Yeah, but players will just shoot your way through’. But given the focus, we had on everything else, especially the hand-to-hand, which also we use Riddick as a reference for.
In many ways, it moved us into a game now where we see people playing who rarely use the weapons, so that’s very interesting to see, actually. It is stealth and hand to hand combat and the whip that is to go to. And that makes me very happy, but you, as a player, have a choice.
You can do pretty much whatever you want as long as you have the tools. There are many scenarios where it can come through an environment without using guns at all just by sneaking and stealth and being smart about how you are progressing. I like to see the whip as a good entry point to combat. Then you do the hand-to-hand stuff, and then if you really get cornered, yes, then maybe you can pull it off.
Can you speak to the rough gameplay length of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?
Jerk Gustafsson: Without mentioning specific hours in play length, what we can say is that this is by far the biggest game we’ve done at MachineGames. If you are exploring and doing everything and looking at all the content and playing out all the activities and missions, you will have your handful of hours to get through, that’s for sure.
It depends on the player’s style. If you’re just running through the golden path and the story beats, then, of course, it will be shorter, but if you play everything, there’s a lot of content in this game.
Yeah, it’s big. Even if you just run through the storyline, it’s still longer than any game we have done before. We’re quite happy with it.
Will we have big side missions during Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?
Jerk Gustafsson: Yes, there will be a lot of different things or activities you can do. We also have this mix, like Axel was talking about earlier, of more linear missions combined with these bigger open areas. Usually, how they are constructed is that it’s good to do one or two of these side missions within the open areas to continue towards the main story path. But those missions are still rather long, and it’s a matter of hours, not minutes.
Can you describe your working relationship with Lucasfilm Games? Did you visit their headquarters and look through the Indiana Jones archives?
Axel Torvenius: The experience with Lucasfilm Games has been super cool. We’ve been very excited from the get go to have the opportunity to work with them and work closely with them because that’s what we’ve been doing.
We’ve been having regular weekly meetings throughout the entire production with representatives of each department within Lucasfilm. That has been an extremely treasured resource when it comes to seeking their expertise. and vetting some of the designs that we’ve been working on to make sure that we were on track and on the path of selling the correct version of Indiana Jones, which is also, of course, the one that we want to push.
We have not been traveling physically, but we have had access to Lucasfilm archives. As nerds and fans of the IP, it’s been extremely cool and privileged to be able to browse through old behind-the-scenes photos and weird concept art that you never thought existed, etc. From Raiders and the early movies.
What was the process of balancing the expectations of an iconic character and franchise while also telling a unique story in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?
Jerk Gustafsson: Oh, that’s also a good question. I don’t really know. We have been working with characters based on movies and franchises for a long time and we have been finding a way. You evolve them into something that we feel is our own. Obviously, Indiana Jones is a little bit different because it’s such a well-known and iconic character, so that vault of knowledge that Lucasfilm possesses is very, has been very useful for us. But I wouldn’t say that it has impacted us in any way when it comes to the work we do to create a good story.
I think what we set out to do from the beginning was also something that Axel was talking about earlier. We wanted to continue the story arc of this character that everybody learned to love from Raiders of the Lost Ark and then just take it from there. We have this gap between Raiders and The Last Crusade that is very interesting to us where we can find and fit this great circle of story in the timeline. But the process of working through a story and how we write the story has been pretty similar to what we have done before.
It’s more about finding the tone to align with our ambition to try to fit it with these movies from the eighties and at the same time, the time it takes place in, 1947, with a more pulpy feeling. That combination mix has been a very good and interesting foundation, I would say, for our story, so we are extremely happy with it. Also, of course, we want to thank Todd Howard in many ways for bringing it to us because the whole great circle idea and building the story around that phenomenon was originally an idea from Todd Howard.
Speaking of the movies, what are y’all’s favorite Indiana Jones movies, and what film do you think the Great Circle is closest in tone to?
Axel Torvenius: For me, it’s easy. It’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. childhood.
Jerk Gustafsson: Yeah, it’s also our main reference point for the game. But I would still say Last Crusade because I also like that generation gap, and I like that part with River Phoenix and Sean Connery. There are also great actors there. So it’s just more of this great matinee adventure for me. And I really love that, so I would say Last Crusade.
Can you speak to the casting of Troy Baker and Indy in any direction to make him sound more like Harrison Ford?
Axel Torvenius: We are extremely happy that we have Troy. The first time I heard the test lines coming through, I thought, okay, this is the reference material. But no, it was actually Troy Baker. So we’ve been very happy that he’s delivering as well as he does. I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing a better job.
Jerk Gustafsson: He’s also a super big Indie fan, and he’s been extremely supportive and helpful as well. He even joins our blockhouse shoots here in the studio before the big shoots. That just shows his passion. It’s been a great experience working with Troy.
Will there be snakes?
Jerk Gustafsson: Yes.
Thank you for your time.
