There’s little doubt thatIndiana Jonesis one of the most beloved IPs of modern entertainment. Harrison Ford’s rugged, charming archaeologist paved the way for numerous action heroes who came after him, and the role has continued to evolve since its 1981 inception. Developer MachineGames has attempted to further evolve this role withIndiana Jones and The Great Circle, a first-person action-adventure game that puts the emphasis on the player stepping into Indy’s shoes.
Game Rant caught up with lead narrative designer Tommy Tordsson Björk, creative director Axel Torvenius, and design director Jens Andersson to delve further intothe world ofIndiana Jones and The Great Circle. They discussed level design, recreating real-world locations, and the importance of staying true to the source material.This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Bringing Indiana Jones' World to Life
Q: What can you tell us about the research and creation of real-world locales inIndiana Jones and the Great Circle, including the Vatican, Giza, Shanghai, Himalayas, etc.?
Björk:For all aspects of developing this game,making the real-world locations feel authentic, not just from a historical perspective, but for the 1930s as well, has been our main focal point when developing the story. We wanted it to feel like you’re stepping back in time and experiencing the world in the most immersive way possible, while at the same time making the game fun to play and making exploration rewarding and exciting. I think striking the balance there between where you can take actual liberties and where you need to preserve what is authentic is key to making this feel successful.
For instance, when designing the locations in Sukhothai, we started off with what the historical park looks like now, but soon realized that, in actuality,a lot of things looked entirely different in the 1930s. Basically, most of the ruins and statues that we can see clearly now were covered in vegetation and hidden by trees or just lay in pieces.
The restoration of Sukhothai was something that took a long time to complete and the experience of seeing Sukhothai now versus then must have been wildly different. However, that also made the place feel more unexplored and mysterious, which made it an even better location for the game and the adventure.
Q: How did this work differ from the more fictional elements of the franchise?
Björk:I think we couldn’t have one without the other, asmany of the fictional elements in Indiana Jones are based on real-life myths and legends, not completely made up. When exploring the more fantastical elements, we also performed research into different religions and various mythological storylines that have occurred throughout the ages and legends that have been told from various sources and make them sort of fit together with our overarching storyline about the Great Circle.
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle’s Approach to Level Design
Q: What would you say the overall direction or goal with level design is for each mission and area available inThe Great Circle? How did you decide and develop some levels to be linear and more semi-open area? What was the guiding principle for these, and how does exploration contribute to that Indy fantasy?
Andersson:We knew from the start that we wanted to create a game that had both bombastic roller coaster sections as well as areas where you can explore more freely. Having intenseaction sequences is such a big part of the movies, so we just needed good ones that worked well as a video game. These linear sections are also great for the twists and turns in the story because you can control the pacing better.
The open areas are more about serving exploration, allowing the player to roam freely and explore and discover secrets. The sense of wonder you get by finding an ancient scorpion-infested tomb in the deserts of Gizeh is much stronger if you didn’t know it was there in the first place. We wanted to encourage players who walk in the opposite direction, not only by a random collectible but by regularly giving them something more substantial, like a mystery to solve or a puzzle to tinker with.
Q: As a fan of Indiana Jones, how would you define the fantasy of stepping into his shoes?
Torvenius:With every crack of the whip, with every shot fired with his gun, with every mystery and puzzle solved, and with every punch to an enemy’s face – you should feel like Indy doing it! We have spent countless hours with so many different departments within MachineGames and Lucasfilm Games to get it right, so that it really feels, looks, sounds, and behavesas we would expect from an Indiana Jones game.
How The Great Circle Handles Combat
Q:The Great Circle’s melee combat could be described as a first-person brawler. Can you talk about the goals of combat inThe Great Circleand how it helps fulfill that Indy fantasy?
Andersson:Indy never uses his gun as a first or even second option, and we wanted that to carry across to the player. He is a brawler, but not a trained one, so the melee combat in this game is therefore intentionally chaotic, where you need to pick up and use whatever is available around you. We also wanted to have a sense of humor – it’s Indiana Jones after all! We’ve littered the game with fun and exotic items that you’re able to use in combat or in stealth. While a shovel or hammer might be most effective, it’s hard to resist picking the banjo or even the flyswatter and trying it out on the nearby goon.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about how you design a combat system that disincentivizes (but also teases players with) gunplay? How exactly do you design encounters where fists seem better?
Andersson:Guns being inherently more powerful than melee weaponswas an element of the design that we were really worried about as we started this project. We really didn’t want to steer players away from using guns, so we designed several systems trying to compensate for that with things like threat escalation systems. However, in the end, it turned out to be very simple. Enemies in this game mostly use guns only if you do something to escalate to that point. If you take a swing at someone, they are going to match that and use their hands or melee weapons to fight back, rather than pull their own gun.
Of course, if you pull your revolver yourself, they are going to respond in kind. There is also an enemy type, like the captain, that will escalate things if you are not careful. The result of this is that the player can always choose to use guns, but it’s the more dangerous playstyle.
Q: How would you describe the stealth sections ofIndiana Jones and The Great Circle? It doesn’t sound like the tried-and-true ‘it’s stealth if no one is left alive to talk about it’ approach works like it can in older stealth games (Assassin’s Creed, for example)?
Andersson:Indy infiltrating restricted areas is a big part of the fantasy, but he’s not an assassin, so it was important to us that the game felt different compared tomany other stealth-based gamesout there. While you can get around many areas using your disguise, there are plenty of places where you need to rely on stealth and work your way around the enemies or take them out.
The key point here is that there is no such thing as a fully silent takedown in this game. You normally need some sort of melee item to knock someone out with a single blow, and smashing a bottle over someone’s head is naturally going to make a sound. Sometimes that is OK, as perhaps you can disarm his companion with your trusty whip. But if that’s too dangerous, your bottle might be better used to throw somewhere to distract them.
The Importance of Puzzles in Indiana Jones and The Great Circle
Q: Puzzles have difficulty sliders and different difficulties based on their placement within the game. Can you discuss the general process for making these puzzles based on these various factors? How do you distinguish a golden path puzzle from an optional one?
Andersson:Naturally, many of the bigger puzzles are intricately tied to the story, so they can’t be optional. We’ve taken special care with those since they need to be accessible to all types of players, and we’ve made sure they support our “Light” adventure difficulty level. If you play on that one, you’ll still get to experience solving the puzzle, but it won’t require as many steps or be as challenging as the normal adventure difficulty level is. They also have a robust set of hints using the camera.
Q: One big iconic element of the Indiana Jones franchise is traps, these moments of danger Indy finds himself in — perhaps most famously the rolling boulder. How did you incorporate traps into the game? Could you speak to the complexity of a video game trap as opposed to a movie trap?
Andersson:Puzzles and traps are such cornerstones of Indiana Jones, and it’s been incredibly important to represent them well inIndiana Jones and the Great Circle. As you can imagine, the ones we see in the movie don’t really translate directly into a game, so our inspiration from the movies is primarily their look and feel. Discovering something mysterious in an ancient tomb in the desert, but riddled with critters, or something hidden in plain sight in the Vatican, but guarded by the enemy.
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