Indiana Jones Game Devs Discuss the Mystery and Characters at the Heart of The Great Circle

Upcoming action-adventure title Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an all-new adventure for the treasure-hunting professor. After his encounter with the Ark of the Covenant but before his search for the Holy Grail, Indy visits a series of sacred sites around the world to uncover the strange mystery behind the titular “Great Circle” before his Axis Powers foes can. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which is developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks, recreates the feel of a classic Indiana Jones adventure while telling an all-new story with new characters, mysteries, locations, and more.

Game Rant recently spoke with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle creative director Axel Torvenius and lead narrative designer Tommy Tordsson Björk about the game’s characters and setting. They discussed Indy’s new ally Gina Lombardi and rival Emmerich Voss, the decision to set the game between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade, and how actor Troy Baker worked to faithfully recreate Harrison Ford’s iconic performance using state-of-the-art motion capture technology. This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Recreating Indiana Jones’ Iconic Image In Video Game Form

Q: When it comes to recreating Indiana Jones, could you talk a little bit about how you started this process? Was a close recreation of Harrison Ford’s face always the plan?

TORVENIUS: Yes, the plan was always to go with as close and accurate likeness as we possibly could! We were never interested in doing a “new” look for Indiana. Thanks to the close collaboration with Lucasfilm Games, we had access to their archive where we could see great turnaround images from the old movie sets. Those photographs paired up with many, many more photos of Harrison Ford from that time, helped and informed the character artist to build out the 3D mesh and sculpt of the head.

We then have a very complicated rig that drives the mesh and mesh deformation of the face, thanks to the brilliant work by engineers and technical animators. This rig gets fed with the data from the full performance motion capture, in this case specifically the data gathered from the HMC (head-mounted camera) on the actor, in this case Troy Baker.

Troy had his face covered in small dots (markers that are applied as make-up) and when Troy’s then reading lines and doing the facial expressions, mimicking a young Harrison Ford – all that got translated into and applied to the in-engine mesh of Harrison Ford. So Troy Baker is not only doing a great likeness with his voice, but he is also moving his eyes, his head, and all other types of facial expression to make it look and sound like Harrison Ford. And it’s also important to remember, while Troy Baker is doing all of that with just his voice and head, he is also at the same/ most of the time, in a tight motion capture suit with markers on it, acting out full scenes and most of the time interacting with a counter actor or actress.

Q: Likewise, how did you approach ensuring that his personality lined up in The Great Circle? Were there any pillars of his personality you identified and began from?

TORVENIUS: We ensured that by looking at and dissecting how he is portrayed in the 80s movies, and then trying to sort out and categorize his characteristics – what is it that makes Indiana Jones Indiana? Quite quickly, you find a couple of key traits that stand out as important. He is charming, resourceful, a bit clumsy and he is very human. We usually refer to him as a superhero but with no superpowers. He also can become quite passionate, almost obsessed – and then, of course, there is humor in there.

A very important part of his character is also the hat and the whip. They instantly inform the viewer of which character we are dealing with, so it has been extremely important to get those two key components just right! The hat and whip are almost characters of their own in a sense. If you mix all of that up with overgrown and forgotten temples, intricate puzzles, satisfying combat, and a really captivating story – you will have a very solid Indiana Jones adventure.

Great Circle Includes New Allies And Foes For Indiana

Q: Very little has been revealed about Gina Lombardi so far. She is a resistance journalist with a personal stake in The Great Circle. What can you tell us about her personality, her relationship with Indy, and what she adds to the title from a gameplay perspective?

BJÖRK: Gina is someone who always tells it like she sees it, which may explain why she’s such a good journalist. This habit of not skirting around the truth is also what got her into major trouble, sending her to prison, and eventually becoming part of the underground resistance against the Fascists in Italy.

Indy and Gina team up while undercover in the Vatican, both with an interest in the same case but approaching it from totally different points of view. Gina’s sister is an expert in dead languages, and she’s been missing for some time now. Gina suspects that Emmerich Voss is behind her disappearance, who also happens to be searching for the secret of The Great Circle – something that Indy is keen to get to the truth about.

Gina will follow the player along as a companion for a large part of the main adventure and some of the side adventures, providing help during puzzle interactions and lending a hand when the two get into trouble with Voss’ stooges. For Gina, this is a matter that is as close to the heart as it comes. She and her sister have always had a strong bond, growing up in sometimes harsh conditions, but determined to do something useful with their lives – one pursuing the mysteries of history and the other pursuing the truth about the world.

Q: What can you tell us about Emmerich Voss and his life before The Great Circle mystery? How does he serve as an effective villain for Indy?

BJÖRK: Voss has been in charge of the Third Reich Special Antiquities Collection division of SS for the last three years, and he is very familiar with Indy and his work, their paths having crossed many times before this. After some revealing finds in North Africa led him in pursuit of the deeper truth behind the phenomenon referred to as “The Great Circle”, Voss has been getting increased funding to perform digs all over the world in the hope of finding something of great power that could benefit the Reich.

Voss has a keen interest in psychoanalysis, drawing inspiration from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and other pioneers of the field. He uses these analytical skills to seek out mental flaws in others and use them to his advantage, trying to push sensitive buttons to destabilize his opponents. Because that is what other people are to Voss – opponents in some great game that he has to win. And Indy is his most formidable opponent so far. Winning the race to find the truth about the Great Circle before Indy does is his personal obsession, one that he will go to great lengths to achieve.

Q: What can you tell us about the research, design, and role of the Axis Powers in Indiana Jones and The Great Circle?

TORVENIUS: There is a globally spanning threat throughout the game. Sinister enemy factions have joined forces and are racing to find some mysterious artifacts, and it is up to Indiana Jones to stop them! Obviously, a lot of meticulous research has gone into studying uniforms and insignias from the time and era of the 1930s, trying to make sure we are as close and accurate as we possibly can when visually representing the enemies.

Sometimes it’s hard to be 100% accurate due to gameplay reasons such as clear visual differentiations between different enemies or, when we need to convey a certain type of game mechanics or behaviors an enemy has. But most of the time, we take great pride in getting as close to historical accuracy as we can. The process for this was through research, concept art and sketches, and lots of photos for reference for the 3D character art team. A lot of these designs have also been going through eternal partners to make sure authenticity is where it needs to be.

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle’s Place In The Series Timeline

Q: The Great Circle takes place between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. What would you say are the biggest pros and cons of working within this narrative constraint/box?

BJÖRK: Placing the story between Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade really helped us to quickly establish the vantage point from where we took Indy as a character through this journey and where he ends up when the Last Crusade begins. It helped us define a lot of his personal storyline and themes, which echo from both films – his relationship with Marion and his relationship with his largely absent father.

I wouldn’t say we ever felt there was a negative aspect to placing the story in that timeline slot. And with the support from Lucasfilm Games, together we all felt it helped strengthen the adventure and the narrative.

Q: Based on the timeline, you are also filling in an area of time the movies did not account for. When adding new things to the franchise, what was your approach to making sure it felt just right for Indy?

BJÖRK: First and foremost, we always had Indy as a character in mind whenever we made story decisions. For us, no other aspect of the world of Indy is as important as Indy and his passion for archaeology and adventure, and that’s what we hoped to bring forth even more and explore other sides of. So, making it about adventure first was one aspect of that. Indy is an explorer. We want to discover new things, wonder at the silent voices from the past that echo in the forgotten architecture of lost civilizations or in the relics and artifacts of artisans long gone.

Second of all, adding that layer of mystery and hint of the supernatural at the edge of reality. That unknown, powerful thing that you can barely perceive is there. That is something that makes Indy larger than real life, something that amplifies the adventure and heightens the stakes.

The third aspect was getting that same sense of humor and matinée feeling, mixed with the heart and humanity that is always present in the movies. And that comes a lot from character interactions, not only between Indy and his friends but between his enemies too, especially his rival Voss, who really wants to outshine him.

Q: Marshall College is a key location in the franchise too. Can you walk us through your work on recreating it in the game? Were there any areas you had to take some liberties?

TORVENIUS: Hours and hours of looking at the scenes portraying Marshall College! A lot of work went into recreation maps, sketches, and wall art. And recreating some of the more iconic rooms, like the classroom, for example, required a lot of attention from the environment artists. Getting all the details right, down to the apple. At the same time, we have a lot of gameplay and navigation in the level, so we needed to make sure the level could support exploration while looking and feeling you are actually playing in Marshall College.

The Game’s Central Mystery – What Is A “Great Circle?”

Q: What can you tell us about the central mystery of The Great Circle?

BJÖRK: So, “Great Circles” are actual navigational terms used for plotting the shortest distances between two points on the globe. According to Britannica.com, a great circle route is the “shortest course between two points on the surface of a sphere.” The equator and meridians crossing over the north and south poles are also great circles.

The Great Circle in our story is made when drawing a line between the greatest wonders of the world. The thing that tickles the imagination is that they all line up to at least within one tenth of one degree. And if you cut the earth in two using the circle, you would get two perfect halves.

This is the mystery of the Great Circle in our adventure – why do these sites align with each other, what deeper connections exist between them, and for what reason? Voss seems to believe there is a great power to be found in this mystery, a power that can be used by the Reich in their claim to world domination. Indy is driven by his usual obsession with the past but, of course, also to stop the enemy from getting what they’re after.