Video game combat has a lot of components that need to work in tandem for players to feel the satisfaction of a visceral hit, and that's why Indiana Jones and the Great Circle developer MachineGames has set out to ensure that everything comes together to make the fist-fighting feel impactful.
Speaking to Edge magazine, design director Jens Andersson recalls how the team at MachineGames worked on first-person fist-fighting 20 years ago. "This isn't the first time this team has entered the arena of first-person fist-fighting. Back when the foundational core of MachineGames worked at Starbreeze, they won acclaim doing the same with The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay."
He goes on to say "It's really hard." Harder than they felt it should have been, in fact. "We've done this before - we should know how to do it." Yet in the two decades since that game, "the bar has been raised considerably."
Technology has evolved rapidly in the two decades since MachineGames attempted this combat style, so the team had to work hard at getting every component correct. The team didn't have to worry about this as much with The Chronicles of Riddick because "the expectation wasn't there."
Discussing everything that goes on around the punch to build a believable sequence of events, Audio Director Pete Ward adds: "It's not just the punch sound, it's their comedy yelp and the helmet falling off. We sequence those moments out so that you get a punch sound exactly when it happens, and then hear the reaction slightly later to give the punch sound room to breathe."
20 years is a long time, but MachineGames seems dedicated to crafting the best version of fisticuffs it can.
If you're looking for more information, check out everything we know so far about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
