"Stay true to your gut": Indiana Jones and the Great Circle dev on making a successful adventure for such an iconic hero

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle arrived towards the end of last year, but 2025 has been big for Machine Games' globe-trotting adventure. As well as drawing in waves of new players after landing on the PS5 back in April, the famous archaeologist also drew us into a fresh mystery with the release of The Order of the Giants DLC in September. Capped off with nominations at The Game Awards and the Golden Joysticks, Indy's latest video game adaptation continues to shine as bright as its many glittering artifacts.

Creative director Axel Torvenius says he feels an "overwhelming sense of joy" at seeing the positive reception that began last Christmas continue, with longtime players and newcomers showing love for the studio's take on the iconic character.

"Sometimes it's almost like you learn things about your own game by watching fans of the franchise, or people that are very devoted to make sure that they are 100% completionists, and all of that," Torvenius says. "Like the things people manage to find that you yourself almost have forgotten! It's like, 'Oh yes, we did add that'. Just how people pick up on the tiniest details and are trying to do everything. So it's been a really lovely experience to just continue to follow the reception."

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Becoming Indiana Jones

There really is a lot of love out there for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and the way Machine Games allows us to embody the famous character has a lot to do with that. In fact, I've been reflecting back on my own experience, and why it's become one of my favorite adventure games. I was actually one of the many players who tucked into the Great Circle for the first time in April, but I still catch myself thinking about the very beginning of the game.

As soon as I realized I'd been planted right into a recreation of the famous opening to Raiders of the Lost Ark, I practically jumped out of my seat with excitement. While it might have felt like an obvious choice to some, it was like a childhood dream come true for me – because almost right away, I felt like I'd stepped directly into a movie that I was completely obsessed with as a kid.

Speaking with Torvenius about the reasoning behind this opening, it's clear that was absolutely the intended effect, but it was about setting expectations for the kind of journey we were about to embark on.

"There were definitely things we tried to do with that [the opening] that was like a deliberate choice," Torvenius says. "We kind of wanted to make sure that you feel like you're really getting into the shoes of Indiana Jones as soon as possible. And you can do that in many different ways, but one very efficient way is obviously to literally put you in the shoes of Indiana Jones in the memorable moment which everyone will know."

While Torvenius says it could be argued that it's quite a "slow and boring start" since you're going through the jungle at walking speed, the team never saw it that way. As you see Barranca and Sapito, MachineGames is "setting the mood", with Torvenius adding that "we never felt that we needed to start the game with you punching someone in the face and running down a corridor and jumping onto a boat and then disappearing in a puff of smoke."

"We really felt that setting the expectation, both in terms of style and our attention to detail and love for the original IP, and then also, to some extent, set the expectation for pace," Torvenius says. "Because I think that the whole opening kind of reflects the overarching pace of the game. There is a lot of walking and talking and thinking and picking up things and lifting a log and crawling under."

Of course, there are also "highly crafted cut scenes and interactions", with its fair share of action and ambience, too. With Torvenius adding that "all of these things kind of collided in a positive way" to "capture a miniature version of the game to some extent [...]but also push one of the most iconic scenes ever made in the film industry, maybe in the adventure genre."

Who is Indiana Jones?

One thing that the MachineGames team is no stranger to is the idea of finding the very human side of larger-than-life action heroes. Wolfenstein's protagonist BJ Blazkowicz is a prime example. He may be the '80s archetypal action man who guns down Nazis, but through his contemplative inner monologues, we learn about his past experiences, and there's a lot more to him that first meets the eye.

"What we always try to do is to build interesting characters," Torvenius says. "And to build an interesting character, it's not about the one liners and macho speeches and just cool, cliche things. To create the character, you need to insert depth, and that often requires the things that we know from real life, which is pain, disappointment. Life is not always great, I think everyone knows that."

"There are components in life and in these characters where they show emotional depth," Torvienus adds. "Which is in relation to things like the past, things they regret, things that could have been different, things they still ponder over or think about and are maybe longing for."

Similarly, I fell in love with the way the studio breathed life into Indiana Jones. Indy is undoubtedly cool, intelligent, and resourceful, but I love the way the Great Circle explores how his passion for knowledge can sometimes get in the way of other things. In many ways, the story for me is about Jones processing the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and more broadly, the cyclical nature of regret.

We can get so caught up in the things we did in the past that we never truly move on, which is very apparent in the side quest, Lost In the Past – where Indiana takes a surreal, hallucinogenic trip down memory lane in Marshall College that touches on his own perceived mistakes. By drawing on some of the flaws we see him exhibit in the movies, he feels both authentic and relatable.

"For Indiana Jones in this game, we kind of identified one of his character traits that you can also very clearly see in the movies, which is his obsession, and that sometimes it gets the better of him," Torvenius says. "You know, are you losing out on the love of your life because you are so obsessed with your career, or like this certain thing that you need to solve or find? There are a lot of those things that it plays in. And together, I think that helps create something which some people maybe can relate to."

Following the vision

One of the most memorable moments in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was its unexpected dip into the realms of horror. At the very end of the section in Gizeh, you have to venture below a pyramid where you'll face a blindfolded giant who stalks you in the darkness.

I personally found it very unsettling, but it got me talking with the team here at GamesRadar+ about what it would be like to see MachineGames make a full fat horror game someday. Naturally I had to ask Torvenius about that particular moment and what he made of our idea.

"I think that there are things specifically in Raiders of the Lost Ark that scared the shit out of me as a kid," Torvenius says. "A lot like those weird '80s movies did, I think Gremlins is also one of those examples. And ET as well, there are moments in ET where you get scared because it's super surreal and not fun at all. And I think that's the beauty of some '80s cinema: they are splicing in horror topics and eeriness and difficult matters in a children's movie. And that's cool, that's part of building that kind of [unsettling] sensation."

"And we definitely see that in Raiders of the Lost Ark. You know, there are things in there that should be like 18 plus, almost, with scenes of gore and whatnot. So that was important to try to get in [for The Great Circle]," Torvenius adds. "But on the other hand, as well, yeah, I think if MachineGames made a horror game, it would be fantastically cool. We have a lot of horror fans on the team, and we sometimes have these game jams and it's not very uncommon that the game jam projects are some weird horror games by the devs internally."

While Torvenius can't speak on the future or confirm what's coming next – whether that be more Indiana Jones, a new Wolfenstein, or something else entirely – he does make it clear to me that whatever MachineGames turns its attention, the team will "always have this very, very strong focus on making immersive narrative games, regardless of which IP we're doing."

I would personally be ecstatic to see the studio do more with the fedora-wearing, whip cracking hero I've come to know and love so well over the years. And as a lifelong fan of the character, I think that speaks volumes about just how effectively the team brought the adventure to life. Given how iconic Indiana is, it must have been a pretty daunting task to try to create an experience around him, but Torvenius says working on the game proved that it pays to "stay true to your gut."

"Don't doubt your creativity as game devs, and stick to the vision," Tovenius says, speaking on what he learned during development. "There are many things that could have been completely different with Indiana Jones if we didn't try to stay true to what we really wanted to do. We had a very clear idea and a clear vision. And that's what we were hammering on towards."

"For Wolfenstein games, the gunplay, that's a very big beat and big component in those games. So then we stayed true to that vision, and were trying to really execute on that. On Indiana Jones, there were other things that were more important, and we tried to stay true and focus on those instead. Obviously, we're doing market analysis and trying to understand our fan base, but you should never compromise your original idea and your identity to try to please others."

Look back on the yar with our GamesRadar+ GOTY: The 25 Best Games of 2025 list.