Todd Howard's Influence on Indiana Jones and The Great…

There’s no denying that Bethesda’s Todd Howard is one of the most well-known auteurs in the game industry. His newest credit is on MachineGames’ new Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a dream come true for the Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Starfield icon. Howard tried to pitch an Indiana Jones game back in 2009, but it fell through. 15 years later, that journey is now complete and the game ships soon.

In a recent interview, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle executive producer Jerk Gustafsson spoke to The Best War Games about the role Howard played in the game’s development and how the final project compares to Howard’s initial pitch. Overall, a lot of the core idea comes from Todd Howard, who also served as an executive producer on the title, but a lot of it was also empowering MachineGames to do what MachineGames does best: make astounding games with strong stories.

Todd Howard’s Dream Indiana Jones Game

Howard’s Indiana Jones idea has long focused on the concept of the titular Great Circle. In navigation, a Great Circle is a plotting of the shortest distance between two points on a globe. Because the Earth is round (technically an oblate spheroid), the shortest distance isn’t a line, but rather an arc. Howard was interested in the idea of creating a Great Circle between some of the greatest wonders of the world and trying to understand the significance of the fact that this Great Circle would bisect the Earth.

While it's normal for games to change drastically throughout development, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle hews very close to the original pitch, explained Gustafsson. Though MachineGames did work with both Howard and Lucasfilm Games to expand the core pitch to a full Indiana Jones experience. As Gustafsson explained,

Todd had long nurtured this idea of a story around this mysterious Great Circle, and we developed the story in-house at MachineGames in collaboration with Todd based on his idea. Very early on, we decided to use Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark as our key reference, and we used the statement “we want you to feel like Indiana Jones” as the number one development goal…We don’t usually make those big changes, to be honest. Once we have gone through writing that first story synopsis, we tend to be very good at sticking to our plan.

The changes MachineGame made throughout the game’s development tended to be more detail-oriented, changing small parts of the game to better breathe within the whole, rather than anything major or foundational to Howard’s initial concept. One notable change, though, is Troy Baker's role as Indiana Jones. While Howard did not initially want to cast him for the role, Baker's performance during blind tests impressed everyone. And based on everything seen so far, it seems like it was the right call.

Overall, this is the result of a game Howard has fantasized about, to some degree, since 2009. Finally, Howard and MachineGames get to tell the story about what is behind the titular Great Circle and the significance of the way world wonders align. Though Howard has long strived to make this game a reality, it came as something of a surprise to MachineGames, best known for the Wolfenstein games. Gustafsson recounted the feelings he had when approached by Howard to craft an Indiana Jones experience.

Our friendship and respect for each other have grown over the years as sister studios under the ZeniMax umbrella. I still must admit, though, that I was quite surprised when Todd asked me if we would be interested in developing a new Indiana Jones game. Surprised, but also deeply honored. For many of us here at MachineGames, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark was one of those magic childhood movie moments, and getting the opportunity to work with a character like Indiana Jones was mind-blowing, to say the least.

As a result of MachineGames’ dedication, along with Howard’s own, players are finally going to uncover the mystery of the titular Great Circle and see the vision Howard and the development team had for such an iconic character.

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