The Wolfenstein studio's design director says the team tried "so many designs" to stop players from going full run-and-gun in The Great Circle, including GTA-style star levels. The fix it found instead was a frying pan, and it's why the game feels so much like Indy.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the best games Xbox has published in years, and it turns out it nearly played like a five-star rampage through Vice City. MachineGames design director Jens Andersson revealed that the studio was so worried players would just grab a gun and mow down every Nazi in sight that it tested a Grand Theft Auto style wanted system to punish them for it.
“We had so many designs to try and get around that,” Andersson said on the FRVR Podcast. “For example, a GTA star level system when you shoot someone and reinforcements [start] coming in. Because we were so afraid that this would be the default thing that the player would do. They take down a guy, they see a gun on the floor, and they clear the whole area with just guns.”
Picture that for a second. Indy fires one shot, a star lights up, and the whole dig site sends a convoy after him. Funny, but that’s not Indiana Jones. That’s Tommy Vercetti in a fedora.
A team of Wolfenstein gun lovers making a family adventure
The problem makes total sense when you remember who made this game. MachineGames is the Wolfenstein studio, the team behind dual-wielding shotguns and some of the goriest shooting on Xbox. “Especially since MachineGames’ pedigree of Wolfenstein, coming into making Indiana Jones with a team primed to make more gore with heavy weapons, running and gunning,” Andersson said. “And then: ‘Oh, we’re going to make a family friendly adventure.’ That was very tough.”
Making guns bad wasn’t an option, either. “That was non-negotiable because we have a lot of people at Machine that love guns,” Andersson said, adding that some of them compete in shooting professionally. “We can’t make gunplay bad, that wouldn’t have been acceptable.” In the final game, as he put it, “a headshot still needs to kill, more or less.” The studio slowed down reloading instead, so smacking the nearest guard is usually faster than topping off your revolver.
The fix was a frying pan
The real answer showed up late. MachineGames filled every room with breakable improvised weapons, from cast-iron pans and wrenches to mandolins, violins and even a fly swatter, and made sneaking up and clobbering someone easy to get into. “The whole breakable weapons system got in very late, but when we saw how effective it was, that’s when we started putting all this weird stuff in,” Andersson said. He called the result “a little slapsticky, but not slapstick.”
He’s honest that not everyone loved it. “We penalised shooting so much in that game. I know a lot of people are frustrated about that, but many more people love it,” he said. “So people choose it over guns, even when guns can be more effective.”
That’s the right call, and it’s a big reason The Great Circle works. Indy has always been the guy who survives on a whip, his fists and whatever’s lying around, not the guy who clears a room with a Luger. A GTA wanted meter would have punished you for playing wrong. Breakable frying pans make you want to play right. Carrots beat sticks, and MachineGames found the carrot.
Indiana Jones with a GTA wanted system. Would it have worked?
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Why this matters for Wolfenstein 3
The timing is perfect. Just two days ago, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed that Xbox exclusive Wolfenstein 3 is officially in production at MachineGames. Andersson’s story tells you this team doesn’t just know how to make guns feel great. It knows when to rein them in and build a whole combat system around a character’s personality. Bring that design brain back to BJ Blazkowicz, a guy who has never once been told to put the shotgun down, and Xbox fans should be very excited.
It’s also a fun bit of trivia for GTA week. With Grand Theft Auto VI arriving November 19, it’s a reminder of how much Rockstar’s star system has shaped game design for decades, even inside a Bethesda studio in Sweden that ended up throwing it out.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is out now on Xbox Series X|S, PC and PS5. Should MachineGames have kept the GTA stars? Vote below.
Image: MachineGames / Bethesda Softworks
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