Indiana Jones And The Great Circlewill be a family-friendly game that won’t allow players to hurt any dogs, according to the devs. The new Indiana Jones game is planned for a December 9 release and is being developed by MachineGames. The team is also working on aWolfensteintitle, but the developers assure fans that the two titles couldn’t be more different.
Speaking toIGN, Jens Andersson, Design Director at MachineGames, says that the team set out to make a family-friendly experience. As part of that, players won’t be able to make Indy shoot the dogs: “We made it so you can’t shoot the dog directly…[Indiana Jones] is a dog person.“Andersson references the very different way thatWolfensteinhandles dog enemies, “where the dog will explode.”
How Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Plans To Keep Things Family-Friendly
The Game Is Meant To Be “A Little Bit Scary”
There are dog enemies inIndiana Jones and the Great Circle,but according to Andersson, “You don’t really hurt the dogs. You scare them away.” This is just one of the ways in which the dev team ismaking the Indiana Jones game accessible for all ages while still keeping things exciting.
Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Preview: Like Stepping Into The Movies
At the heart of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a wealth of strong world-building and a natural chance to embrace Indiana Jones' stealthy side.
Executive Producer of Lucasfilm Games Craig Derrick adds on to how the game doesn’t take anyone playing it outside their comfort level: “You’ll feel like it’s a little bit scary and still in the safest possible way.” There are no jump scares, according to Derrick, though the game does occasionally have “the creepy crawlies” and tense moments with Indiana facing dangers. Overall, though,the game strives to be an authentic experience where certain conflicts can be resolved in non-lethal ways.
Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Shows Games Can Be Thrilling Without Making Players Uncomfortable
Games Don’t Always Have To Push Player Boundaries
When I first playedPortal,I spent a full 10 minutes trying unsuccessfully to save the inanimate Companion Cube. Some games, likePortal,play with players' emotions, forcing them to make difficult decisions. Other games, likeWolfenstein,are so absurdly violent that they desensitize players to horrendous notions like exploring dogs.Indiana Jones and the Great Circleseems to havefound a great middle ground, allowing players to make choices that aren’t morally ambiguous just because they can.
The team could have easily made players able to just shoot the threat (in this case, the dogs) and be done with it. But the fact that they took the time to make sure no dogs have to be hurt shows a level of sensitivity that isn’t always present in games today.Indiana Jones And the Great Circlewill be available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members when it launches on December 9. The title will alsocome to PS5 in Spring 2025.
