MachineGames’ Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is a fantastic and immersive first-person adventure that truly puts you in the shoes, but more importantly, hat of Lucasfilm’s iconic treasure hunter. Indy’s iconic fedora is more than just iconography in MachineGames’ brilliant video game adaptation, but instead a fantastic game mechanic should players unlock it.
Within the game’s first major hub, players can unlock the Lucky Hat ability, a skill that allows players to grab a second wind when downed by grabbing their hat that’s been knocked to the floor. In a discussion with designer Jens Andersson, who also worked on The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, coming up with some use for Indy’s hat was a major issue during the game’s development.
In an upcoming episode of the FRVR Podcast, we asked Andersson if there were any other hat-related skills that were planned for Indiana Jones. Not only were there not, but the creation of the Lucky Hat ability was something that was added into the game during the late stages of development.
“We made it, I don’t know, it was like three-quarters into the game before we started talking about the hat being really underused,” Andersson explained. “I know from a creative and art standpoint, they use the hat a lot in cutscenes, and it wears and tears throughout the game just like the journal. But we hadn’t really found a way to leverage it in the gameplay.”
“The big pitch was, of course, it makes this game more Indiana Jones.”
Jens Andersson on the creation of Indiana Jones’ Lucky Hat skill
Andersson reveals that Jerk Gustafsson, the game director, pitched the idea of a second wind mechanic. “The fun thing with Jerk is that he can get very excited about stuff and then he just decides that we should do that. And he has the mandate to do so. So, you just say, ‘okay, let’s try it’. And then it turns out fantastically.”
While Lucky Hat is a corny ability, although not much more corny than the ability to shove fifteen pastries into Indy’s gob between fights, there was a worry it would be “too ridiculous”. There was also the technical issues where the game now has to make sure the hat is never lost “in the bushes or stuff like that” as players’ lives are now dependant on picking it up.
The designer explained that there were discussions on how the game could better utilise Indiana Jones’ hat throughout the game. “We did brainstorm additional abilities and stuff,” Andersson said. “But nothing that made it into the game… maybe it was just too late at that point because the Lucky Hat ability came in very late as well so that was a lucky, lucky feature that made it into the game.”
While there are other strong abilities to unlock in the game, Lucky Hat, and its upgraded form, is a silly, but powerful addition to the game. The ability to get one more chance, a second wind just from picking up the character’s most iconic feature, is a very fun addition, but Andersson explains that it was also essential to the game’s overall loop.
“We saw it in the game and it was like, wow, this is a very weird and crazy, but it kind of works,” he said. “And personally, I really liked it because it also fed into the whole progression system [of] unlocking new abilities and stuff. We needed more of that, we needed rewards for the player who explored and all that kind of stuff. So it was one more very important, very powerful, thing to give to the player.”
Andersson explained that “the big pitch was, of course, it makes this game more Indiana Jones”, and it could only be done with a game like Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. There is a comedic, slapstick nature to the game where a mechanic like this not only works, but feels second nature to the character.
While there are other fantastic Indiana Jones games, The Great Circle is the most Indy-feeling game around. With powerful melee combat, fantastic use of the whip, brilliant puzzles, an amazing story, and, yes, the use of the hat, it’s the best Indy game yet.
