Paris, France:
Harrison Ford was de-aged for the big screen last year in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” and the video game maker is using the same trick for the latest rendition of the burly hero on the small screen.
“Let me tell you what you’re missing, Dr. Jones,” a bespectacled Nazi sneers at an archeological adventurer buried neck-deep in sand in the trailer for “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.”
A few seconds later, the Nazi receives a strong headbutt, and the famous theme tune begins to play.
The game’s creators, released Monday, are taking players back to the time period of the first Indiana Jones film, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
The villains are familiar, as are the settings and decorations – ancient structures peeking out of the forest, fiery caves filled with loot, rickety rope bridges over snow-capped valleys.
And players get to inhabit the protagonist in first person, in all his youthful glory.
The creators knew that the main challenge would be to create a believable young protagonist.
And unlike the rest of the game’s cast, Indy could not be created by 3D scanning an actor.
“We never had the opportunity to travel back in time and scan a young Harrison Ford,” said Axel Torvenius, creative director at MachineGames.
Torvanius said that Ford’s characterization was pieced together with the help of unreleased archive material from the original film.
“We’re looking at photos of Harrison Ford to make sure we can see his true facial features at that time,” he said.
“The opportunity to have access to their collection to be able to create a 3D mesh of the Indiana Jones character is invaluable.”
– ‘extreme’ pressure –
The game took four years to develop, featuring archaeologists solving puzzles while being chased and engaging in fights.
Set in 1937, it follows Indy from the Vatican via Egypt to China in search of a mysterious power wanted by Nazi spies.
“The Great Circle” is far from the first game to tackle an indie story.
More than a dozen adaptations have been made over the past four decades.
Knowing full well how protective players can be of the titles they grew up with, the Swedish studio felt a huge responsibility to get the game right.
“The pressure is immense,” said Torvenius, adding that his team did their best to recreate the style and atmosphere set by director Steven Spielberg of the original film.
Game designer Jens Andersson agreed, saying that he was a big fan of the point-and-click Indiana Jones adventure games of the 1990s.
“All of these things are inspiration for what we’re doing here,” he said.
“They were a product of their time and we need to do something new with it.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
