Axel Torvenius Explains Indiana Jones Switch 2 First-Person Shift
MachineGames is bringing indiana jones and the Great Circle to Nintendo Switch 2 after deciding very early that the game would stay mostly first-person. Creative director Axel Torvenius said that choice was made to put players inside Indiana Jones’ perspective, while the studio still used third-person cut scenes for the bigger story beats.
Axel Torvenius on the setup
“Very early on we set our eyes on being first-person only.” That approach shaped how the game plays on Switch 2 as well, because the studio did not treat the camera as a cosmetic choice. Traversals cut out to third person during gameplay, and the game also includes high fidelity cut scenes played out in third person.
Torvenius said MachineGames had already been developing first person games for quite some time, which made the perspective feel like a natural fit rather than a forced adaptation. The result is a design that keeps the player inside the action while using cinematic third-person moments only when the game needs a wider view.
Todd Howard pitched Lucasfilm Games
“It is due to our long-term friend Todd Howard, who had this really interesting original idea for an Indiana Jones game which he pitched to Lucasfilm Games, with MachineGames in mind as a suitable studio to develop this pitch.” Torvenius said Lucasfilm Games was excited by the idea, and MachineGames landed the project.
That origin story matters because it explains why the game feels built around a single studio’s strengths instead of being assembled after the fact for a license. MachineGames was mostly known for the Wolfenstein series for many years, so the Indiana Jones assignment also pushed the studio beyond its best-known work.
Troy Baker in the booth
“The first time I heard his audition, I actually thought it was the reference lines of the real young Harrison Ford from Indiana Jones.” Torvenius said that after the team saw and heard the audition, “the choice was easy. Troy Baker was our Indiana Jones.”
That casting call gives the project its cleanest through line: a game built to be seen through Indy’s eyes, then anchored by an actor whose audition landed close enough to the character’s original screen voice that the studio moved quickly. For a licensed game headed to Switch 2, that kind of fit is the difference between a routine port and a release that carries the same identity as the original version.
Switch 2 release approaches
The Nintendo Switch 2 version is about to arrive, and this interview sets the frame for what players will get: a first-person-heavy Indiana Jones game with third-person cut scenes, built by a studio that says it committed to that view very early. For readers deciding whether to pick it up on Nintendo’s new hardware, the main takeaway is simple — the port is arriving with the game’s core design intact, not rebuilt around a different camera style.
