The Darkness and Chronicles of Riddick lead designer joins MachineGames' Indiana Jones

Jens Andersson, lead designer on Starbreeze Studios' acclaimed shooters The Darkness and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, has joined Wolfenstein developer MachineGames to serve as design director on its highly anticipated Indiana Jones and The Great Circle.

The new Indiana Jones game was unveiled early last year, although details were limited. It was described as featuring an "original story" unconnected to the upcoming Indiana Jones 5, with Bethesda's Todd Howard executive producing in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games.

Andersson, who also helped create Eurogamer favourite Yoku's Island Express, announced he'd joined as design director on the "very special" Indiana Jones project in a statement shared on Twitter (thanks VGC), explaining, "I'm so excited about what we are building, and the way we get to do it - featuring one of [the] most iconic characters ever."

As Andersson points out, though, this isn't his first tangle with Lucasfilm's beloved archaeologist; he was previously hired by LucasArts as lead designer on the company's own Indiana Jones game back in 2009, but that project was cancelled "before [he] even got there".

"Now, I get a chance to do what I [originally] hoped to," his statement continued, "but this time I get to do it with some of my oldest and best friends. Joining MachineGames is like coming home - amazing people I worked with during Riddick and Darkness, but also teeming with new ones, whose talent daily blow me away".

According to VGC, Andersson will work alongside creative director Axel Torvenius – who previously worked as art director on the Wolfenstein titles – and Jerk Gustafsson, who is executive producing for MachineGames.

While details on the studio's Indiana Jones game remain slim (despite fan efforts to pick its teaser trailer apart for clues), Bethesda's Todd Howard touched on the project earlier this week. Describing it a "definite love letter" to the movies on the Lex Fridman Podcast, Howard said, "It is a mashup. It isn’t one thing, intentionally, it does a lot of different things that we...have wanted to do in a game so, it’s a unique thing".