Journal spread, Vatican October 23 1937: notes, sketch and map

About this game

Developer: MachineGames · Publisher: Bethesda Softworks · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Realistic 3D · Screen type: Encyclopedia / Codex

More Indiana Jones and the Great Circle screens in the Gallery

What to study

The Great Circle's journal is diegetic rather than a menu: quests, clues and maps live as taped-in notes, sketches and hand-annotated drawings inside a physical book Indy holds, so reading the journal never leaves the fiction. Note how the spread mixes media (typed note, pencil portrait, ink map) to make progress legible at a glance: the X-marked map is the plan, the sketch is the person to find, and the date header anchors the entry in the story. Frame captured at 0:43 in the Steam Launch Trailer.

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

diegetic-document

Components

Parts on screen.

Journal Document Map

Screen inventory

• first-person open journal held in both hands, blurred Vatican courtyard behind it
• left page headed in handwriting 'Vatican, October 23, 1937' with a pencil sketch of a bespectacled cleric and a pasted typed note
• right page: layered ephemera topped by a hand-drawn site map covered in X marks, plus a torn handwritten note addressed 'Lorenzo'
• no menu chrome, tabs or buttons: the book itself is the interface, which is the design point

Top 3 colors

#30231c 21%#ae9983 19%#957c64 18%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© MachineGames / Bethesda Softworks, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle screenshot: Launch Trailer EN (Steam), shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Bethesda Softworks.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-10-31. verified 2026-10-31: manual timed extraction at 43s from the verified-clean Steam Launch Trailer download (1920x1080, full decode to null exit 0, zero error lines); inspected visually at full resolution; journal spread, date header, sketch, typed note and X-marked map all legible; no near-duplicate in the 52 scene-change candidates (closest combined aHash+dHash distance 44/128).

no published policy found (Bethesda precedent in manifest: Prey record, checked 2026-10-21); fair-use study use, takedown honored within 48h

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.