Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2021
The Artful Escape
Developer Beethoven and Dinosaur
The Artful Escape is a platform video game developed by Beethoven & Dinosaur and published by Annapurna Interactive. The game was originally released on September 9, 2021 for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, and for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 on January 25, 2022. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
95 reactions from 2 sources (Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Sep 3, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
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| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
95 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
1,869 of 2,033 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
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Reactions
60 of 95 · most liked first2026 game #19: The Artful Escape Just played & platinumed Beethoven and Dinosaur’s hit new game! Oh wait. I mean. Their old hit new game! 🤣 For a game about music, it was actually the art style & lighting that stole the show for me so I guess, well done Violetta. A simple game, but w a lotta heart
unlabelledView post →Yeah, the longer I play video games, the more I am starting to feel like super realistic graphics are more of a gimmick than anything Like I just finished The Artful Escape Those graphics were exactly what they needed to be and the game was outstanding. It didn't need ray tracing or fluid physics
unlabelledView post →Mixtape | Summer Game Fest 2025 Trailer From the creators of The Artful Escape, coming Day One to Xbox Game Pass. Supports Xbox Play Anywhere. www.xbox.com/en-US/games/...
unlabelledView post →Looks good. Animations are simplistic. Dialogues are completely devoid of meaning. It's very slow paced and boring. The actions the player has to do to win are also completely pointless. Characters are annoying.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What's your most anticipated game of 2026? And why? I'm excited for #Mixtape. I'm glad they took the extra time, and after The Artful Escape I believe in the developer. I like stuff that's nostalgic cultural assemblage with a twist.
unlabelledView post →Balls to all this top ten shite, I want to hear about the worst game you've played since 2020. The more petty the reason for disliking it, the better. Mine is The Artful Escape AKA Shitaroo Man.
unlabelledView post →غلطتي اني دخلتها وأنا متوقعة انها لعبة رتم أوعلى الأقل لعبة موسيقية فعلًا ، اكتشفت ان القيم بلاي مو هدفهم وهي اقرب الى فلم تفاعلي عن التحرر الفني ، حتى بعد ما فهمت الفكرة كانت مملة جدا ، بصريًا أسلوبها جميل واكتشفت ان هذا الستايل الغريب اسمه سايكيدلي ، القصة فيها بعض الأفكار الحلوة عن الهوية وضغط التوقعات ومحاولة الشخص يلقى نفسه بعيد عن صورة الناس ⭐2\5
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sounds like everyone is enjoying Mixtape! I love to see it, and I can't wait to play it this weekend 🙏 If you love Mixtape, PLEASE check out Beethoven and Dinosaur's previous game, The Artful Escape, as well. It's a short 3-4 hour musical indie... with the voice of CARL WEATHERS! It's beautiful 💜
unlabelledView post →I picked this up in preparation for their new title Mixtape. ~ It's relatively short and simple from a gameplay perspective. That said, it has a wacky and interesting world; the characters, art-style and music are cohesive and believable. Has a solid message too - "Be your unique self and don't linger in someone else's shadow." Worth picking up on sale!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the most beautiful games I've ever played. I was stunned throughout. Quick synopsis: Young lad pressured to follow his late uncle's footsteps in folk music finds himself in a DMT trip like experience where he creates his own persona by shredding with aliens. It's a story driven game with light platformer and rhythm mechanics that can be completed in under 4 hours but delivers an unforgettable psychedelic adventure.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Venba Tinykin Tchia Steam World Dig 2 Until Then White Night Withering Rooms OFK Wizard With a Gun Crypt of the Necromancer The Artful Escape After Love EP Akimbot 1000 X Resist Book Walker Darkwood Fall Guys Goodbye Volcano High Lil Gator Game Blue Prince Ender Lilies The Last Campfire Moonlighter
unlabelledView post →It insists upon itself... Very beautiful game with nice music. Gameplay is a walking 2D simulator + a simplified simon says type button press music mini game. Very chill. For this and the style I give a thumbs up. And the creature design!!! But hoooooly hell the story and characters are so up their own ass that they see their own tonsils. Maybe I am getting old but the whole fake quirky rockstar schtick is so played out, so fake and so pre-packages for the average consumer that it hurts.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Still thinking about her (The Artful Escape) now I really can’t wait for Mixtape later this year 😭 More thoughts on this game coming up on @playalong.bsky.social later this month!
unlabelledView post →“A short, almost dreamlike experience.” The team behind The Artful Escape are back with #Mixtape, a John Hughes-inspired, music-driven coming-of-age game — available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Switch 2. Read our ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review: www.empireonline.com/gaming/revie...
unlabelledView post →Mixtape drops tomorrow from the creators of The Artful Escape, which I loved so much. It will most likely be my next game after my replay of FF IV. Looking forward to seeing what moots think of it 🙏
unlabelledView post →While the first hour or so is colorful, expressive, and visually dazzling, that feeling quickly dulls as the gameplay becomes incredibly repetitive and the story kind of runs in place for 4 hours until everything wraps up. I never felt like the game evolved much beyond its own premise, which leaves this rather short game feeling bloated and unsatisfying.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A teletubby-grade psychedelic trip presumably aimed at young adults. The spectacle relies heavily on flashing lights, explosions, and constantly blinking visuals, which feels pitched at five-to-ten year-olds, while the narrative grapples with adolescent identity. In practice, neither side really benefits. From a purely visual standpoint, the lighting and coloring are impressive, but the imagery gradually turns into smiling, dancing blobs with tentacles. Childish imagery isn’t a problem on its…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you’d like something to counteract the horrors, Mixtape, the new game from the developer of The Artful Escape, came out yesterday and the vibes appear to be immaculate youtu.be/iNkOgNAomio?...
unlabelledView post →In solidarity with the original Annapurna team, I don't recommend anything from Annapurna anymore. Their company was completely taken over by corporate stooges, and they hired the usual group of toxic executives to run the company. The original team left after many of their concerns and complaints went unanswered, and as they saw their company being twisted into another money making machine they left. Don't buy Annapurna games.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mixtape being from the Artful Escape guys made that game immediately make sense to me
unlabelledView post →I didn’t like this at all. The majority of the game is just walking/ jumping/ sliding to the left of the screen as you make your way from Point-A to Point-B. Once you reach your destination, you play your guitar by just matching the buttons on screen. That’s it, rinse-and-repeat, quickly becoming a tedious slog. The story isn’t all that either. It feels so try hard. The protagonist is supposed to be this musical sensation all across the galaxy, but all he does is strum random cords. Despite…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is the most awesome sauce, ultra sundae, purely wunderbar, totally rad, psychedelically bodacious, c'est magnifique, straight b1tch1n', simply tubular, super duper chillaxin' game! Ever! ৻( •̀ ᗜ •́ ৻) The aesthetic is more like an '80s rockstar show. Simple yet humbly entertaining from start to finish. (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ No blood pressure combat, no myocardial infarction MTX inducing, no tedious grinding. Just rhythming with memorizing mostly instrumental tunes, and also wandering around taking…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I 100% it on Xbox and I 100% it on Steam. Its a wonderful and trippy game. The art is fantastic. It's like a waking dream or a safe psychedelic adventure. It's says it's unsupported on Steam deck but It played wonderful on SD with all settings on high. Highly recommended. It's rather short, but it it pops up on sale, grab it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not much gameplay but definitely a trip. The visuals were amazing and the music worthy of the glamourgonn
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Artful Escape starts off well enough as a rich neon-soaked story about self-discovery and ignoring what the world is telling you to be. All the while you're just riding this wave of psychedelic sound and light, with alien muppets popping up along the way. It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ joy. What I wasn't expecting though, was how this game could speak to other people and how I felt like I got to take part in (and greatly enjoy) an experience that was meant for someone else. Unlike how there are brief…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Zzzzz.... Maybe because I grew up watching demoscene releases and rendering mandelbrot sets, but this game's psychedelia did not impress
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short, but definitely interesting game that trucks almost entirely on its audio and visuals. Like a technicolor trip through the light fantastic; more art piece than game. The core gameplay "challenge" is a Simon-Says style game to play your notes, but it is generally an element that is few and far between. I would advise you grab this one on sale, and treat it like a vignette or movie about the pressures of living in the shadow of a famous family member, and the trouble that causes when trying…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been gaming for 35 years.. this is not so much a game as the most beautiful piece of art my ears have ever witnessed, my eyes have ever gazed upon, and my soul has felt with such warmth about a boy learning to be his truest self. I know wherever Carl Weathers is now he can feel my heartfelt gratitude for guiding me through the cosmic extraordinary <3
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Caveat: I did not play this game sober. This is not a game I would find fulfilling or fun usually, but with the right frame of mind this walking simulator becomes a truly mind-numbing audio-visual delight. The plot is unencumbered. The characters are simple. The dialogue is uninspired. The design is, in multiple senses, out of this world. All of this plays into the blissful, empty-brained trance that allows the visuals to roll over and through you. This experience is more feature-length…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the only games to bring me to tears in the first half an hour. Mixtape is going to destroy me
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a gorgeous bit of psychedelic art isn't it. But the writing, the art, the narrative, the "experience," didn't have enough of a gravitational pull to keep me coming back, it's faded into the un-returned-to category and shall remain there. Specifically for my experience: it was slow; the protagonist was too lost; there was no skill component to gameplay that could represent or stand in for the musical skill piece; and while the art was beautiful, it felt empty.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Art in its purest form. Interactive experience more than a gamplay focused piece, but an absolute masterclass in what it is doing. One of the most beautiful presentations on all fronts i've seen in years that is oozing with style. Trippy and psychodelic, colourful and melodic, hopefull and inspiring. Thought provoking convo based on the personal identity and authenticity wrapped in a guitar shredding sidescroller. Perfect match for a steamdeck as well.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →New game time - The Artful Escape! Playing something from the backlog while I'm kicking my heels waiting for Wolverine (and resisting the urge to buy Blood of Dawnwalker) I hear good things about this!
unlabelledView post →I finished Mixtape (PC) today. It's made by the same devs as 2021's The Artful Escape. Like that game, Mixtape is beautifully crafted. The attention to detail, animation, atmospherics, and art direction are fantastic. Its musical playlist is effective, varied, but a bit pretentious IMO. 8/10
unlabelledView post →Ho-ly-sh-it. What a banger picked by Annapurna! A psychedelic journey through vibrant alien worlds. Super relaxing, just jamming on guitar while everything syncs with the environment. Voice acting and sound design are top-notch. You play as a kiddo with everyone expecting him to follow in the footsteps of his legendary folk-singer uncle. But he’s struggling to find his own identity, until one question: "Have you ever considered being someone else entirely?"…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Walking simulator grappling with themes of grandiosity, creativity, and expectation. Surprisingly insightful. The guitar you can play gets repetitive but I found myself jamming to it the whole time, focusing on how the ambience mixes with it to create a psychedelic soundscape. The surreal levels are awesome. Light one and sit back for a good night. How are you going to choose to shine in this world?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i mean it's unironically funny, and it's very hard to percept it in a non-post-modernist-sarcastic way, like the way he's sliding down the slope on his knees playing guitar is the equivalence of a 400 pound discord moderator flashing himself in a mall while shouting "look at me im the coolest dude in the hood like i moderate a channel of 4k ppl"
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolutely stunning game, simple gameplay plus incredible soundtrack makes perfect 3-5 hours of great escapism. Warning! You can get a bit existential due to the story, hehe. The downside: it's too short.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a pretty simple game, but the sound design and art design are outta this world. Especially recommended if you enjoyed the vibes of Brütal Legend and The Forest Quartet.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🗣️ “We’re in LA. Big week.” Summer Game Fest is right around the corner in Los Angeles and Beethoven & Dinosaur has dropped a teasing message! 🍿👀 The Artful Escape developer unveiled Mixtape at the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase. 😍 Are we about to see even more of Mixtape? 🤞🔥 #Mixtape #SummerGameFest
unlabelledView post →amazing game 5 out of 5 would recommend if your in a bad mental spot
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Artful Escape was definitely one of those games. 🎸
unlabelledView post →The Artful Escape possesses markers of brilliance, yet the execution holds it back from excellent. It prioritizes emotionally resonant presentation over the integration of mechanics and narration. Your playable protagonist, Francis, supposedly shreds like he's from out of this world. I'm not saying the guitar playing needed to be more difficult but I am saying the virtuoso idea should have expressed differentiation. During the platforming sections of the game, Left Shift allows you to riff.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played this gem on Gamepass a while back, and recently bought it on Steam. It's from the makers of Mixtape, so you kinda know what to expect. A lot of great music and bright colors, but the gameplay boils down to basically just running and shredding. But this game feels pretty special to me. It's a rock n' roll adventure through the cosmos that captures the essence of 80's films like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and is lead by a great cast that includes Michael Johnston (Bear from…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oyun adeta bir albüm kapağı gibi gerek muhteşem sanat dizaynı olsun gerek attığım her adımda etrafın değişmesi olsun sizi gerçekten büyülüyor.Tek bir tuşla elektro gitar soloları atarken kendinizi gerçekten bir rockstar gibi hissediyorsunuz.İlk kısımları biraz yavaş aksa da özellikle kendi sahne kimliğinizi yaptıktan sonra akıldan silinmeyecek epik sahneler geliyor.Oyunu sildikten sonra dahi aklımdan çıkmayacak cinsten belki ara ara finalini açıp oynayabilirim.Bu tarz yürüme simülasyonu…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It wasn’t a random indie game though… the studio already made The Artful Escape which people also liked. I agree on scores, they’re dumb, but they’re also just a recommendation not a mark of perfection.
unlabelledView post →Just picked this month's new games: Dead As Disco and Mixtape. DAD might be a stream game if I find the sauce in the combat that might not have been in the demo. I'll play Mixtape on my own time. I enjoyed the devs' previous game The Artful Escape.
unlabelledView post →Man I wish I didn't let this sit in my library for more than two weeks before playing it. Looked like it was gonna be fun, but ended up just being a boring walking simulator.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At Electric Arcadia, we also caught up with the director of Beethoven & Dinosaur (The Artful Escape), Johnny Galvatron, about the upcoming nostalgia-fuelled indie game, Mixtape. Catch the full interview here: qualbert.com/mixtape-inte... #IndieGame #IndieDev @annapurna.com
unlabelledView post →Beethoven & Dinosaur showed off another look at Mixtape at Summer Game Fest 2025! 😍🔥 The BAFTA award-winning dev behind The Artful Escape is hittin’ the vibes HARD. 🛹🎧 Johnny Galvatron was asked what potential players should know about Mixtape and the creative director kept it real... 🤣 #Mixtape
unlabelledView post →I don't normally do reviews but I thought this game absolutely deserves to be known and played by as many people as possible. What an imagination the creator of this game must have. The graphics are striking and breathtaking, the artstyle is incredible. The audio is also top notch. The game is absolutely unique and whilst there are some who have given it negative reviews, calling it boring, it must be themselves who are boring and lacking the imagination to enjoy this title. The interaction may…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Um jogo com visuais lindos e bem únicos. Você joga com o sobrinho de um guitarrista folk icônico que morreu e agora você precisa trilhar seu próprio caminho como guitarrista. Recomendo pra quem gosta de Bowie, coisas psicodélicas, ficção científica e, claro, música. Qual outro jogo que tem um botão exclusivo pra solo de guitarra?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I know not many people have played this game and there are many critics of its gameplay mechanics but I enjoyed my time with it. Since this is an Annapurna Interactive game it's easy to say that the art is the main highlight. As for the gameplay mechanics, you mainly strum your guitar and explore a trippy, atmospheric world; however, I really appreciated the world design and the music and enjoyed my time with it. Although it was quite short, I can't wait for Beethoven and Dinosaur's next…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →absolute cinema
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Artful Escape is not a game for music fans. The art and the ambient soundscapes are fantastic, but the music you actually "play" is just the most generic and sometimes annoying shredding ever. The story tries to be a coming-of-age tale, but the writing and the characters are just so pedestrian and uninspired that it barely registers. The gameplay revolves around walking, choosing completely meaningless dialogue and a Simon Says minigame that makes the final, epic showdown feel like an…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Picked this up after really enjoying Mixtape. Great little game, fun story and good music. Drags a bit in the middle but doesn't bring down the whole experience. Would recommend!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mixtape, Annapurna's stop-motion '90s memory adventure from the Artful Escape team, launches May 7 with day-one Xbox Game Pass support. #indiegames
unlabelledView post →Since I enjoyed the devs' previous game, The Artful Escape, I wondered "did the writer take steps backwards in Mixtape or did they get a different writer???" I checked the credits for both games: TAE's writer is uncredited. I don't know who wrote the better story about music.
unlabelledView post →The Artful Escape (same dev as Mixtape), another coming-of-age musical odyssey game but imo has a much better story, a little bit of player choice and way more interactivity. Sayonara Wild Hearts (another story-based music voyage with a cool art style but this time more of a rhythm game.)
unlabelledView post →Game 16 - Mixtape Like The Artful Escape before it, Mixtape is fantastic ride. It wasn’t my era and (mostly) wasn’t my music, but everything in this game felt so… familiar and warm. It’s a perfectly crafted experience that is well worth your time!
unlabelledView post →
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