My Work on Hogwarts Legacy
Beginning in July 2018, I joined Avalanche Software on the ambitious journey to deliver the first AAA Wizarding World RPG during the pre-production phase. As a Mission Designer, I collaborated with writers and designers to create mission flow documents, implemented mission content, and coordinated with specialists to support mission content. Using UE4 Blueprint, Articy Draft, and proprietary quest and cinematic tools, I integrated characters, locations, dialogue, animations, tutorials, cinematics, combat encounters, and other scene elements into missions. Feedback from team leads, directors, other team members and user research playtests helped shape and polish each experience. Through the various stages of development I learned how design, story, and toolsets evolve and I adjusted to the needs of the project, including mentoring new mission designers and documenting best practices. Each phase had its own distinct challenges, and fixing bugs may not have been the most exciting but it was worthwhile from both a quality and technical learning standpoint. I feel fortunate to have worked on such an incredible IP such as Harry Potter and its emphasis on narrative, but I feel even more fortunate to have learned so much alongside the team behind the magic at Avalanche.
The Mission Creation Process
There’s a lot I can share from game captures here, but unfortunately I cannot share examples of mission design and flow documentation. However, the process generally starts with a “kernel” of an idea, pitched either by a writer or a designer. Along with the kernel, sometimes design needs from leads and directors are attached to make sure we are populating specific content or introducing concepts to the Player. A writer then fleshes out a more detailed narrative and I collaborate with them on how to bring it to life through available features and pacing of an experience. I then prepare a mission flow detailing story beats, key features and events, and technical details so it can be referenced both for narrative and implementation needs. I will sometimes prepare videos in Adobe Premiere to show progress, detail intention, and create references for both the writer and myself for pacing. As is natural in game development, a whole lot of iteration ensues, documentation is updated and the experience is reviewed by directors and peers, and refined from both a narrative and gameplay perspective. With such a connected world, there are often gameplay needs and narrative threads that require rework and care to react to and weave into the mission. Once all of the content is locked down, we polish and fix bugs until it’s time to ship!
Missions I Shipped
Here is a list of missions I primarily worked on that shipped with Hogwarts Legacy. There are many more that I implemented to concept or maintained during polish and bug-fixing phases.
Percival Rackham’s Trial
Minding Your Own Business
The Map Chamber
Wand Mastery
Weasley After Class
Brother’s Keeper
Breaking Camp
For a detailed example and breakdown of my work, check out my other video below!
San Bakar’s Tower Breakdown
The mission “Percival Rackham’s Trial” went through many iterative phases over the development cycle of Hogwarts Legacy, especially San Bakar’s Tower as it was one of the earliest landmarks established in the world. This meant narrative needs changed over time and the layout itself was somewhat predefined for the mission, with some smaller adjustments made along the way. One aspect that was always true was the presence of Goblin Loyalists and Professor Fig meeting the Avatar in a hiding spot nearby the road. This allowed us to setup a context of danger, mystique, and a call-to-action to the ruin’s narrative and gameplay.
Building a mission into the space as opposed to a parallel, informed process of creating the layout with a locked mission design was a challenge, but we saw it as a design box we could work within. There were versions where the mission path crossed through the Courtyard area down a stair on the opposite side, where the Player actually would enter the Tower through a dungeon in the foundation inhabited by goblins. During this stage of development, the front doors and bridge were collapsed. That path made the larger encounter space in the Courtyard feel optional and temporary without a mission objective, and also added onto an already lengthy run time. We did try to insert a mission objective in the Courtyard, but similarly felt that it restricted the Player from moving forward without any natural environment blocking the way forward down the stair. We iterated on how Professor Fig and the Avatar were to enter the Tower, and ultimately the obvious answer of the front doors helped mission pace and presented a clear goal. There was still a need to not let the Player waltz in at their leisure, however, as they could yet again circumvent the Courtyard space we wanted to showcase.
The Courtyard presented a unique and interesting space that lended itself to curiosity. I wanted to engage with it in an investigative manner, and our writer agreed that Fig wanted to know why the goblins were present and added this emphasis to the opening conversation. The mission objective became “Investigate the goblin presence” before the Player would shift their focus to entering the Tower. At first I implemented three area beacons to obscure where and what the Player was to find. Feedback from peers playtesting the experience felt a singular area beacon with one goal might help the pacing and get us to the Tower quicker, and so we implemented a rich text text note with orders from Ranrok (the goblin villain) that fulfilled the objective.
At about the same time on the project, we learned we needed to introduce Petrificus Totalus (“stealth takedown”) in our mission. It was a great opportunity to both have a grounded learning moment with Professor Fig for investigative gameplay. Previously, we let the Player lead and approach the castle through multiple avenues but now we needed to ensure a stealthy tutorial experience. Our writer had Fig emphasize caution and a nod to the Disillusionment Charm when returning control back to the Player post-conversation. I inserted an objective beacon on Fig to start the mission, signaling that he is the leader and the Player is to follow him. Once the Player completes the Petrificus Totalus tutorial (successfully or not), the beacon changes to the area beacon. The Player can approach the tutorial and combat as they choose, either outright confronting the goblins, using Disillusionment and Petrificus Totalus to clear them on their patrols, or a mix of both. We wanted to retain Player expression through game actions. To some, the different voice-over and Disillusionment state (on or off) reactions that Fig has might not seem monumental, but with our tools and systems it was a difficult feat and something I’m proud of in acknowledging Player choice.
At this stage of development, there were no other design requirements and the Player and Fig could proceed to the Tower door after finding the note. However, late in development the rollout of enemy types were rebalanced soon after and it was apparent we needed to introduce the Goblin Assassin in the Courtyard. It was also required that the Player must fight each new enemy type in a non-stealth combat scenario, which created a design challenge that I feel I could have crafted a better solution to. What was initially a combat experience teaching the Player our stealth takedown mechanic became one where, even if they successfully executed on it and completed the mission objective, they were forced out of Disillusionment and into live combat. To make things worse, if the Player did not defeat the goblins in the initial wave spawn, they became part of the second combat scenario as well, dismissing their efforts with a mechanic we encouraged them to use.
We tried inserting the enemy introduction immediately after Professor Fig opens the Tower doors, but placing an encounter inside the Tower in a tight space was not ideal from both our combat guidelines and the enemy’s dash ability specifically. Any attempt to place the enemy introduction prior to the Courtyard spoiled the narrative pacing of Fig hiding from the goblins where he meets the Avatar and would still force the Player out of Disillusionment if they decided to roleplay with the mechanic. What I could have done is insert a simple puzzle grounded in the environment that held the note or similar mission item. The puzzle would require the Player to use a spell that would require the Player to be out of Disillusionment to use (such as Accio, Levioso, etc.). This would passively require the Player to complete the combat encounter in order to get the note without de-emphasizing or dismissing Petrificus Totalus. The Player would not feel as cheated being in Disillusionment with no enemies present when the enemy introduction is forced after reading the rich text note. Such a decision may have been turned down due to production locking in content, but I believe we could have pulled it off with existing assets.
After obtaining the note, Fig moves toward the Tower door and once again is the target of the objective beacon to “Search the Tower.” He uses the Unlocking Charm (Alohomora) to open the doors to the Tower, again showing his expertise with magic and foreshadowing a spell the Player will learn soon in the mainline. The Player then can explore the lower portion of the Tower, optionally finding some loot and interact-objects that trigger voice-over lines, but nothing too remarkable. This is in contrast to what they will discover after their conversation with Percival Rackham’s portrait upstairs - a well of ancient magic in the foyer that leads to the Keepers’ First Trial.
Collaborating with the team on this portion of the mission presented some difficult challenges but also opportunities to enrich our characters, add to world-building, and create an engaging, dense experience that we executed well overall. It’s one of my proudest achievements on Hogwarts Legacy.
Developer Commentary Video for “Minding Your Own Business”
Here’s a video we recorded at the Avalanche Software studio where Andrew Hayes (level designer), Alyssa Muir (Quality Assurance), Liz Brunsilius (Quality Assurance), and I discuss the concepts and implementation behind the mission “Minding Your Own Business” or as many know it, the “Haunted Hogsmeade Shop” mission. This was one of the largest missions in the game and took a lot of effort to bring together. I am really proud of how it turned out, and especially happy with providing an unexpectedly spooky story to Hogwarts Legacy.