Q: For a movie, as epic as the last Harry Potter, how do you approach a big task like this?
DP: We focused first on the book and the movie script and spent a lot of time and creative energy pouring over every detail of the fiction. This allowed us to work out what kind of game the story suits best and also what parts of the fiction could make for great gameplay. From there we began fleshing out the gameplay mechanic prototypes and worked with the art team to understand how we could best visualize this new world that Harry finds himself in. As this is the first part of the last book we really wanted to ensure that it was something special, something that mirrored Harry’s story in The Deathly Hallows Part 1 but could also take inspiration from this amazing world that J K Rowling has created in her other Potter books.
Q: The last game followed the storyline for Half-Blood Prince and instituted a series of challenges within those story parameters. For example, potion mixing was a huge deal (and quite fun), but it also followed closely with the movie storyline, which helped make it interesting.
DP: Are you going to be approaching it the same way or are you going to create a game that goes along with the movie? What new challenges will await players?
The storyline for DH1 has been the foundation upon which we’ve built our gameplay. Harry is no longer a child. He doesn’t have the safety of Hogwarts surrounding him or the protection of those older wizards like Dumbledore or Sirius Black. Voldemort is throwing everything he can into his attempt to capture and ultimately kill Harry. We’ve taken advantage of this dramatic change in Harry’s world to be able to create a game which follows the story closely and maximizes that high action storyline. He needs to use all of his wand-skills to keep his pursuers at bay whilst also finding creative uses for his invisibility cloak.
Q: Have you been able to work closely with Warner Brothers while making this game? What have you been able to get from WB that has helped with the game’s development?
DP: We’ve worked with the movie-makers for nearly a decade now and are lucky in that they’re not only very supportive of what we’re doing but also give us some amazing access to their movie world of Harry Potter. We get to see early drafts of the movie scripts, have access to the film maker’s unit photography, character photography and 3D scans. Probably the best thing is that we get access to the actual film sets and are allowed to take our own photographs of anything and everything we can lay our hands on – all of these things help us to build what we consider to be a faithful and authentic Harry Potter videogame experience
Q: If you could pick one element that you’re most proud of in the latest Harry Potter game, what would it be?
DP: Every time something new goes into the game then it becomes my favorite element but as of today, my own personal favorite part of the game is how we’re using the Confundus spell – It’s a really cool spell that when cast against an enemy it confuses them so that they don’t think Harry is an opponent any longer, but a friend, and your new friend wants to protect you! It’s good fun to cast it and then watch events unfold…