With the Hogwarts Legacy release date now set for next year, after the recent release date delay, a young developer and Harry Potter fan has taken it upon themselves to remake the upcoming RPG game in the Unity engine to help them learn more about game development.
While this fan version of Hogwarts Legacy will never be released to the public, indie developer Arnie has been making it to help hone their craft, and it looks like a lot of fun. For the avoidance of doubt, this doesn’t have anything to do with Avalanche Studios’ game, with Arnie even calling their game “Henwarts Legacy” to be safe.
The open-world game uses an imported Hogwarts castle and a series of Unity assets and plug-ins to help create the landscape and Wizard-related architecture, with Arnie even creating gameplay mechanics and magic spells to go along with it.
Some of the spells in the Hogwarts Legacy fan-game are quite simple, like a spell that illuminates your wand in dark areas, or another that levitates objects for a brief time. On the more wacky end though, Arnie created a spell that turns an object into a chicken, and another that lets you then capture the chicken.
The second half of Arnie’s Hogwarts Legacy video is filled with cinematic footage and gameplay, which really hammers home the amount of effort put into creating the fan-game. There’s the covered bridge, the moving staircases, and even Hagrid. Robbie Coltrane doesn’t reprise his role, but the text-to-speech works just as well.
Of course this project isn’t as ambitious as the official Hogwarts Legacy, but the commitment to making a Harry Potter world and relevant game mechanics is certainly admirable, and sure to fill the wait for the Hogwarts Legacy release date.
Arnie’s creation and journey is a refreshing look at game creation, and if you ever fancy dipping your toes into the world of development it shows what goes into making a game world and relevant mechanics.
If you’re eagerly awaiting the Hogwarts Legacy release date, you might not have to wait too long for an update, as a developer at Avalanche Studios recently teased the community by saying the team is “keenly aware” you all want to see Hogwarts Legacy gameplay.
The creator of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, has made a number of transphobic remarks on social media in recent years. While WB Games says “JK Rowling is not directly involved in the creation of the game”, it is based on her work and it’s still unclear if she will receive royalties from its sales. If you’d like to learn more about transgender equality or lend your support, here are two important charities we encourage you to check out: the National Center for Transgender Equality in the US, and Mermaids in the UK.
