A recent interview with one of Avalanche Studio’s audio programmers has shed just a teensy bit more light on Hogwarts Legacy. In the interview, which came as part of an online school webinar, Dorian Rosen shared his personal path to working at Avalanche, as well as some tidbits about Hogwarts Legacy. Of particular interest were his comments about the trailer, and his obvious enthusiasm for both the project and the team that he works with.
When asked what he could reveal about the game, Dorian referenced some strict NDAs, but then went on to say:
It’s an open world RPG, and it’s so cool… there’s a lot of times that there are trailers where stuff is sort of fake… it’s staged more than gameplay, and I’m pretty sure that entire [Hogwarts Legacy] trailer is gameplay…
“Pretty sure” aside, it’s exciting to think that the incredible scenes we saw in the trailer are what the game will actually look like in game. The animations were smooth, the environments looked detailed, and there were some fantastic magic and destruction effects on display. The camera angles of the trailer don’t seem like they were gameplay angles at all, but it’s possible that the trailer was created using in-engine action, with a modified perspective for more theatrical shots.
Also noteworthy was the number of people said to be working on Hogwarts Legacy:
If it’s less than 1,000 people who worked on [Hogwarts Legacy] by the time it releases, I’ll be surprised.
It’s clear that Hogwarts Legacy is a massive project, and it seems as though publisher WB Games is sparing no expense with their latest foray into the world of Harry Potter. Also mentioned in the interview was that many features had come and gone, which is no real surprise given the lengthy development the game has already had.
Dorian’s enthusiasm in the interview is apparent, and he didn’t seem to be playing PR man when he said he couldn’t wait for people to get to play it. He also mentioned that the game caters to players of all sorts, and that there was “lots of stuff for people who aren’t interested in just casting angry spells”. HP Purists should be happy to hear that serious effort is being made to ensure that the game is true to the source material — although whether that includes the movies or just the books is unclear.
It’s not much, but it’s nice to have any news on Hogwarts Legacy at all! Fans (and everyone here at MuggleStudies) still eagerly await another trailer, or really anything official from either WarnerBros Games or Avalanche Studious.
Thanks to reddit user u/CXNEILPUNKXC for discovering/posting the interview.
