Passion for Hogwarts Legacy: How a team of Potterheads shoulders the great responsibility

Passion for Hogwarts Legacy: How a team of Potterheads shoulders the great responsibility

For the first time since development began, the Avalanche Software team has given journalists like me a peek inside Hogwarts Legacy. They stood a few meters away and watched as I and some other colleagues got on the broom for the first time, discovered the many loving and funny details in the magical world and even made acquaintance with the dark curses. Both of my interviewees, Moira Squier, Narrative Director, and Kelly Murphy, the lead designer of Hogwarts Legacy, were emotionally overwhelmed by that moment. In our conversation, they give me insights into the storytelling and quest design, and we even find out who the biggest Potterhead on the Avalanche team is.

Eurogamer: Harry Potter is a big franchise with quite a few fans. How did you deal with the responsibility and pressure of making such a big game in the popular Wizarding World?

Squeer: Yes, the pressure was definitely there. But I think everyone was ready to take on that challenge. The people who worked on this game have such passion for the entire brand and everyone just wanted to get it right. I think that pressure pushed everyone to make the best game possible. We all want this game. Ultimately, the pressure pushed us to do a really good job, I think. So it’s a good pressure.

Murphy: I agree with you. I think Avalanche is a studio that has worked with a lot of IPs and the people at the studio love the franchise. It’s really important for us to show the audience that we not only understand it, but that we love the project and are as passionate as they are. But that’s no easy task.


The team has put a lot of effort into creating a beautiful and authentic Hogwarts that fans will love.

Eurogamer: This responsibility also includes the many nerdy wishes of the fans, which the team seems to know very well. Which one of you is the biggest Potterhead?

Murphy: Phew, I mean there are people who stand out. So, Moira here is a big Potterhead.

Squeer: Yes, I worked on Harry Potter for 20 years, so it’s in my blood. But I would say I have some rivals. There are a few people on the team who know it inside and out.

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Murphy: Boston Madsen comes to mind. She’s a designer here at Hogwarts Legacy, and she’s quite the encyclopedia. I often turn to her when I have questions like, “Hey, is that right?”.

Squeer: We have quite a lot of nerds, quite a lot of Potterheads on the team. And if they weren’t in the beginning, they are now.

Eurogamer: The fans on the net have often expressed their fear of too many fetch quests. Is this fear justified?

Murphy: I mean yeah we have quests where you get some things but what really matters is the framework. When we talk about creating quests, especially side quests, I think it was very important for us to grab the player early. The things we do to make people want to play Hogwarts Legacy. And then we also give the player a choice in our side quests. This choice can be really small and mundane, but giving the player the opportunity to complete the quest and make a choice on how to handle this situation was very important to us. Do you want to be good, do you want to do mean, or do you want to be fundamentally evil?

Squeer: We don’t have a mission where you have to find something just to find something. There’s a reason for everything. In the beginning there are a lot of things to get or do to explore the gameplay and advance the story. And later you can choose to do some of the side quests or not. But it’s fun. The story is fun, the dialogues are funny, the characters are interesting, there are so many places to visit and the huge world to explore. But it’s not just about “hey, find this thing and bring it back”. It’s not that simple at all, everything is somehow intertwined with the story. We put a lot of effort into making different connections between the main character, different characters and Hogwarts to make it feel like part of a cohesive world.

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Murphy: And then we also have something like the field guide, a narrative tool, mechanically the field guide is a way that allows us to get ahead in school and reinforce what you’re doing out there in the world. So I can do things that are far away from Hogwarts and these are reflected in my field guide and that gives me experience, new unlockables and so on. That’s another way we’ve tried to connect the world.


My only side quest I’ve gotten to play in Hogwarts Legacy so far has been a creative little puzzle.

Eurogamer: What about content after a player has completed the main story?

Squeer: Players can do the side quests after the story ends, they can also do them in any order if they want. You can go back and talk to the people in the houses and explore the world. You can literally spend hours and hours in this world.

Murphy: We have about 150 missions, more or less depending on how you take it, and about two thirds of those are side missions. You can play them when you want, if you want. So yes, there is a lot on offer.

Eurogamer: Were there any inspirations for the plot of the story? Maybe from the Harry Potter universe or even from a completely different story?

Squeer: In general, it’s about ancient magic, an ability that the player possesses, and what you can and can’t do with that power. Thematically, there’s this overarching idea that if you have a talent or a gift or an ability, what do you do with it? You have a responsibility. But as a player you can choose whether to do good or bad, it’s your own responsibility. And I think it’s a bit like the Harry Potter stories. The story will feel like it fits in the universe, but it’s not the same plot. It’s a completely different way of looking at the world. On the other hand, the storyline is familiar because you’re at Hogwarts, there’s Hogsmeade and all these magical spells and things that people in the fandom will recognize right away, but it’s a story all of its own.

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Murphy: This is also why we chose this period of time so that you can play an important role in this universe. You’re not competing with Newt, Harry, or anyone else. And to be authentic in that time, we had to understand what was happening at the time, but also balance that with what fans who don’t know that time might be expecting.


You’ll be in the spotlight, and you’ll also get to meet new supporting characters from the Wizarding World, like this one…

Eurogamer: What has excited you most about working on Hogwarts Legacy so far?

Moira Squier: Working with the story team? [Beide lachen]

Murphy: To be honest, I think it was brainstorming. There are so many people on the team who have a real passion for the genre and especially for this project. Just the ideas that came out like “what if we did this or that” was really fun. With a project this big and taking so long, it’s hard to see the end and I think right now is a really rewarding time. Especially today. I didn’t expect to be emotionally touched by just being here and watching you and other people play. It just blew my mind.

Squeer: As a storyteller, I enjoyed finding the magic the most. I’ve been trying to find ways to incorporate magic into the simplest things in the world. So even finding a book in-game is an engaging, fun, and clever thing.

Murphy: One story I like to tell people – and it’s true – is that we fight over trolls or dragons because we’re so passionate about the game. And when we’re done getting upset, I think how amazing our daily life is. We’re just discussing trolls and dragons. That’s pretty awesome.

Squeer: Yeah, like, “Would a troll really do that, Kelly? Geez.”



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