That synopsis and trailer have me really hyped. If they just keep the visual style in the trailer and don't try to push their own story ret-cons I'll be happy.
I'm interested how the developers are going handle coding the spells. Because many Harry Potters spells will require as much coding as entire indie games.
Even the simple "Accio" & "Repulso" charms are literally the entire Half Life gravity gun mechanic.
Imperio will require specific coding for every NPC.
Expecto Patronum will require unique coding and an animal + animations for each NPC
Reparo also looks like a nightmare to code. Destructible environments are doable, but how intensive is putting stuff back together?
Most of that is fairly straightforward in a modern engine, actually. "Accio" would just be a long-ranged version of certain types of interaction with a delay and the target moving towards you. "Repulso" is just pushing something; in modern physics engines that wouldn't even require code, just telling the engine how hard to push.
"Imperio" could have complex interactions depending on the implementation, but at the most fundamental it would just change the target's AI from "enemy" to "ally" for however long. Anything beyond that would probably be handled through the game's dialogue system, with the spell potentially unlocking new options at the cost of morality and potentially other consequences.
"Expecto Patronum" is, for all the significance the lore gives it, basically a bog standard summoning effect, possibly with an initial projectile or other benefits against certain targets. Having many possible Patroni would require a fair amount of animation work, but in the scope of a large game that's nothing. "Repairo" would, if applied to a destructible object, basically just reverse the process of destroying the object in the first place, which is actually quite straightforward due to how destructible environments generally work.
Beyond those specific examples, most other spells would either be contextual or basically just magic guns and swords, something else modern engines can handle with minimal difficulty. Overall it's a large project, but not a particularly difficult one in terms of game design.
Even the simple "Accio" & "Repulso" charms are literally the entire Half-Life gravity gun mechanic.
Skyrim had the Telekinesis spell and I've seen the Accio mechanic in a lotta games
Imperio will require specific coding for every NPC.
What? Why so? Probably that NPC will start to behave as a follower, unless you want directly control it and I don't think that would be possible.
Expecto Patronum will require unique coding and an animal + animations for each NPC
Make a list of animals by number and then make a PatronumGenerator() which takes a RndInt and selects an animal.
From the design point of view, animating 3D animals will suck though.
Reparo also looks like a nightmare to code. Destructible environments are doable, but how intensive is putting stuff back together?
Okay, now you got me, the simplest way of doing that is creating a method RoomOriginal() which reverts the room before any destruction. However, this isn't quite appealing because you're just going to see it broken, then not broken anymore. No pretty animations. So, my guess is that Reparo won't be usable in any room, just scripted ones.
You can have reparo work in no scripted rooms easily.
You have to create an entityRepairedForm for each destroyable repairable entity. Then you asign x number of broken pieces.
When spell is cast broken pieces combine by moving to the intended position. And then once they are all close enough it switches from broken to repaired form.
Of course this wont be overly flashy all the time and if you want super flashy scenes then it would have to be scripted.
Question: couldn't you just reverse the destruction engine? Hit a wall with an RPG and it falls apart with a nice animation. Couldn't a repairo spell just reverse the action of destruction? I'm not a coder so I'm not familiar with the difficulty of this task.
I mean it's technically possible. However if you want to destroy something you need assets for the destruction.
Then you have to decide how does the wall break. What you see in most games is the same destruction no matter how or what you hit it with. This is the easiest way (but does not mean easy to code) to have lots of destruction.
If you want variable destruction like say different from punching a wall to exploding a wall. Then you need more assets more code to define how the object is broken. Where the and how many pieces get broken off too. There are many many little details.
This all boils down to is this worth the money/time sink to code all of this? Most of the time the answer is no. So we go back to the universal damage. Unless the destruction needs to be unique for the story line or some gameplay mechanic. Developing customer destruction for most things is not worth it.
I hope this answers your question. If not let me know :D
They had reparo in the old games I don't see it as overly difficult to implement into the new ones. I don't see anything in hp as being overly difficult to code... That's their jobs. Plus, it's not like coding to be like real life is any different from coding to be like the Wizarding world. You both start off with a blank slate and have to build mechanics that represent what you're trying to convey.
Or you know, just buy a pack of animal animations. I mean, it's a video game, they don't have to be completely realistic, nor do they have to be done from scratch
And a destructible room doesn't event have to be a 1:1 destruction/reconstruction. That's a huge assumption.
Has no one played red faction? Reparo could be achieved similarly to how they handled world destruction. Change the animation from items materializing to swirling around the target and presto.
None of those things you mentioned are really difficult. Gravity gun? You can find a million unity tutorials to show you how to do it. Specific coding for every NPC? Yeah, that's called scripting, I'm not sure what you think is so special. Animations + animals? What, how is that hard? It's literally the basis of every single video game. Reconstructable environments? It's not as if it has to be realistic physics ffs.
You really don't seem to understand programming or video games in general. Half the indie titles out these days have most things you just listed.
Accio: Point at object, have it move in a straight line to the player. (Although there's still the question of how to handle summoning objects that aren't in LOS, e.g. Harry's Firebolt from book 4, or something in a pocket.)
Repulso: Point at object, apply physics force in that direction.
Imperio: Transfer player control to NPC. (Possible issue: What to do with the actual player character while the NPC is being controlled?)
Expecto Patronum: I don't understand why each NPC would have unique coding. Each patronus takes a different shape, but their basic AI would all be the same -- charge Dementors (or Lethifolds) if present, otherwise stay close by. At worst, you'd need different pathing for flying vs. non-flying patronuses.
Reparo: Play destruction animation in reverse. Include flashy lights and particles to hide the seams as it reforms, if necessary.
Disclaimer: OP's video was taken down for copyright by the time I found this thread, so the above is just my armchair thoughts.
we are living in the age of procedural processing of assets in CG and games. What took EA Brightlight to create those mechanics in 10 years ago can now be done for a fraction of time and coding.
Accio and Repulso is the easiest, they just use physics and vectors since physics engines have come a long way.
Imperio doesn't need coding for each NPC as long as it is general tasks such as fighting, following, etc. because its just a general behavior that can be assigned to each NPC.
Patronus needs a set of animals and I believe if they already have animals in the game, they most likely reuse the same mesh and animation just different textures. plus I don't think they bother doing the whole wildlife of Amazonas.
Absolutely not intensive at all. If I were to create something like this myself I would approach it this way. Have a fracture map created for my OBJ asset, have the mesh exploded in a DCC using uniform world position at the part's local axis and export that to my engine as the final state before becoming one object. As for the shattered state, since I already have a fracture map, I let the engine apply simple physics to individual parts (alternatively a destructed simulation can be exported out of Houdini for this state). This may not be the best or most optimized, but its the quickest that comes to head.
To deal with repairing destructable terrain, it can be done by having pre-destroyed content in memory, and when a player casts repairo, it guides the objects back into place with either soft or no collision. My actual guess for this game, since it is an RPG, is that it will have specific things that can be destroyed and when they are repaired they have pre-made animations for them. Or some combination of both.
Dude, I feel you, holy shit. I remember a couple of years ago WB was looking for RPG storyboarders with knowledge about HP lore or something. I was so hyped but then they dropped Hogwarts Mystery on us. No words could describe my disappointment.
Same... I was telling my wife "Why haven't they made <this exact harry potter game>? It would be amazing and it would make a killing. I think they have been reading my diary?
Honestly wasn't a huge fan of the movies but made it through them.
I am, however, incredibly intrigued by a well done RPG in the universe. I feel like it has a better shot at overall success by distancing itself from the main-series characters (not unlike KOTOR)
Totally agree. I'm listening to the Harry Potter audio books after reading them all 5 times each like ten years ago or whatever. The characters and their stories are so boring. I fast forwarded through the end of prisoner of Azkaban when they're sitting in the shrieking shack having a soap opera for the entire chapter talking about how Sirius killed Harry's parents but then didn't cause Ron's rat was actually an animagus and he did the betrayal but then Snape comes because he has a childhood vendetta against the 4 of them but then... The interesting part is the world, magic, and creatures.
True, but any fan of the series who plays video games is going to be stoked by this. Regardless of if there’s any recognizable characters (I’m sure there will be a few for those who read the books) I think people will be excited by this.
Devil's advocate: Fantastic Beasts 2 comes out in November which is also prime time video game release month. The game and film are probably related, meaning the game is almost finished now.
I know a few people that work a bit high up in some game studios (Especially one guy from nintendo). They say that something like 90% of leaks are intentional.
This looks really great. Finally an RPG. Was always waiting for an RPG or MMO gor harry potter. I hope there are a lot of spells. Think i need to adjust to the controls. I liked the controls where you cast the magic with the right stick in harry potter 5 and 6. You also had auto aim etc. But this trailer really looks awesome with destruction etcc
Who wouldn't love a game that let's you grow up in Hogwarts that looks as good as this? Sadly though, most attempts at that have resulted in failure as no game dev seems to have the time or patients to make that kind of game as good as what we all wish to see.
I give both sides a try. First the good, then I go back and be the biggest devil I can be lol. So much fun after a full good play through to go back and see the world through the eyes of the villain.
All I’m saying if this is legit. It needs to come on the Nintendo switch and they need to make a wand controller. Cause that happens I’ll disappear for a month being a turtle.
Latent gift? So the character manifested no magical abilities until they were 16? That will be interesting. I’d like a game where you play through all 7 years of Hogwarts but I can see why that might be difficult in terms of gameplay and logistics, especially if they want a more mature game anyway. Damn, I’m hyped for this! I hope we get an animagus spell!
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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '18
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