I've recently been re-watching the Harry Potter films with my wife. We're not die-hard fans or anything, but we enjoy the creativity and whimsy of the franchise and its characters, settings, and lore.

I'm sure many people feel the same way - the Harry Potter franchise feels perfect for games. (Isn't it ironic that we haven't really had a decent Harry Potter game?)

Now I don't want to discuss or fantasise over what a good Harry Potter game might look like. Instead, I want to explore and discuss the many different ideas from the franchise which would translate well into a video game (many of which are already present in many adventure games & RPGs).

Share your own ideas and thoughts. Apparently there are a few entries in the video game series which weren't all that bad. If you've played them, share your experiences and thoughts!

Here are mine:

Spells for puzzle solving

This seems like an obvious one, and many of the earlier game entries already utilise this. I'm just going to name a few awesome ones from memory:

• Spell for breaking locks. This is pretty video-gamey. Different locks could require different levels of the spell.
• Push / Pull / Raise / Lower spells for manipulating objects. I like this two-way dynamic. It kind of reminds me of Luigi's Mansion 2 and how you can blow or suck with your vacuum. Making the motions analog would give further depth to puzzles, giving you the precision to push or pull to a specific degree (rather than a context sensitive one-off spell that changes states, similar to hacking in Watch Dogs).
• Light / illumination spell. You could use it as a torch, or light torches in the area kind of like how you can light fires in The Witcher with a context-sensitive action.
• Levitation. Honestly, I don't like levitation in games. It feels awkward to control in 3D games - whether you're given 2 axes of motion or all 3, it always tends to feel floaty, imprecise, and not fun. That's just me, though. I would personally utilise levitation as a self-casting spell which could work kind of like hover boots, or giving you the ability to fly or glide. All other object manipulation could use the push / pull / raise / lower type effect.
• Transfiguration. Shape-shifting into a cat, a mouse, or an owl. Many possibilities for interesting level-design with the introduction of flight, climbing, and being able to explore small spaces.
• There's bound to be plenty more. Thoughts?

Potions (and crafting)

Again, I think we've seen the use of this stuff in Harry Potter games, and in games in general, but let's list some of them.

• Disguise potion. It's like putting on a disguise in a Hitman game, but with a timer.
• Go back in time potion. Assist your past self without getting spotted. Kind of like the mechanic from Braid, with a stealth twist.
• There's bound to be plenty more. Thoughts?

Magical items

• Invisibility cloak. Stealth mode ala Metal Gear Solid. An even better example would be the PS3 exclusive game Rain. Watch your footsteps, the noise you make, and the environment you interact with.
• Magic map. This item is awesome. It gives you a Hitman-esque map where you can see people walking around in realtime. Perfect for stealth.
• There's bound to be plenty more. Thoughts?

Setting and lore related stuff

This stuff is just general Harry Potter stuff that's interesting.

• Owls for communication. I always liked that you sent mail by using owls.
• An open castle with plenty of secrets. There are plenty of interesting surrounding areas too, such as the outskirts and the forest. Plenty of games come to mind here: Devil May Cry, Ico, Castlevania, etc.
• There's bound to be plenty more. Thoughts?

In Conclusion

I think we've already seen and are continuing to see great games that utilise some of the many ideas seen in Harry Potter. In many ways - in the video game realm at least - many of these ideas don't seem all that unique. Yet somehow in the films and books they felt so creative and fantastical. I guess you get that feeling when something is delivered with a lovely presentation and attention to detail. I still feel that same feeling and identity that Harry Potter has could be translated into interesting game designs.

Any and all contributing thoughts and ideas are welcome!

Harry Potter's fine and all, but those stories aren't really action-heavy enough for games. Unless you stretch a 2 minute action sequence into an hour like those 90's licensed games.

You could do a Persona knock-off in which you build relationships and do stuff around town, but since you know the characters you'll have some bias about who goes with who. Unless it's a bunch of new characters, but then you need to call it Hogwarts Stories instead of Harry Potter.

But what can we take from it today? The intro here.

You would probably have to do something similar to Shadow of Mordor and avoid making a game with the same story as the movies.

Harry Potter games sound like a good idea but the main problem is that JK Rowling is a big control freak on the ip, for better or worse, and doesn't allow anyone but her to come up with new things. Look up some developer commentary on the HP games and they go on to discuss how most of the art assets they create, like the inside of a quidditch shop for example, gets rejected by Rowling who doen't want it to become "canon" in a way and would rather leave it up to the imagination or come up with it herself in a later date.

So some of the movie games are pretty decent. I enjoyed the Order of the Pheonix game, it was like an open world Bully. I liked how they used the mouse to cast spells.

Yeah i have always felt the opposite. Harry Potter just make for a bad game to me. The combat would translated terribly into games. It also translated extremely poorly in the films I thought. The blaster bolts and no one ever actually chanting there spells always seemed extremely dumb to me. Any Harry Potter game hoping to be good is better off not including combat.

With that you have two choices an adventure game. Telltale or Life is Strange style. It could be good. You'd need a whole new cast of kids if you where going to do it. But I could see that working. Harry Potter is so big though a game of that scope feels beneath the license.

Next thing you could do is a big open world Bully like school sim game. You have a year at Hogwarts you can explore the whole school. Social Link err make friends with the other students. Pick your house. Attend classes to learn new abilities to help explore or ace tests or whatever. That game could be really good. It does however seem like it would be really hard to pull off good aka very expensive. It's also not a tried and true AAA money making idea. So a risky AAA budget title.

Basically I think it is just too hard to turn Harry Potter into a successful top quality videogame. It would make for one fantastic tabletop game with pretty much zero caveats.

I'd much rather any game developer spent it's time exploring a new IP than one that's already been milked until it's bone dry, but sure, that's a well crafted universe and there's always room for people to expand on it.

I think that some of the lore outside Howard's would make for some excellent game mechanics or story arcs. The relationship between the muggle and wizard world's is always a good one. Very few muggles know of the wizards aside from family members and higher ups in the mugged government. There are the dark wizards and their followers that are referenced throughout the books. There have been multiple Wizarding world's that all seem to have separate schools and magical creatures. Also, wizard battles could be really cool if they included more offensive and defensive spells, just watch the fight between Dumbledore and Voldemort at the end of the 5th movie.

I feel like a lot of you have misunderstood or misread my post.

I said: "Now I don't want to discuss or fantasise over what a good Harry Potter game might look like. Instead, I want to explore and discuss the many different ideas from the franchise which would translate well into a video game (many of which are already present in many adventure games & RPGs)."

So it's not about "hey guys wouldn't a Harry Potter game be awesome!". But on that subject - if there was going to be a decent Harry Potter game, I would imagine it going the route of Shadow of Mordor and being more about a side tale with new characters set in Hogwarts, with a character relationship system like Persona and a school class system like in Bully. That would be cool I guess!

But anyway - my point is, Harry Potter as a franchise and universe has tons of fantastic ideas. The first time I saw the map in the 3rd movie I thought "dude, that's such a video game idea". Same with the spell that unlocks doors. Same with tons of things.

I'd love to play a Castlevania-esque title set in a magical place like Hogwarts and with all the awesome magic spells and items seen in Harry Potter. Exploration, puzzle solving, and the visual splendor of it all. Combat too could be more puzzle based, if there was any combat. It could be a combination of using the right spells in the right order, and utilising the environment.

You would have floating objects, mythical creatures, ghosts that know the history of the place and could offer hints, etc.

There are already lots of games like this that come to mind: The first Devil May Cry, Castlevania, Legacy of Kain, Ico, and others. I guess Harry Potter-fying it would mean making things more magical and more whimsical, and giving the player direct access to interesting magic spells, rather than just combat-focused ones.

I played some of the older PS2 Harry Potter games, they're pretty fun 3D action/adventure games. I really enjoyed playing Magical Diary too, which is an obvious Harry Potter fanfiction dating sim. I think there's just something to the idea of having magic in a high school setting. I think that type of setting would be fun in a long-term multiplayer game, like Neptune's Pride but with classes and exam scores or something.

I can't remember which one I played, but at least one of the games was pretty good.

Thanks for sharing those games. There's a free demo of Magical Diary on Steam which I'm checking out. Sounds like an interesting idea!

I'm sure there was a thread identical to this some years ago...and back then I thought that it's way too late by now for new Harry Potter games. Maybe if the whole Fantastical Beasts or whatever movie takes off, someone thinks about it. Maybe it could even be a real game, because I think that your typical lisenced movie games have died out (thank god for that).

It could be great but seconding JK Rowling being a control freak. I used to work at Universal Orlando and the amount of petty little things she would demand of Wizarding World was insane. Like I get protecting your billion dollar IP but the amount of minute detail she demanded and the striking down of amazing ideas was pretty heavy. Even hourly employees would get feedback on how JK Rowling wanted them to explain things to guest like where the bathroom is.

But yeah a wizarding game would be great, just not a Harry Potter one.

I actually respect the hell out of that. It's rare that artists these days put their vision ahead of their bankroll. It can't be easy trying to control a franchise that has expanded into so many mediums, but it's admirable to see her try. And, from everything I hear, she's doing a pretty good job of it. If a new game came out of this universe, I'd like to see her in some creative lead spot--at least giving final approval.

I want a Harry Potter game where you have to twirl your glowing wand in order to move around the environment or perform any action, and a never-ending loop of Ryan Davis' Harry Potter techno impression plays over it (der dit tah der, der dit tah der, der dit tah der, der dit tah der, der dit tah der...).

I think the most interesting thing you do is make a game in that world that isn't focused on the students at Hogwarts or maybe takes place in a different time period. I'd love to see something about the adults in that world trying to deal with the more dangerous aspects of that setting. Give me a story about a founding of the schools perhaps, maybe a game about a character like Sirius Black, do a game about the initial rise of Voldemort and the Death Eaters, and so on. Hogwarts is great and all but there's so much to explore beyond those walls. The story of Harry Potter is a known quantity - think bigger.

I think people relate Harry Potter to Hogwarts when in reality the magical world of Rowling's world is so much bigger. I think an a game where you play as an Auror investigating some dark magic crime could be a lot of fun. Hell I would play an Uncharted style version of a game like this where the set pieces take precedence over the actual gameplay.

Yes! This is exactly the type of thing I had in mind. Playing as an Auror would be really intriguing.

@zirilius: This, I think we can kinda learn from Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and realize you have to move away from whats on the screen and in the books to really find a good place to form the foundation of a game series.

Example: Shadows of Mordor? Awesome idea, great game mechanics, but man all these forced references to the book plot are real dumb. And Star Wars just keeps revisiting the same stuff over and over. Compare this with KOTOR, which jumped way out of the timeline and is still looked back on as the best Star Wars game.

My take, big studios worry more about cashing in on a franchise than putting the time and finance into making great games. It's gotten a bit better lately but harry potter got caught in that era of movie game cash grabs.

The most interesting thing you can do with Harry Potter is shoot him. See, I grew up on the harsh realities of Sesame Street. None of this magic, public school toss. This big-ass bird's going to give this homeless trash monster some endless shit because he teaching you about LIFE!

LEARN TO COUNT YOUR PAPER, SON!

I third this motion. They could always have you the PC visit Hogwarts and what not as well during some missions. Someone just needs to pitch Rowling and tell her that the story in question will have nothing to do with the HP characters, and be it's own thing in that universe. It doesn't even have to canon. It's just a good universe to go around exploring/discovering things honestly.

That first Harry Potter game on the PS1 was pretty good, I played through it until I scratched the disc. It's kinda Castlevania-ish, lots of exploration and puzzle solving and item grabbing and some combat. Ok, maybe more Zelda ish, but whatever, Castlevania was mentioned earlier.

HOG. WARTS. MU. SOU.

Harry Potter x Persona. S-Linking all around Hogwarts, plus dungeon-crawling to take out Voldemort's minions or whatever. Make this please.

They already made the Harry Potter game I wanted: Quidditch World Cup, and it was dope as fuuuuuuuuuck. I played the ever-loving hell out of that thing. Still do every once in a while.