In Harry Potter fiction, the ritual of the Sorting Hat is that it chooses a school for you. But in my early moments in Harry Potter: Hogwart’s Mystery, I was able to choose my own house, Gryffindor. That’s one of the differences you’ll see in the new mobile game debuting today on Google Play and iOS from Warner Bros. and Jam City.
The companies hope to open a new revenue stream for J.K. Rowling’s famous tale. The Harry Potter books have sold more than 500 million copies, and the films have grossed more than $7.7 billion at the box office. Until now, the franchise lacked a major modern game. But the timing is appropriate, as mobile gaming has become a land of blockbusters and mobile game revenues are expected to top $50 billion in 2018, according to market researcher Newzoo.
I got to play some of the mobile game in the first fingers-on demo this week. Jam City developed the game and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is publishing it as part of its new Portkey Games label for Rowling’s original stories. Josh Yguado, president of Jam City, said in an interview that the game has had more than 2 million pre-registrations across both Google and iOS, with well over 100,000 fan videos on YouTube.
In this game, you get to create your own character and experience life as a Hogwarts student for the first time.
Above: Professor McGonigal in Harry Potter: Hogwart’s Mystery.
“There are so few moments where a mobile entertainment company has the chance to truly bring magic into the world and we’ve been thrilled by the amazing response our game has already received from Harry Potter fans everywhere,” said Chris DeWolfe, cofounder and CEO of Jam City, in a statement. “We at Jam City have been working hard to ensure that any aspiring witch or wizard can enter Hogwarts through their smartphones and tablets and begin their magical journeys.”
The story is set in the 1980s, about seven years before Harry Potter shows up at the school. That means you won’t recognize most students, but the professors will be familiar. You’ll see characters such as Snape, McGonagall, Fitwick, and others.
Players will progress as a student through Hogwarts, joining one of its four houses. You can create and upgrade personalized characters using an avatar customization system, learn magical skills, and form relationships with other students. You will also be able to master everything from crafting potions under Snape’s critical eye, to Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. Along with interactive spellcasting, the game features an encounter system where narrative choices impact parts of the story.
Above: Tonks in the new Harry Potter mobile game.
“Being involved in the making of the Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery mobile game will give great pleasure to my grandchildren,” said Dame Maggie Smith, voice of Professor McGonagall in the game.
Players will also be introduced to some original game characters like Penny, a popular Hufflepuff potions expert, Tulip, a rebellious Ravenclaw prankster, and Merula, a Slytherin with a dark past and a very annoying habit of bragging. As players unravel the Hogwarts mystery, they will explore familiar locations like Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.
You start out with a personalized acceptance letter, and you fashion how your avatar will look in the game. The game starts in Diagon Alley, where you meet your new best friend, Rowan Khanna. He shows you around. You pick up your books by tapping all of the highlighted books in a store. Then you get your wand. Just like in the book, the wand choose you, rather than the other way around. You touch the screen to make a pattern on the screen. If the wand likes it, then it choose you. It took me a couple of times before my Blackthorn wand chose me.
Then you see a cinematic where the Hogwart’s Express takes you to the castle. You go to the Sorting ceremony in the Great Hall at Hogwart’s, where everyone watches as you choose your house. This part diverges from the books because the game creators know that fans want to play their favorites, and they should be able to choose. You discover the mystery at hand. Your older brother Jacob attended Hogwarts earlier, but was expelled under mysterious circumstances and hasn’t been heard from sense. You want to find him, as well as go through the school yourself.
Once you have your house, you can get access to the house’s common room. The Gryffindor common room was large, and I had to swipe across the screen to see the whole view of it. Then you decide what classes to take for your first year, including classes like Charms from Professor Flitwick. Snape starts out his Potions class with snide remarks about the other classes, and you have to learn how to do things like make a potion by tapping on various objects and tracing patterns on the screen.
I didn’t run into anything difficult in my first pass, and it’s clear the game is designed for an accessible audience. It has some humor in it, like a blank painting that you can touch to bring out some ghostly figures. You meet Merula, a braggart first-year student who bullies another student. You have to choose whether to intervene, and that choice will have consequences. The choices pile up and you’ll have your own unique adventure as a result.
If the rest of the game shows depth and engaging gameplay, Harry Potter might just see a billion more fans.
