Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world action RPG set in the world first introduced in the Harry Potter books. Embark on a journey through familiar and new locations as you explore and discover magical beasts, customize your character and craft potions, master spell casting, upgrade talents and become the wizard you want to be.
During my time at WB Games Avalanche as a Junior Mission Designer and Quality Assurance Tester I worked within the Unreal Engine desigining and maintaining 7 Side Quest missions all pertaining to the Treasure Map quests
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Cache in the Castle
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Ghost of Our Love
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The Tale of Rowland Oakes
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Well, Well, Well
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Solved by the Bell
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Cursed Tomb
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The Hippogriff Marks the Spot
Treasure Vault Quests
Indicative of wanting to fulfill player fantasy, the Treasure Map missions leaned into exploration and the desire for loot
The Treasure Map side-missions were all designed to be supplementary quests to reward the player for exploring the world further during the Main Quest Acts.
Maps were deliberately placed in dungeons or memorable spaces in the world along either the main quest or house specific adventures. To solve these treasure maps it was imperative to empower players to use either newly learned spells or test how well they've remembered a landmark from the Overland.
The Treasure Map quests relied heavily on the artwork on the map itself to provide context to the player. Collaboration with artists, engineers, level designers, and production ensured a smooth proccess during which the missions were designed, implemented and maintained until launch. Documentation was vital in this instance, as because of the nature of the quests, it could be difficult to replicate or onboard another team member in an issue I might be having.
Example of Treasure Map Quest Design
The Hippogriff Marks the Spot
To begin the design of these quests, there were 2 main goals intended to be accomplished.
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Landmark puzzle to be solved
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Memorable location for exploration
The starting point for this quest lies out in the Overland a good distance south of Hogwarts. Placed within a poachers camp, the fantasy of discovering loot in conjuncture to defeating enemies is core to this quest.
Testing the players map knowledge of a location shown both as a landmark, and on the map itself, Henrietta's Hideaway is where the next step takes the player. Working alongside the dungeon and level design teams, we often placed Trasure Maps within heavily trafficked areas of the dungeon.
To enter the hideaway, the players must solve a spell puzzle set up y the dungeon team, but once inside are met by ashwinder foes. After defeating them, the player discovers a large Hippogriff statue resembling the one on the map. Some of the Braziers had been pre-lit intentionally (and through a normal playthrough fight, it was expected for ther player to accidentally light some as well in combat)
Each brazier had a conditional on whther it was "On Fire", and when the correct objects were successful, the puzzle had been solved, and the reward would appear behind the player from a sealed door in the geometery.
"How can the wizarding world of Hogwarts Legacy be complete without a treasure hunt?"
Quality Assurance Tester
My first years in the games industry were as a QA Tester for Hogwarts Legacy.
Initially tasked with marking mission completeness for a few side quests, I was quickly placed on a team of 3 to continously and meticulously playthrough the first 6 hours of the game in multiple different ways. Every House, every common room, every companion selection, every different way to complete classes, etc.This fine scrubbing involved detailed doumnetation and precise means to reproduce instances of bugs or falures in NPC behaviours.
Furthering my knowledge of Jira and task tracking systems, I developed a strong format for creating issues to pass on to production for the Design, Art, tech Art, UI/UX, and VFX teams. This skill, as well as the ability to quickly reproduce an issue led to faster discovery of underlying issues and turn around time on solutions. I worked often with the Design team on intended designs, and offered my own solutions to solve problems.
With debugging skills, accurate documentation, and clear communication with developers, my experience for these 19 months added a versatility to how I work as a designer. The cyclical nature of creating, testing, itterating, testing again all became forefront of my designs especially within a multi-platform AAA studio release.