my video game concept, what do you think about it?

[josh797]

i would love a harry potter game. one with a much more in depth concept where i dont ahve to play as harry but can just go to hogwarts and cast spells and discover all sorts of cool things. i love rowlings world i just dont really like her stories as much. so i want to be able to play around in her world, even play some other characters story, one that she never told. that would be amazing, especially on the wii. i could wave around the wiimote like a wand, to cast spells. up right and flick left would levitate... ohhhh that would be awesome!!! to be able to visit diagon alley and play quidditch and visit beuaxbatons and so on, that would be an amazing world i would pay a lot of money to be able to experience.

what do you guys think? good idea?

 

[DrNeroCF]

Why would you possibly limit creativity to HER world? I've definitely pondered the possibilities of 'GTA with magic' and really can't for the life of me understand why a video game would limit itself to reality in the first place.

But to then limit yourself to someone else's world... especially one that wasn't built from the game up with consideration for video game mechanics... Sure, I suppose that could give some sort of focus to the game's design, but if you can't design a game that's not sloppy without those sorts of limitations...

 

[Erana]

I, personally, would find a GTA: Pokemon game to be more feeisable.

 

[Shiroi_Okami]

how about almost ANY MMORPG? this is assuming that by 'GTA' you mean 'free roam' and not 'hijack cars'

 

[MeputthecaninthebininHL2]

cool magically hijacking cars, now thats a concept.

 

[YeOldeMunger]

...

what do you guys think? good idea?

That sounds fantastic. I loved Harry Potter since I read the books as a kid, and to be able to explore the universe unhindered by the storylines connected to the main characters would be great. Maybe playing one of the 7th years would be good, as they have much few lessons and more freedom. You could play some 7th year who is really into his Dark Magic and... OH, idea! You could play Tom Riddle in his 7th year, exploring Hogwarts, maintaining his differing relationships with peers and teachers, hiding his more dubious expoilts from the teachers, heading out of Hogwarts to make contacts, get supplies from Diagon Alley, exploring Hogsmead. And did he play Quidditch at all? Anyway, that's just my take on the issue.

 

[Shatners Bassoon]

Need he say more?

Ha ... Fags! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL8GVk-GspQ]

 

[wilsonscrazybed]

I think the idea is boring at best. Sandbox gaming can be fun but do we really need another Harry Potter game featuring stories written by someone other than the original writer? As for gimmicky Wii controls, I will concede that the world of Harry Potter lends itself to the idea better than most, but how many games have really been judged on their controls alone? (Don't pick on lair!) The world of Potter works because the stories are well crafted and the themes speak to young people and adults as well. Are you willing to throw that out the door for an open world featuring iconic representations of your favorite characters and a new control scheme?

Edit: Capitalization is your friend.

 

[KaynSlamdyke]

It sounds horribly, horribly plausible. And I'm surpised it's not being done.

But siding with a lot of other people here, I think just a sandbox game with magic without tying it to HP would be just as good, allow for a far more unique set of mechanics, and possibly lead to a better play experience than having to make a kitchy kid-focussed EA-licensed story driven version of Canis Canem Edit with less violence and "spells" that can't be painful in the slightest since that goes against the style guide of the HP Universe.

A game where you're praised for your progress of magical studies and mixing and matching spells and get a go-anywhere, do-anything mode to play it in has only been tried once in my memory. It was Magic Carpet. And while I never understood the game, being a nipper at the time and developing a phobia of bees, I still appeciated the idea of being a sorcerer on the back of a carpet slinging spells against creatures to build myself a castle and gather magical energy to conquer the world.

Mind you, I find magic loses it's air of mystery when it's delegated to a game mechanic... it becomes less magical and more of a tool, and at that point your game idea would be UNFAVOURABLY called GTA with Wands...

Potential though. Real potential...

 

[Ith]

Throw in a Gravity Gun, and it's a sold concept.

cool magically hijacking cars, now thats a concept.

Hell yes.

I have played a Neverwinter Night's mod based on the HP universe, I couldn't really be bothered with the 'Schooling' part of the mod, where you had to attend class to learn spells/progress, but sounds like something you might enjoy for the experience.

Go look it up, you can snag a copy of NN for $10 now.

 

[propertyofcobra]

I know I, and most others who ever loved Harry Potter when growing up, would kill kittens for a Bully-styled Harry Potter game where you play as someone aside the canonic cast, but rather a normal student.
Most people who play HP games don't really want to reenact the movies. They just want to immerse themselves in the world. And that is exactly what your concept is all about. It's very solid.

I just hope Rowling doesn't think she's a great writer, she's not. She just struck solid kid-imagination gold with her magic-within-the-world world, that's the main reason for her success. Even if the main cast's saga is over, she could still write for more or less forever and fill out the world (which, more than the characters, is what I fell in love with).
She probably won't, but one can hope. Or if not, someone will take up the torch and do it.
And I don't see why that can't be in a videogame format. We'll probably have to wait until the movie of Deathly Hallows gets converted to a game first, but once that happens, sky's the limit.

 

[Altair-Ego]

It's terrible IMO.

You know how Star Wars releases a game every fucking week? I'd be a way to cash in on the series. Torrid.

 

[Dudemeister]

I, personally, would find a GTA: Pokemon game to be more feeisable.

Yes, oh my god yes

 

[Surggical_Scar]

Magic + Crime = Hilariously Violent Capers (The act, not the odd little fruit/vegetable/thing)

Using Harry Potter as a starting point wasn't going to do anything but shoot yourself in the foot, but that's not to say that a free-roamning game where you can employ magic-

-hang on, I've got a call on the other line.

Yeah?

...uh, okay.

Yeah, cheers. Bye.

That was Bethesda calling, apparrently there's this game called Oblivion out.

 

[Copter400]

Even better, not waste time developing the game and play the first MMO we lay eyes across.

 

[josh797]

thanks to the replies everyone. maybe i was articulate enough, but i think property of cobra got the concept i was aiming for. i probably wasn't clear enough, but what i meant was being able to truly immerse myself in the harry potter universe that i and so many others love so much. some people have said that it would just be a cash in on the license, and they are probably right realistically, however this is my ideal and so if i made it, it wouldn't just be a cash in. so yeah maybe it would be more of a mass effect type game. like action adventure? less rpg? i know a magic free roam game has been done before, like surgical scar said, but the world Rowling designed appealed to me more than other Fantasy worlds. Maybe its the combination of a current world and a magical world? Idk. Its just a world I want to be able to experience, first hand, without all the constraints of a story line that read before, and doesn't work in a game.

p.s. ith, can you get me a link to the mod? i cant find it.

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

i could wave around the wiimote like a wand, to cast spells. up right and flick left would levitate...

i am sure that some develper in japan is working on that right now and if they are not the they should it seems like it will be good

 

[Shamtee]

I think it'd be alright - but remember there are more harry potter movies coming out so ofcourse there are going to be a flood of more games to choose from.

I personal would love that idea but with discworld instead.

 

[stevesan]

i think it's got potential. i'm envisioning something like Psychonauts + GTA...free roaming around some crazy magical world, learning new spells, improving your skills. with a cartoonish graphical style.

just remember. ideas are a dime a dozen. would you be interested in actually pursuing this idea? ie. do you have free time and will power to work hard on a game? if so, lemme know.