aceaspades on Nostr: If I had the opportunity to release a total overhaul mod for Hogwarts Legacy, here it ...

If I had the opportunity to release a total overhaul mod for Hogwarts Legacy, here it is:

You begin as an excited first-year student. A couple of events take place that are iconically Harry Potter: receiving your letter, shopping for all your school supplies at Diagon Alley, then stepping onto Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station and boarding the Hogwarts Express.

Arriving at Hogsmeade, you're loaded with all the other first years into the boats, and sail across the water, hearing all the excitable chatter from other students, and watch Hogwarts grow steadily closer.

Into the Great Hall, through the Sorting Ceremony, a feast to remember, an opportunity to make new friends, then it's off to bed.

Here begins the core gameplay loop.

The sun rises, and you awake with your HUD displaying a clock, and your day's schedule is easily accessible from a quick-bar menu. The clock is ticking, so you'll need to get dressed, get breakfast, and get to your first class in time.

You are free to explore the castle as you wish, but if you're caught out of class, you're dragged by your ear to the classroom none the less... unless you can shake loose from the Groundskeeper's grasp.

Your actions have impact, your spellcasting is terrible, your aptitude for each subject grows with your engagement. Classes teach new spells, potions, history, and all the subjects we love the most about the Wizarding World.

Each day, your classes form the backbone of your day, colored with emergent interactions with a fantastic cast of NPCs.

Each year passes, your character grows older, a record of your participation (or lack there-of) follows your progress through your seven years as a Hogwarts student.

Explore the castle, explore the countryside, play Quidditch, get into some hijinx, and when your later years come, you'll be tested on your knowledge of witchcraft and wizardry, before finally obtaining your school credit and graduating from prestigious Hogwarts.

And, when the seven years is all up, your character's visage is added to the Alumni Wall, for your future characters to see, and look up to.

THAT is the Hogwarts Legacy that I wanted to play.

Bless the devs for their incredible work, but Hogwarts Legacy became a sparkly gun-toting shoot-em-up with wands, and lacked the depth that our generation is so desperately craving from safe, subpar explorations of immersive game mechanics and emergent gameplay.

Before you say "that's impossible" or even "improbable", though it requires a different approach to game development, and a certain amount of risk is involved, from my experience in game development, I would say it is absolutely possible.

We must rethink the way our industry approaches AAA funding, release, and development. THAT is a subject for another day.

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