The Art and Making of Hogwarts Legacy celebrates “exploring the unwritten Wizarding World”. Here, you’ll be able to peer behind the curtain of this epic game, look at concept art, game renders and illustrations, read interviews with the developers and discover different facets of the story and characters of Hogwarts Legacy. So, where to begin?
Hogwarts Legacy is wrapped up in a fascinating, mysterious story helmed by you. In The Art and Making of Hogwarts Legacy, you’ll learn more about the artistic choices that went behind the game’s sprawling tale – and how you can develop and influence your own storyline. Discover easter eggs, exclusive interviews with those that made this fabulous game, and gather up fun facts to impress your friends.
This richly detailed game is full of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments that the book wants you to see. Everything from the confectionary packaging at Honeydukes sweet shop to the lavish architecture of the Hogwarts bathrooms is captured in this lovingly put together volume. Here’s a couple of areas you’ll be able to explore.
The settings
The book is crammed with beautiful full-colour paintings of the insides and outsides of Hogwarts, and also goes beyond the grounds – where you’ll find gorgeous landscapes, old-worldy hamlets and glowing graveyards. Hogwarts Legacy’s Environment Team were instrumental in sourcing foundational ideas for the locations you see in the game – facing several technical challenges along the way. In the book, you can learn about those creative journeys.
You’ll also be able to examine concept sketches of how these locations came to be, and some of the inspirations for this late 1800s aesthetic.
Expect the familiar and the unfamiliar. While the outskirts of Hogwarts will gift you with new locations, there are some old haunts Harry Potter fans will know all too well, such as the shops of Diagon Alley and of course, Hogwarts castle itself. And although we are hundreds of years into the past (Harry’s story takes place in the 1990s) you’ll see that the Victorian stylings and thatched roofs of some of the buildings is still prominent well into the Harry Potter era of the stories. The wizarding community likes to protect their history!
Hogwarts
Across the book, you’ll learn about the design stories behind many elements of the game - and just how much magic went into making an open-world RPG of this size and scale, predominantly set inside a labyrinthine castle.
The Hogwarts Legacy art team have worked tirelessly on making sure every environment and artefact are unique.
Recreating Hogwarts and all of its secrets in the most realistic way possible is surely no easy feat. In the book, you’ll be able to look inside iconic rooms and classrooms that have been lovingly recreated, examine specific objects, from portraits to potions bottles, and learn more about what you can do at the school, from growing magical plants to navigating your Hogwarts house common room. Each common room is celebrated in the book for you to have a good look at, with full in-game renders of the differences between Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin – with commentary from the designers on the themes and motifs they studied to represent each common room’s personality.
The characters
Of course, you are the main character in Hogwarts Legacy – but there are also new teachers to meet, new students to befriend, and new enemies to face. But naturally, there are certain faces that you will recognise, such as the ghosts of Hogwarts – from Professor Binns to Nearly Headless Nick, and certain names that conjure up connections to future wizarding world character, such as the kindly Professor Weasley or the not-so-kindly Victor Rookwood. In the book, you can enjoy full-spread imagery of everyone you can encounter in Hogwarts Legacy, and learn a little more about their stories.
The beasts
Explore the conception of some of your favourite magical creatures, from cat-like Kneazles to the wide-eyed Mooncalves. You’ll get to meet so many of them during Hogwarts Legacy, and even look after them in your very own Vivarium. Learn how the creatures were brought to life, rendered and animated in the book – and how you’ll be able to interact with them.
You think you know Hogwarts Legacy? This book is about to open your eyes to so much more.
You can pick up the book from Bloomsbury's website now.
