The new Harry Potter game, Hogwarts Legacy, already has a highly unofficial and very… different looking “remake” in the works, as one intrepid developer rebuilds the entire RPG in a single day, with plans to launch their budget version of Hogwarts Legacy as a fully playable free game – a neat distraction as we hit the Hogwarts Legacy early access period.
Creator of Lego Fallout and Lego God of War, ThrillDaWill has managed the seemingly impossible task of making Hogwarts Legacy – or at least, a playable version of Hogwarts Legacy – in 24 hours. Using Unreal Engine, the developer starts by importing a basic character model and movement system.
That all looks about right, but ThrillDaWill hits a snag with the Hogwarts school uniforms. Modelling capes and gowns that realistically flap around while you move takes a lot of work. With the clock ticking, ThrillDaWill rigs a quick system to make the bottom half of the outfits react to movement and quickly moves on – the result is, well…the outfits do move.
The developer then adds a wand that shoots green lightning and imports a ready-made inventory and pick-up system. Enemies come in the form of some pre-built zombies and goblins, and then ThrillDaWill finds a model of Hogwarts castle, and spends hours adding textures to each of its 3 million polygons.
Broom flight is… even trickier. ThrillDaWill settles on a basic, modern-day, janitorial broom and makes a rough system so you can fly around the map. Using some motion-capture software, the developer records a few bespoke animations, then adds a quest where you need to find butterbeer for Hagrid, who appears as a polygonal recreation of the PS1 Hagrid from The Philosopher’s Stone.
ThrillDaWill names their game ‘Wacky Wizard Legacy,’ but it’s currently too large to fit on Itch. The developer says they are doing “some optimising” and that it will be on the platform soon, offering us a very, very cut-rate version of Hogwarts Legacy for absolutely free.
Alternatively, if you want to play the full, actual version of Hogwarts Legacy, check out all the best Hogwarts Legacy spells. You might also want to take a look around the full Hogwarts Legacy map, or maybe start mixing some Hogwarts Legacy potions, to keep you going during those long classes. New Hogwarts Legacy mods are being created every day, some changing the open-world game completely.
The creator of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, has made a number of transphobic remarks on social media in recent years. Warner Bros. has the licence to make games based on Harry Potter. While the details of that deal aren’t publicly known, and WB Games says “J.K. Rowling is not directly involved in the creation of the game”, it is likely that, as the creator and owner of the Harry Potter IP, she will earn royalties from its sales. If you’d like to learn more about transgender equality or lend your support, here are two important charities we encourage you to check out: the National Center for Transgender Equality in the US, and Mermaids in the UK.