What Is It?
Hogwarts Mystery is a mobile adventure game that takes players though the 7 years of Hogwarts Wizarding experience. Players take the role of a customizable student uncovering secrets, building friendships, and meeting a cast of magical characters new and old.
Produced by mobile developer Jam City, in partnership with Warner Brothers Entertainment, Hogwarts Mystery remains one of the studio’s most popular apps. It is well loved with a wide player base and content released weekly.
Role Overview
Title: Associate Game Designer III (Content)
Period: February 2021 - Present
Description: Associate Games Designers (AGDs) own game content implementation from start to finish. AGDs implement narrative, art, and design assets based on a provided script. We hold ownership over the visual feel and technical quality of individual game scenes.
My Role
Primary Role
Scene Implementation: AGDs interpret narrative provided scripts into playable content using available assets and proprietary tools. Our scripting tools are accessed via a Google Sheets API utilizing JSON. For 3D implementation AGDs use a version of Maya outfitted with custom tools.
Secondary Roles
Asset Design: AGDs may be responsible for animation planning. This is a task in which the AGD describes the technical and visual needs of a game animation for the benefit of the animation team. This is achieved through a combo of text description, storyboards, diagrams, 3D model posing, and/or example video clips.
Script Review: Content designers perform script review in order to determine the practicality of new narrative scripts. The designer reads through new chapters and records any new animations, assets, or characters called out. They also determine if the number of characters or stage directions is appropriate for the given game environment. The designer also estimates hourly implementation costs. If the content cost is too high for a chapter the reviewer may give suggestions as to how to lower it.
Example Work
This is the first scene of HP:HM’s post-Hogwarts content. This scene introduces the player to never before seen content: they see their character and friends all-grown up and Harry makes his first in-game appearance! I am very proud of the camera work and set-dressing of this scene. For this scene I studied the Sorcerer’s Stone Diagon Alley scene to reference the background actors and camera shots from the movie!
This is the closing scene of the first Halloween side-quest I worked on. I am particularly fond of my background work in this scene. I feel the population and acting of the set dressing brought the scene to life.