Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire First-Look

Oct 13, 2005

What are the key things that drive the first PSP game for the Harry Potter franchise?

One of the key driving points for us with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for the PSP is the fact that you now have the ability to play Harry Potter to such a high quality on a handheld platform. We've been able to ensure high visual quality—something which we believe we've hit to a really high standard. Alongside the visuals, we've then been able to add variety of gameplay to the levels, unique content just for the PSP version, and rewards that you consistently receive throughout the game. This year we've really pushed up the production quality values that place a big role in immersing players in the Harry Potter world. A few examples include animated 3D cards and movie stills that take you through the Goblet of Fire story. It's the overall immersive experience that drives the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire PSP version.

What is it that excites you when it comes to developing Harry Potter on the PSP?

There are some great titles out in the market already that have set the bar high, but no one has really hit into the action adventure genre hard. We believe Goblet of Fire is really going to take people by surprise this year across the board. The PSP version now gives the player the change to take a high-quality, entertaining, and cinematic game anywhere they go.

Do you get to work closely with the film makers and is there much cooperation and sharing of ideas between the movie and game creators?

Every year that passes, our relationship gets increasingly more solid with he film makers. This year, more so than ever, it is extremely evident. Take the characters for example: You're left with no doubt that you're playing Harry Potter, Hermione, or Ron by the fact they look like their big-screen counterparts, which is a big step forward for us. This was only possible with the cooperation of the film makers in ensuring we had the look, feel, and consistency correct throughout the game. This means when you play the game and then see the movie, you'll recognize locations and details that will feel quite familiar. Considering how strong the media of the game and movie are, this is very important.

We've heard that this year Harry Potter is a fast-paced action game. What were your biggest challenges in achieving this on the PSP?

This year is all about "Mastering the Magic" and that means much more powerful magic with all three players, bigger enemies, amazing locations, and special effects that really push the PSP. All this could potentially be on screen at once and it was a challenge to keep the game running at the same fast pace. We really focused on making the gameplay work well in waves of enemies as opposed to eight on screen at once. Then it was about getting the timing right with those waves, keeping the action exciting, and not letting the pace die off. With the 3 players on screen and the ability the power up your spells and take on bigger enemies, we believe we conquered the challenge and you'll like what you see.

Handheld is about on-the-move gaming, so what will make me want to play this game on the move?

With the PSP hardware we've now taken the first steps into the next stage of handheld gaming. For the first time we have the ability to make some PS2 rival games, not only in terms of gameplay, but also with graphics and audio. The fact is that I can now play Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire or Burnout Legends and get that same PS2 experience wherever I want, without the need to find an outlet to plug into or a TV—that's what makes me want to play it!

This year you can play as Harry, Ron, or Hermione which is great, but in previous years you could ride the Hippogriff or control a Rabbit. Do you have anything like that in the PSP version this year?

When we started thinking about ideas for cool things that you could do purely on the PSP, we kept getting feedback that kids loved to be able to take direct control of the creatures and just play with them. We all had our favorite creatures from the Fantastic Beasts book, but the one that everyone loved the look of was the Niffler. This creature is kind of like a ferret, but doesn't have any front legs, which immediately makes it look very endearing. We started playing around with ideas and decided that a time-based challenge, where you have direct control of the Niffler and can make him run around the Hogwarts Grounds, was cool. That's where we ended up. We added lots of different courses for the Niffler to take on and beat. It's ended up being the feature that everyone immediately smiles and enjoys from the first time you hear the little creature chirrup.

Are there any features in the PSP game that aren't in the other formats?

There are indeed. We wanted to focus more on mini-games that you can play in the car on the way to school or while waiting in long lines as an aside to the main game. We came up with four games: Dugbug Bulb Raid, Niffler Time Challenge, and two different card games that suit the PSP really well as they are not only great fun to play as a single player challenge, but you can also play them multiplayer wirelessly. The wireless capabilities of the PSP make it a great platform for kids to enjoy playing games together, wherever they are. As I said earlier, you don't have to be stuck in the house in front of the TV anymore to play, you can be literally anywhere.

We've seen that Burnout Legends has game sharing. Have you made use of this feature with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?

Game sharing was something we all looked at and just thought, "Wow...that is going to be a really great thing to play around with." We watched the Burnout team get excited about the latest stuff they were playing with on game sharing and it made us set ourselves the challenge of coming up with something that could live up to what they'd done before and maybe take it a step further. To that end we made sure that every multiplayer mini-game that could be played wirelessly with multiple UMD's should also be designed and coded with game sharing in mind. We wanted to get the upload times down to as little as possible, so that the player wasn't left waiting. We're proud that all of our multiplayer games can be shared in under a minute. Dugbog Bulb Raid, Wizard Pairs, and Exploding Snap can all be played multiplayer via game sharing.

How has the Potter franchise changed on the handheld format over the years and where do you see it going in future years?

To start on the GBC and now moving onto the PSP, the difference visually is amazing but to some extent it also follows the way Harry Potter has grown up in the storyline. In the first year at Hogwarts, Harry was not a powerful Wizard, which meant the effects that we produced on the GBC and GBA suited that. As Harry progressed through the years, he became more powerful and actually through the media of film you can see that world is a much more rich and textured. This is where the development of Harry on the PSP has really enabled us to portray this and show it off to the fullest. I'm looking forward to the future of connectivity in general with the PSP and the ability to combine efforts on more than one platform for more rewards.

What were your initial thoughts when the PSP was announced and how did your attitudes change once we started getting more detailed info and then the hardware itself?

"One exciting machine!" When we actually got it in our hands that buzz was great and this only pushed further forward in our mindset to deliver great games, especially as Harry Potter, along with Burnout Legends, were going to be the first PSP titles from the UK studio and people would be looking at us for the second generation titles, not first. Certain aspirational targets had to be modified or switched as new information came along about the hardware to ensure that we were pushing the PSP in the right direction. The key always went back to making sure that this game looked and felt great to play. The PSP is such a great machine. It needs great software and that's where we believe we've nailed it with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.