Hogwarts Legacy is an immersive, open-world action RPG set in the world first introduced in the Harry Potter books. For the first time, experience Hogwarts in the 1800s. Your character is a student who holds the key to an ancient secret that threatens to tear the wizarding world apart. Now you can take control of the action and be at the center of your own adventure in the wizarding world. Your legacy is what you make of it.
Aidan O'Keefe was an Associate Game Designer at Avalanche Software during the development of Hogwarts Legacy, working primarily with the Combat team during his time on the game. He worked on a variety of content, ranging from boss fights to minigames to exclusive DLC missions included in the Deluxe edition of the game. Throughout the process, he interfaced heavily with level design strike teams, UI designers and engineers, cinematics teams, and external studios to bring many facets of the game to life, serving as both designer and scripter for many features.
Aidan was in charge of the design and implementation of multiple boss fights throughout the Hogwarts Legacy main story, including key encounters with Victor Rookwood and his right-hand man Theophilus Harlow. In addition to main story bosses, he also designed and implemented the capstone boss fight for the Sebastian Sallow relationship storyline against Solomon Sallow, and the PlayStation-exclusive quest "Minding Your Own Business" final boss fight against Cassandra Mason. Aidan was the designer who crafted the combat encounters and also incorporated these fights into the quest system. Below is a gameplay video of the Victor Rookwood boss fight:
Aidan worked with other key members of the design team and external studios on Combat-related systems and mechanics. Alongside the Combat team at Avalanche, he was a key member of the design process behind Ancient Magic pickups, a system that rewards players for performing long combos against enemies and encourages players to use their most powerful spells in every fight. He also worked alongside the Avalanche Combat team and the team at Certain Affinity on the Dueling Feats system, a set of mini-objectives that guide players towards unique and interesting combat interactions. He worked on both the systemic design of the Dueling Feats system as well as designing some of the individual feats.
Pictured above: An example of the Dueling Feats system, showing players optional tasks relevant to the fight at hand.
Aidan worked on multiple minigames that feature throughout the Hogwarts Legacy experience. He was a designer and implementer on the "Wand Link" moments that occur during key boss fights, a callback to moments in the films where two wizards begin a push and pull battle when their spells connect as they cast them at each other. He worked on iterating the controls of the wand link gameplay as well as difficulty tuning throughout the design process. Aidan was also a key designer on the Spell Learning minigames, allowing players to feel as if they are controlling their wand directly as they cast a new spell for the first time. He helped iterate on initial prototypes of the Spell Learning minigame before landing on the final, shipped version. Below is a gameplay video of the spell learning minigame:
Aidan implemented Battle Arenas that appear throughout the game world, designing content to challenge and entertain high-level gamers while also remaining approachable for newer players. Battle Arenas are self-contained arenas where players are tasked with defeating wave after wave of enemies with little break in between in exchange for exclusive gear pieces. Aidan implemented combat challenges in the North Coast Battle Arena, the Feldcroft Battle Arena, and the Deluxe Edition-exclusive Dark Arts Battle Arena, where players could experience the "unforgiveable" curses for the first time. Below is the official gameplay video of the Dark Arts Battle Arena:
Aidan created cinematic templates used for introducing players to enemies for the first time. These cutscene templates were distributed to level designers and allowed them to highlight new enemies introduced for the first time in the game flow, showcasing enemies that would appear in later combat encounters and in the world. Below is a gameplay video showing one of these introductory cutscenes in action:
Aidan's key contribution to Hogwarts Legacy was the "Combat Encounter Standards" that defined clear rules and expectations for all combat encounters throughout the game, whether these were part of main story missions or incidental encounters with roving creatures in the open world. Aidan developed these standards as part of an initiative to improve combat consistency throughout the game in early 2022, while continuously auditing and improving the over 200 combat encounters players could encounter during quests and every possible combination of enemies fighting in the world. Below is the original Combat Encounter Standards presentation from March 23rd, 2022 that launched the initiative to improve, balance, and standardize enemy encounters throughout Hogwarts Legacy:
HOGWARTS LEGACY software © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Developed by Avalanche Software. WIZARDING WORLD and HARRY POTTER Publishing Rights © J.K. Rowling. PORTKEY GAMES, HOGWARTS LEGACY, WIZARDING WORLD AND HARRY POTTER characters, names and related indicia © and ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
