Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Designer Diary--The Motion Controls

Electronic Arts has been cranking out Harry Potter-based action games ever since the phenomenally popular book series started becoming a similarly successful line of motion pictures. Just as the books become progressively darker and more mature, the fifth game in the series, The Order of the Phoenix, appears to be the most ambitious project yet in terms of scope and gameplay mechanics. Executive producer Harvey Elliott took some time to fill us in on the spell-casting motion controls that will be found in the Wii and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.

A Flick of the Wand

By Harvey Elliott, Executive Producer

We wanted the spells to feel more magical than just pressing a button and believed that only by casting the magic yourself would you really get that feeling. One of the major inspirations was the Wii controller--getting to put a wand in the player's hand was clearly one of the most appropriate uses of the remote--and we really had to make it work for our game. Once we'd figured it out, we realized we'd get a really good feel from the right-analogue stick on most controllers, the mouse on PC, and the Sixaxis for the PS3...

We have six charms (or spells to use to interact with the world): lift, push, pull, break, repair, and ignite. We also have six jinxes for combat, which are unlocked as you go through the story. They use very similar gestures so that it doesn't become a complex memory test, and we made sure that the gesture matches the action. So, for example, if you want to push something away from you, you'd just give it a shove forward. To lift up a chair, you'd cast the Wingardium Leviosa charm--the gesture for that is to push the analog stick up and then from left to right at the top or simply to lift it using the Wii Remote or Sixaxis. If you want to lift an opponent in combat and turn him or her upside down, you use the same gesture; the game will cast it based on context.

Once we developed the spells we wanted the player to have, we had to find a new way to use them. Hogwarts is a magical school, so students there should be able to cast magic all over the place--not just when we decide they can. As you walk around our open world, there are literally hundreds of objects to interact with, such as fixing broken suits of armour, moving furniture to climb on, lighting candles, throwing pumpkins, pulling cords--the list goes on and on. Casting the right spell on the right object means you may well discover a secret and earn discovery points. The more discovery points you earn, the more powerful your magic becomes, which means that your combat spells become more powerful. Your navigational spells also gain accuracy and power. Later on in the game, you have some bigger battles to get through, so unless you've upgraded your magic when facing six Slytherins, you're going to find yourself back in the hospital wing pretty quickly.

The six combat spells are Expelliarmus (useful for disarming an opponent when he or she is down); Stupefy (a stunning spell, powerful but slow); Protego (to deflect spells coming your way); Rictusempra (a faster stun, but not as powerful as Stupefy); Petrificus Totalus (paralyses your opponent); and my personal favourite, Levicorpus (levitate your enemy). Working out the best strategy in any combat situation is fun. We have weekly competitions in the office to see how quickly we can win or whether we can win without using certain spells, and that helps us balance the game.