Harry Potter works Lego magic

The Lego video-game franchise is known for turning epic blockbusters into addictive collect-a-thons that appeal to children and adults alike. So it came as no surprise when developer Traveller's Tales announced that its next Lego-infused adventure would tap the rich lore of the Harry Potter books. Besides a trailer and some early screens, little is known about the project, which is set for release this year. We interviewed Loz Doyle, producer of "Lego Harry Potter," to fix that.

Q How closely will the game follow J.K. Rowling's original fiction? Are you taking any liberties?

A With such an incredible story to play with, and as big fans of the books, we very naturally follow the fiction very closely. We do it in a Lego way, of course. So while we're faithful to the core story elements and scenes, we do like to make the player laugh and add in some new twists suited to the Lego world.

Q Are you separating the years into individual story arcs? Will there be new content for "Harry Potter" fans, as well?

A Yes, each year will be treated separately, so you will be able to play through the individual stories of Years 1, 2, 3 and 4. As always, there are many different characters for players to unlock, which means that you'll also be able to play as characters that you normally would not expect to be in a particular story year. For example, you can take Professor Quirrell into Year 4. While we're not introducing new story content ... there will be many areas within Hogwarts that weren't necessarily featured heavily in the films and you'll have a chance to play around and explore those areas, as well.

Q Will "Lego Harry Potter" feature a hub world similar to the one introduced in "Indiana Jones 2"?

A Once you're at Hogwarts in a specific year, you're essentially living out that year, as in the films. Hogwarts is a rich environment, with all of the rooms and areas that you would expect to find there: the Great Hall, the Forbidden Forest, Gryffindor common room and so on. The lessons and levels are all triggered from within Hogwarts. There's no going to menus or to different hubs from within that story; it's all there. Diagon Alley is where we have all of the shops, so you can buy characters, access the customizer and select which year you want to play in from there.

A "Harry Potter" is all about magic and spells, so that's the primary focus of the game play. We have a large variety of spells and potions that you learn over the course of the four years you spend at Hogwarts. Some spells are locked to specific characters, as are some special magical abilities. But we have a powerful new in-game Lego building system using the Wingardium Leviosa spell, which you learn very early in the story, and which almost all characters use. The spell enables you to lift individual Lego blocks and stack them up in any way you wish. This gives us a powerful tool for creating new kinds of puzzles with more depth than you've seen before in a Lego game.

Q What are the character archetypes for the game? Will you be controlling different versions of "Harry Potter" with different magic abilities, similar to "Lego Batman"? Or will different students use different spells?