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Broom Ruins
Ancient Magic Hotspot in the Feldcroft Region
The Context
While working on Hogwarts Legacy, I was part of the Overlands team, fleshing out the optional open world content. As part of this, I was tasked with creating a few different ancient magic hotspots, puzzle locations where the player activates a central hub spot and then must gather three different pickups to expand their ancient magic meter.
My central idea for this ancient magic puzzle was a tall rock structure accessible only by broom, so I was able to place a broom landing pad here to encourage the player to get up here.
After landing, the player activates the central hub.
The first pickup is just inside the central gate, with some simple platforms to scale up.
Since the player can use the broom during these puzzles, I tried to find ways to encourage going on foot, since that's inherently more interesting. Since the player can't use spells on their broom, I put this one behind a wall of burnable vines, with a break in the foliage so the player can see the pickup.
The view from behind the burnable vines.
I wanted to incorporate another puzzle into this, as with most of our content which served multiple purposes. I found through experimenting with our mechanics, that burning these vines would also cause a wooden platform to break, so I put this golden puzzle cube here.
When the player burns the vines, the cube also drops down, along with some boxes (for drama) and some loot. The player can then use this puzzle cube to open up a nearby cave entrance. I originally wanted the third ancient magic pickup to be inside that cave, but through playtesting, it was deemed a bit too difficult to require it.
Instead, I opted to have the third pickup lead the player to the cave entrance so they can use the cube.