’Castle Village’: An Exclusive!
Feature
Written by joyellen
Edited by kvmw
Welcome back, magical readers, to this issue of the Daily Diviner! In this article we will be exploring the upcoming ‘Castle Village’ build which has been in the works for a while. I’m excited to finally uncover some of the mystery surrounding this mystical build! To do so, we’ll be interviewing Zis, who helped build ‘Castle Village’, and Mckenzie, who was involved in creating the lore surrounding the build. Without further ado, let’s get into the interview questions!Feature
Written by joyellen
Edited by kvmw
From an architect’s perspective, what is the ‘Castle Village’ build?
Zis: ‘Castle Village’ is, obviously, a new village that we want to add to Potterworld. This village will be located on the east side of the map on a hill. It’s a village with just a castle overlooking. The castle is mainly Tudor inspired yet you can clearly see that it is way older than that. The interiors are entirely made. There’s something special about this home but that will be up to the players to find out. The same applies to the village. Some elements inside and outside of it show that it may have been founded during the Middle Ages whether it’s a ruined wall or a ruined tower. The village itself looks normal for a muggle village, it has electric poles, a bus stop, phone boxes and pretty much usual shops and places such as a pub, a post office and many more. Yet, I’m sure that if you look around and pay attention to details you may find special places.
From a lore perspective, what is the ‘Castle Village’?
Mckenzie: From what I know, the Castle Ruins build is a concept for a new town that I’m sure the player base will love. No spoilers, but it’s going to be awesome!
How long has this project been in the works?
Zis: We’ve been working on this project since January of this year. It all started when members of the build team began to share ideas of villages we could add to the map. Of course, this project is still in progress.
Mckenzie: I’m not sure how long Build has been working on it, but lore has very recently gotten involved in planning out what the background of the build will look like. Build has been giving us some interesting input that we may use in the final product!
Did you draw inspiration from anywhere for this build?
Zis: We indeed got some inspiration from real places in England. For instance, we used Corfe Castle, which is a village from the Dorset county in Southern England, to design the village itself and get our main idea which is a village with a ruined castle on the top of a hill. However, we used Arundel castle to design the castle itself. We wanted to have a castle that looked as if it went through centuries. Of course, the castle would have been modified by its different owners. When you look at it you need to tell yourself ‘this is not only the home of a wealthy family but this also the home of a very old family’.
What is the process like for creating lore surrounding a build? Do you have a set process specifically for builds?
Mckenzie: When we create lore for a build, Jackie, me, or a lore master will lead a group of other team members. Usually, the groups will visit the town they’re creating lore for and then come up with unique ideas for both using the environment that the build team has created. We try to craft lore that can be used in a variety of ways by a multitude of teams.
What is the most challenging aspect of this project?
Zis: The most challenging aspect of this project would be starting from nothing. We not only had to think of a location, but also think of a main idea that would make the village unique compared to the others we already have on the map. The build team also had to think of details that would help create a story for the village and help the unspeakable team to make unique quests. I personally love to see how the village has changed and keeps changing. This is quite new for us to work in this way, usually the Game Design team would contact us with a village that already has its own lore, character and stories. This time, the build team is the one setting the base and doing its best to help the different Game Design departments to work on it.
Mckenzie: The most challenging aspect of this project is most likely how much wiggle room we have. There are essentially no boundaries to what we can make of the town’s history (minus the build itself). It’s sometimes hard to be concise! We have so many talented writers and world crafters.
Any additional comments?
Zis: I can’t wait for the players to visit the village, walk around its streets, meet its people and discover its history. I know that out of all the villages I’ve been working on, this project is the one I’m having the most fun working on and might be my favorite village so far.
Mckenzie: I’m anticipating the release of this just as much as the rest of the team, I think! Can’t wait for all of Potterworld to see what we’ve all been working on.
I would love to give a big thanks to Zis and Mckenzie for their interviews! It’s exciting to see the development of this build come along and it has been such a pleasure unravelling some of the mysteries surrounding ‘Castle Village’. Please keep an eye out for any extra information and for the release date of this build. This concludes the article; thank you to our lovely readers for tuning into this issue! This has been Joy, reporting for the Daily Diviner, and have a magical day!