It's no exaggeration to say that the sandbox construction game Minecraft has facilitated players building anything they can imagine for over 10 years. In fact, that all-encompassing freedom has landed it on many people's "most influential games" lists come the turn of the decade. So while it is not surprising to see a large-scale project recreating the world of Harry Potter, it is staggering how much effort a group of creators called The Floo Network has put into bringing that world to life.
A four-minute gameplay trailer for The Floo Network's Minecraft masterpiece, which they are calling the "Minecraft School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," was uploaded to their YouTube channel and various other social media platforms.
It showcases an impressive spread of locations from the world created by J.K. Rowling's pantheon of novels that became a worldwide sensation starting in the late 90s (and is still being milked by Warner Bros. through new official stores), including Harry's muggle home on Privet Drive, Diagon Alley, and of course the entirety of Hogwarts school — right down to the Chamber of Secrets buried underneath.
But the team did not stop at constructing an aesthetic experience. The trailer also displays modded elements like usable spells, many of which are elaborated on in previous videos on The Floo Network's YouTube channel. This kind of dedication to the original source material is great for anyone still waiting on the Harry Potter RPG that has quietly been in development.
It would have been a shame if the team didn't go to that extra effort given the potential of Minecraft to recreate other gameplay experiences, as seen in a recent Doom mod.
This blocky version Hogwarts has been in the works for "a bloody long time now" according to The Floo Network's most recent post on the community forum Planet Minecraft. For a sense of how bloody long it has been, the project was originally published to that forum on June 20, 2015 and a first playable build was released just over two years ago.
In the description of the trailer on YouTube, The Floo Network says it hopes to release the finished product by the end of January. It will be free to download and play, but fans can support the project for as little as $3 a month on Patreon — which frankly is well worth it seeing the amount of love put in.
As Mojang gears up to release a dungeon-crawling spin-off called Minecraft: Dungeons in April, it's somewhat mind-boggling to think about the staying power that original game has had. But then a project like this one combining Minecraft and Harry Potter rears its head, and suddenly everything makes sense.