''Book of Spells'' (or ''Wonderbook: Book of Spells'') is a 2012 augmented reality game developed by London Studio and published by

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

. It serves as a companion to the ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'' series and is based on ''Book of Spells'', a fictional book by Miranda Goshawk released about 200 years from the event date. ''Book of Spells'' received mostly positive reviews from critics, praising the use of augmented reality and the PlayStation Move, while criticizing the game's short length.

Gameplay

The user casts spells by drawing shapes with the PlayStation Move controller, while the book itself uses

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

technology to appear on screen via the PlayStation Eye. The Move controller itself appears on screen as a wand, and may draw patterns on screen to launch spells. ''Book of Spells'' is designed to be an interpretation of learning spells at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the ''

'' universe, with the "book" itself having been written in the ''Harry Potter'' universe over 200 years ago by Miranda Goshawk. At the end of each chapter, a poem will describe a failed Hogwarts student in order to teach the user a lesson in the manner of

Aesop's fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...

. At the start of the game, players choose one of the four Hogwarts houses, and one of three different wands. If, however, the player has a Pottermore account, they can link it to the game, in which case the in-game choices will reflect those they made on the site. In addition to the specific spells covered by each chapter, the player is sometimes given the opportunity to briefly make use of other spells, such as the Oppugno Jinx. The player, however, does not actually learn the gestures for these spells and thus is not tested over this material.

Development

To develop the game the

team worked with ''Harry Potter'' author J. K. Rowling, who described it as "the closest a Muggle can come to a real spellbook". Rowling had previously worked with Sony on her Pottermore website, and the company at one point had an exclusive contract to release ''Harry Potter''

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

s. The game was launched as the first title for the Wonderbook on the

at the 2012

Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo) was an annual Trade fair, trade event for the video game industry organized and presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). It was held principally in Los Angeles from 1995 to 2019, wit ...

. It was released in the United States on 13 November, 15 November in Australia, and 16 November in Europe.

Reception

''Book of Spells'' received mixed to positive reviews from game critics. It holds a 72 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, indicating "Mixed or Average reviews." Critics praised the use of the Wonderbook technology by the use of both the PlayStation Move and augmented reality, while criticizing the game's short replay value. The ''Book of Spells'' was nominated for a ''BATA'' in the ‘Game Innovation 2013′ category.

Sequel

The second Harry Potter-themed ''Wonderbook'' game is '' Book of Potions'', released in 2013.

References

External links

PlayStation UK page

Pottermore page
{{Authority control 2012 video games Fantasy video games Harry Potter video games London Studio games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation 3-only games PlayStation Move-compatible games PlayStation Move-only games Single-player video games Sony Interactive Entertainment games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Wonderbook games