Wonderbook: Book of Potions arrives on PS3 next month

Hi everyone. After finishing Wonderbook: Book of Spells last year – the first PottermoreTM title we created for Wonderbook – and being totally absorbed in the world of Harry PotterTM there still seemed to be a wealth of experiences left to explore within the Restricted Section of the HogwartsTM library. So we are really happy to be bringing Wonderbook: Book of Potions to all you budding young witches and wizards this November.

Working again with Pottermore and J.K. Rowling, we’ve been able to explore the magical subject of Potions. From the outset we really wanted to capture the fun, mess and chaos found in science kits, while also remaining truly authentic to the world of Harry Potter – but unlike a science kit, there’s no cleaning up required!

A brand new character
I was really excited when J.K. Rowling decided to create a brand new character especially for Book of Potions. Zygmunt Budge, one of the most accomplished Potioneers ever known, was an eccentric, unstable and vengeful wizard who left Hogwarts at the age of 14 as an act of protest. After leaving Hogwarts he lived alone on the remote Hebridean island of Hermetray, where he conducted potion experiments and wrote the Book of Potions.

We had lots of fun bringing his character to life through a number of J.K. Rowling’s delightful stories.

The Book of Potions is a lot older than Miranda Goshawk’s Book of Spells, having been written around the 16th Century, which gives the book itself a very different look and feel.

A new championship
As well as the new character, J.K. Rowling also created the Wizarding Schools Potions Championship. The championship is held in an enchanted garden where students need to use their potioneering skills to overcome a number of challenging obstacles, including many fearsome fantastical beasts, while on a journey to win the elusive Golden Cauldron for Hogwarts.

Members of Pottermore.com – the free immersive and interactive website from J.K. Rowling – will also be able to link their PSN ID to their Pottermore.com account to compete as a member of their Hogwarts™ house, using their very own Pottermore wand.

The art team had a great time depicting J.K. Rowling’s enchanted garden with its array of wildlife and creatures from River Trolls to murderous Red Caps, and Sopophorous Beans to Shrivelfigs.

So what’s the game?
At the start of the game you discover the magical Book of Potions in the Hogwarts Potions dungeon, where you’re introduced to Zygmunt Budge. He is the author of the Book of Potions, but he has left a little too much of his personality within its pages, and his disembodied character acts as your guide.

The book contains a range of well-known potions (seven in total) ranging from the Cure for Boils to Felix Felicis. For Potter fans, there’s a wealth of new content to discover including reveals about the potions’ backgrounds.

Each potion has a dedicated chapter where you learn about the magical plants and creatures that provide the potions ingredients, such as the Shrivelfig plant, unicorns, Knarls and even dragons. Once students have learnt about the ingredients, they then need to prepare them for the potion.

The PlayStation Move becomes a knife for chopping, a mallet for smashing or a mortar for grinding. When prepared, students can add ingredients to their cauldron, testing the concoction along the way to see what hilarious effect it has on your toad. Once successfully brewed, you must use your potion as part of the Wizarding Schools Potions Championship.

Concoctions Chapter
My favourite feature of the game has to be the Concoctions Chapter, where you get to freely experiment with all the collected ingredients found within the book. Here you get to try out your concoctions on the toad and discover hundreds of different effects. Watch out for a fire-breathing ladybird toad or one that floats and belches.

Multiplayer games
To allow you to show off your skills against your friends, a series of two player mini-games can be unlocked throughout the book. So get competing by Stunning the most Knarls and gnomes, or see who can collect the most Streeler shells.

So, now the game’s complete we look forward to the launch of Wonderbook: Book of Potions on the 15th November. Let me know what your toad looks like!