Harry Potter RPG Built Entirely In Minecraft Is Years In The Making

Minecraft is one of those strokes of genius that may have left you wondering what took so long for someone to make it. Its open-world platform has become the home for many virtual worlds, including those that tie into some existing franchise. Sometimes that becomes an official promo but, most of the time, it takes the collective effort of fans to recreate a familiar universe in the blocky world. That's exactly what is now about to burst to the public with an unofficial Harry Potter RPG that puts all the iconic places and objects of the fictional world in Minecraft.

This "game within a game" didn't exactly start out this way. Almost five years ago, the Minecraft modding team that call themselves The Floo Network set out to simply create blocky versions of Harry Potter locations. After that was accomplished, however, they set their eyes on a loftier goal: a Harry Potter RPG inside vanilla Minecraft.

Don't be disappointed if you don't get to don the likeness of characters from the franchise or fling wands at nefarious villains. This is RPG at its purest where you get to role-play your own Hogwarts student. The world is filled with magic which, if you're familiar with how Minecraft works, is quite an accomplishment. Instead of a visitor at a theme park, this RPG puts you in the shoes of a Hogwarts student.

And you're not limited to strolling through Hogwarts either. The sprawling world recreates all the familiar places of the books, including the sometimes shady Diagon Alley and the boisterous neighborhood of Hogsmeade. You might encounter a few puzzles and quests here and there to give some semblance of a typical computer RPG but nothing award-winning.

The Harry Potter RPG isn't yet available to the public but, being a vanilla map, should be compatible with most players' clients. The Floo Network is running a Patreon campaign to help fund their laudable efforts and they hope to release the map this month for free.