'Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery' lets you live your Hogwarts dreams

Everybody wants to go to Hogwarts. That's a fact.

With Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, you can finally live that dream.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery launches Wednesday on iOS and and Google Play, putting players in the shoes of a first year Hogwarts student as you get sorted into a house, cast spells, take classes, meet new students and iconic professors, and work your way all the way up to year seven. It's the entire Hogwarts schooling experience presented for the first time through the eyes of someone other than Harry Potter.

I had a chance to play through the beginning of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery and talk to writer Matt London about this unique story in the wizarding world and how Hogwarts Mystery fits into the larger Harry Potter universe.

First off, one of the most interesting things about Hogwarts Mystery is its place in the timeline. The game starts seven years before Harry's first year at Hogwarts. Voldemort is presumed dead after his killing curse repels off of Harry. With Voldemort out of the picture (for the moment) and many Death Eaters shipped off to Azkaban, some children of Death Eaters are returning to Hogwarts with that inescapable reputation looming over them.

So as you begin your time at Hogwarts (after buying books in Diagon Alley, making a new friend, and getting sorted into your house), you'll see a bunch of new characters as well as the professors that we've all grown to love. Plus you'll meet some younger versions of characters that don't get a lot of time in the Harry Potter series, like Charlie Weasley and Nymphadora Tonks, and others who are related to the series' fan-favorite characters.

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London, who describes himself as a huge Harry Potter fan, said that working on Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery and working within such a beloved universe felt like a gift.

"Being able to play around with some of the characters that I have grown up with and have loved so much was a really awesome experience," he said. "Being able to draw on such rich source material, and to be able to tell a new story within that world — everyone on the team, all of us, knew that this was an incredible gift and also a great responsibility, to know that we have a lot of fans counting on us to deliver a story that would resonate with people who had been in touch with the brand for a long time.”

Of course, the team was careful to work within the existing world and wasn’t about to mess with anything, London said, but that didn't stop them from including an incredible amount of references to the original series.

There is a lot to do in Hogwarts Mystery. In my short time with the game, I received my Hogwarts letter (a momentous occasion), got ready for school at Diagon Alley, was sorted into Hufflepuff, took a charms class with Professor Flitwick and a potions class with Professor Snape, and was showed a later portion of the game where I fought a well-known student in a duel. And it seems like that was just scratching the surface of what you get to experience as a Hogwarts student.

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"At it's heart, this game is Hogwarts Mystery," London said, putting emphasis on the word Hogwarts. "So we really want this to be the experience of you being able to create your own character, go to Hogwarts, and be a student there at the school. [The game] captures that whole experience of being a Hogwarts student: learning spells, making friends, forming rivalries, solving mysteries, and having adventures."

From what I experienced, the game itself is a well-guided experience. The gameplay is meant to be very accessible and easy to pick up so that everyone can play, even if they’re new to video games, London said, but deep enough to keep things interesting.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is completely free to play, although players who don't want to go to class to gain resources or want to suit their character up with different clothing can pay to speed things up or get new cosmetic items.

But outside of that, the game really seems to capture that Hogwarts experience that we've all been clamoring for, starting with your own personalized letter to Hogwarts.