Prerelease:A Hat in Time (Windows, Mac OS X)/2016/Development Streams

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:A Hat in Time (Windows, Mac OS X)/2016.

Despite 2016 not having any new builds for backers, plenty of news about the game was shared on social media, showing the game rapidly approaching its style, aesthetics, and mechanics that would appear in the final game. Some of the biggest sources of information on a few levels in the game are the Development Streams. A grand total of 4 were held this year, and give a very long and clear look at the game a little bit past the midway point of its development.

February 27 2016 (1st Subcon Forest Development Stream)

Arguably the stream that shows the most off of the game at this point, and is ripe with spoilers due to pretty much the entire forest being shown during the stream. Due note that the first 32 minutes of the stream was not recorded, and the stream continued on for an unknown amount of time after the recording ends.

As this stream shows an overwhelming amount of Subcon Forest mid-development, the amount of changes to the final version that can be seen in it is quite large. It's recommended to watch the video for yourself, but several of the major noticeable differences will be summarized here.

• At 22 seconds into the recording, a test map called "DerpMapDebug" can be seen in the recent maps section of the UDK tool. Internally, in the final game, 'derp' is used for the Hat Kid Snatcher clones Snatcher summons during his boss fight.

• At the start of the recorded portion of the stream, Jonas is seen working on applying moss to certain puzzles in the forest. The moss is placeholder, and a finalized version was made but wasn't used for this purpose in the final. In the final, most puzzles have a circular stone platform underneath them.

• The first puzzle that is being worked on in the footage is one on the outer rim of the fiery area of the forest in the final; it's in the same location as the final game. The puzzle is the same, too: Dweller Bell + dweller stumps that the player climbs up to get a treasure chest. Ultimately, the stump that has a chest on it was moved a bit closer to the tallest dweller stump. The ring of Pons around the chest was removed in the final.

• There was originally a large fence running through the left side of the forest and the main path that seemed to block the player's way. Possibly intended to make sure they don't skip the bag sequence. The fence does not seem to appear in the trailer from last month. Even weirder, it stops before it covers ANY of the blue section of the forest, meaning the player could apparently just bypass it anyway.

• Leaf platforms are all using their early crudely drawn leaf texture that is leftover in the final game's Modding Tools.

• The level is still using its older skybox from late 2013. Subcon Forest wouldn't be seen with its final skybox until the first Subcon Swamp stream.

• The Prototype Toilet of Doom decals are being used in the level at this point. At 4:15 in, one appears on a house in the distance. It's the blue mafia face, but it doesn't appear on that house in the final: it appears on the back of the house closest to the 'junction' in the forest.

• A yardang rock close to the giant gravestone once had some kind of sign actor near it, which was removed in the final. There were also some torches next to it on one side and a small circle of rocks, which were removed as well.

• The elusive missing "HatInTime_HUD_Sketchbook" package is seen in the stream at 10:15. This package would contain all of the unique graphics for the scrapped Subcon Map system. This package is not in the final game, or any known version of the Modding Tools. The graphics are not known to have been shown publicly.

• In the content browser, the updated purple Light Plant design can be seen briefly.

• At 30:21, Jonas performs a stylish move. Stylish moves weren't programmed yet in the Beta builds, and were disabled before the final game.

• At 37:22 Jonas moves onto the second puzzle for the stream. The puzzle is the series of steps near the scrapped bonfire location, the same one that can be seen in a Steam Store page screenshot. Two Pink Plants originally guarded a Fire Spirit painting, but almost as soon as he starts on it, he deletes them.

• The bushes around the forest have had their texture updated since the new screenshots that were shared in January 2016.

• The Subcon Spider enemies shown in the stream have completely different textures compared to the ones in the final game. They are green instead of black/purple, and have goofy faces on their backs instead of creepy glowing faces. Their feet are a bright pink instead of red. Although the textures for this design were overwritten later this year and aren't present in the Modding Tools, small remnants of this design can still be seen in their final texture, with unused green parts of the texture sticking out of the UV map area for their abdomen that's actually used by the Subcon Spider's model:
  

• Jonas explains that the goal of the scrapped bonfire was for the player to immediately notice it as the level begins and go over to it. The painting he deleted the two Pink Plants in front of just before is then given a spider placed in front of it, as a trap.

• Bonfire mist particle appears to have been changed? It can be seen being used in a tree house close to the scrapped bonfire location. It's also there in the final, but the color of the mist is different and the mist itself is much thicker in the stream footage. The house is also shown to have the strange glowing eyes in it, which was moved to the house that has the blue mafia decal on it in the final.

• 39:55 The Bushcat Farm area is shown. Puzzles and general area layout is radically different from the final.

• 40:00 The blue area of the forest is shown, but Jonas never sticks in here for long. He does go up to the Subcon Well for a moment, showing that the puzzle to reach the top of the well was the same at this point as it appears in the first Subcon Swamp stream.

• At 47:53, Jonas falls down next to the scrapped bonfire, allowing a closer look at it. The scrapped tentacles that would attach to Fire Spirits are present, and are all hooked onto a spirit except for one that seems to be bugged?

• 56:39 Jonas begins coding in respawning for enemies (The Moon UFO was originally the only enemy that could respawn, and now it's being added to the enemy base class. From the code visible, it apparently was originally meant to only respawn twice?).

• The cherry bomb of doom's class file can be seen in the content browser at one point, showing that the attack was already part of the Toilet of Doom's boss fight by now.

• Jonas ends up creating a brief test room for debugging the spider enemy respawning, called "RespawnDebug".

• At 1:22:12, a few other debug maps can be seen in a map list. "NewGrass", "NewGrass2", and "toiletboss_debug3".

• At 1:35:48 two unknown Routes can be seen. They aren't in the final game.

• At 1:37:30, a scrapped variable called "HasInfiniteEnergy" can be seen in the Hat_Player class file. Not present in the Betas or the final game.

• The Thor Hat was still a cosmetic at this point, and still allowed the player to perform the air attack.

• 1:45:41 starts the third puzzle, which is the giant blue dweller stump. Originally there were far more Pons on top of it, but he cuts it down to 4 on stream. He adds a puzzle grass moss decal to it. In the final, there is no "puzzle" indicator in this area.

• The giant hourglass area is not present at this point. Well, it is, but it's not the hourglass. Instead, it's one of those 'happy' trees, but completely bright white. Can be seen at 2:02:25.

• The oasis (from Sand 'n Sails) is present in the forest at this point.

• At 1:50:51, Jonas just dives over to the start of the level and shows off a lot of the starting area much more clearly. Subcon Nooses could be hookshot at this point. The lanterns around the starting area can be hookshot, which you cannot do in the final. The Subcon Map Sign from the trailer can be seen near the start.

• At 1:56:31 Jonas deletes a sign that the player could interact with to read. Might be related to the unused subcon_signs localization that was in the final game at release?

• At the giant gravestone, there used to be a blue owl painting, guarded by two Rough Patches. The blue bonfire was moved over to the swamp area. Jonas said this puzzle teaches the player about the aforementioned enemies.

• At 2:02:00, two unknown Routes can be seen in the blue area of the forest.

• At 2:02:01, two more Routes can be seen clearly at the start. In the final, there's two Routes at the start, not four.

• A Subcon Map Sign can be seen next to the Snatcher Trap at the entrance to the "Moonjumper area".

• At 2:02:21, a scrapped beehive can be seen attached to a tree branch on the far right.

• The green bonfire was originally in the 'picnic' area of the level, where the Tourist can be found in the final. As a reference to its previous location, an extinguished bonfire is present here in the final.

• 2:03:17, Jonas begins working on the next puzzle, which involves an Eye Blockade. Eye Blockade explosion particle appears to be slightly different. The Eye Blockade puzzle used to have Shrombs as the enemies that need to be defeated to solve it, and it originally had no prize. On stream, Jonas replaces the Shrombs with Subcon Spiders, which made it into the final.

• Shrombs can be homing attacked. In their leftover coding in the final, this functionality is disabled, and they blow up instantly on contact.

• 2:14:00 Jonas begins making a placeholder cage model for the Eye Blockades. This placeholder cage made it into a screenshot that was posted on social media.

• At 2:18:42, Jonas has finished the placeholder cage and is beginning to import it into the game. For a second, the Sand 'n Sails old cage elevator model can be seen in the content browser.

• At 2:21:33, Jonas searches for collectibles in the Actor browser, and a list of collectibles comes up. Hat_Collectible_ContractPen appears, a class that appeared in neither the Beta builds nor the final game. It's unknown what the collectible was going to be used for, or how the player would obtain it.

• Eye Blockades apparently didn't originally destroy anything when completed. However, it seems they call an OnInteraction event when destroyed, so they would be used for Kismet-related things.

• At 2:29:48 Jonas collects a scooter badge, which has the same description as the Scooter Cloth in the Murder video from early 2017. The Badge needed 7 BP to activate.

• At 2:35:06, a Subcon Map Sign can be seen near the mushrooms and random small fence area near the tiny fire spirit hideout. Jonas selects all of the map signs in the level and either hides or deletes them.

• A Route can be seen placed near the Fire Spirit hideout (Metal pipe structure near the junction). For brief second, a yellow Fire Spirit painting can be seen placed inside of it, as well. In the final, this structure was filled with swamp water and has a Blue Rift placed above it.

• At 2:35:55, a Bonfire can be seen inside the hideout. Jonas also goes over to the village area of the forest for a brief time.

• Toilet of Doom ambience pipes that pop up out of the ground are in place at this point.

• 2:36:07, the Toilet of Doom arena can be seen. The Snatcher Minion audience is present.

• 2:36:21, another beehive can be seen hanging from a tree branch next to the junction. Jonas deletes this one to make room for the Eye Blockade puzzle. The deletion is ultimately pointless, as he intended to place the puzzle next to the tree, but ends up placing it straight on the path instead, away from the tree.

• The gap between Vanessa's area and the junction originally had no bridge. Instead, the player would hookshot across with lanterns.

• Throwing a Dweller Fruit into a pit crashes the game. This was fixed in the final.

• A Subcon Noose next to the junction was removed in the final.

• 2:48:53 Jonas opens up the pause menu, and the Act is revealed to be Act 6, which is the scrapped "Fire Spirits' Big Ritual" Act.

• 2:49:51 Jonas takes the weekly teaser picture.

• Before the bonfire barriers were implemented, Jonas considers blocking off the path to Vanessa's manor with the unused thorn walls. It's also confirmed in the stream that the unused thorn wall would've disappeared after Act 1.

• 3:19:41 Jonas says that Sand 'n Sails has been the hardest Chapter to code, as a rather quick response. He then changes it to Subcon Forest.

• Next puzzle is a minor platforming segment very close to the Bush Cat Farm. Jonas starts it at 3:20:54.

• As mentioned before, the Blue Bonfire was originally by the Bushcat Farm, instead of the Green one. One Fire Spirit Painting was in a Snatcher trap battle arena. This was changed to a dweller tower platforming segment in the final.

• 3:25:37 Jonas decides to add the acid drip to the Subcon Spiders and makes the particle live on stream.

• 3:25:53 The old green Subcon Spider texture is shown in the content browser.

• Assets for the Toilet of Doom's scrapped acid floor hazards are present in the game at this point.

• At 3:45:07, a search result appears in NotePad++ after Jonas searches for variables in other class files for reference. One class file that appears on screen is "Hat_Hazard_TimePieceRewind", and is listed under the Actors for the Snatcher Boss fight. No such Actor exists in any public build. Snatcher has a tiny bit of unused coding in his boss class file for playing an animation for 'smashing a Time Piece', possibly as a leftover of this apparent scrapped attack. Snatcher also does not have a corresponding animation for this attack in any known build.

• 4:08:00 Jonas begins work on redesigning the Bush Cat Farm. The original challenge of this area was a precision platforming section along small trees, with a faster, more dangerous route if the player can bounce on some Pink Plants. The rewards were a Blue Fire Spirit Painting and a Snatcher's Realm Badge. While redesigning, Jonas creates the dweller version of the Rough Patch, and the area goes through several iterations. The recording cuts off before the stream seems to properly end, so it's unknown if any more work was done that day on the area. The final version is very different, having a circular platform in the middle with a Queen Statue enemy on it and some houses enclosing the area. The shape of the layout of the area, however, is the same.

October 15 2016 (2nd Subcon Forest Development Stream)

Compared to the previous stream, this one has far less spoilers, due to fog always being enabled during the stream and the focus of it being one small area of the forest, instead of the entire level. Unlike the previous stream and next stream, this one was fully recorded and archived.

• Subcon Well was originally much further right in the swamp compared to the final, and was moved more to the back center of the swamp to prevent players from skipping the area.

• Platforming that leads to the top of the well is still on the left side of the well instead of the right.

• The grass in the forest is still the same from the last development stream. It wouldn't be changed until late in 2017.

• One of the entrances to the swamp, the one Jonas shows off first, lacks the rocky ramp leading up to it and a nearby blue mushroom. A Subcon Noose at the entrance was removed in the final.

• Hat Kid does not yet have unique animations for trudging through swamp water. There are also no ghostly hands that try to grab her as she sinks.

• 17:30 Jonas says that the swamp kills the player if they reach the bottom, and this is indeed shown for a split second at least once on stream. This was toned down in the final to just taking a single point of damage and respawning at the last safe spot.

• There is far less foliage in the swamp than in the final. Swamp reeds and lily pads haven't been added yet, but the reeds are present by the next Subcon Swamp stream.

• There are no signs at the first platform after this entrance that point to the well.

• The area behind the first entrance has no pathway marked on the ground, lacks signs, giant thorn roots, statues, and a shack on the left. The three bushes closest to the entrance were removed in the final.

• Dweller platforms now have a mesh-y kind of look to them while not inside a dweller sphere. Instead of just being completely invisible, they can now be seen when not activated.

• 24:56 a Purple Fire Spirit Painting can be seen in the background, nestled up against a tree. Likely a leftover from before the area had its swamp implemented, as it's just floating out over the swamp, with no way to retrieve it without dying.

• 33:10 Subtraction Dweller Bells are shown to have already been implemented by now. In the final, they're only used in The Twilight Bell, so it's unknown where they would've been used prior to Alpine Skyline being made.

• The right border of the swamp completely lacks any detail or major landmarks, save for a couple statues and a giant gear. There are gears over there in the final, but the version seemingly being used here is a very old gear model, from 2013. In place of the shack is some kind of circular platform.

• A stump near the entrance to Subcon Wall was removed in the final. Jonas deletes it on stream at 44:13.

• A Snatcher trap is still present in the swamp at this point, leftover from the blue area of the forest. This was removed in the final.

• The unused Purple Bonfire can be seen in the swamp, likely from before it became swampy, but it cannot be seen in this area in the Feb 27 2016 stream, so it was added afterwards. It sticks around throughout the whole stream, but is moved near the end of the stream to be further in the swamp.

• There was originally a Subcon Noose behind and a little bit to the left (when looking from Subcon Well) of the giant skull, but was removed in the final. Jonas tries experimenting with a Hover Badge placed directly beneath it, above the swamp with no platform at 54:10.

• Someone in the stream chat mentions IdiotBot, which is not known to have been revealed or showcased prior to the stream. It likely was mentioned or shown at some point earlier in media that is not archived.

• 1:08:38, Discord is pulled up with the Boop Troop server visible. Two other unknown servers are shown, possibly dev servers.

• 1:20:04 New updated design for the Subcon Spider is shown off, with it using the unused design leftover in the Modding Tools.

• Jenna Brown (Cyanatar) comments in the chat shortly after the spider is placed that they need to reskin the spider. Again. This came to pass shortly after the 2nd Subcon Swamp stream.

• 1:36:52 The tree house on the right side of the swamp is revealed to have had a purple Fire Spirit Painting inside of it at this point.

• 1:37:01 The scrapped two Routes in the swamp are shown for a second.

• 1:39:27 Jonas accidentally brings up his videos folder! 11 videos can be seen, which show the Toilet of Doom arena, a blockout map of some kind, 5 Subcon Forest videos with three of them related to the swamp, a video for the boss fight in DeadBird Basement, two for the title screen, and one for Blue Rifts. None of these videos are known to have shown publicly.

• 1:45:29 Hat Kid dies instantly by drowning in the swamp.

• 2:12:23 Jonas considers adding secrets and platforming behind the Subcon Well. Remnants of this exist in the final, but there are no secret rewards to be found there.

• 2:19:33 Jonas acknowledges the broken fire effect in the lanterns and claims that it's due to the level undergoing an art pass. This issue was present several months ago in the first Subcon Forest development stream, and was also present in the Chapter's trailer from even earlier than that (January 2016). Ultimately, this issue would persist until about a month before release before it was completely disabled before the initial console builds were compiled on September 20 2017.

• The fence behind mailman Snatcher is still present.

• 2:36:25 Jenna says in the chat to add a chair in the swamp, likely as a joke since Jonas was adding chairs everywhere in 2016. Funnily enough, a screenshot posted in early November shows a bench in the swamp with Hat Kid sitting on it, but was removed in the final.

• 2:41:01 The Snatcher Minions running through the swamp are shown. Their paths differ slightly from the leftover path nodes in the final game.

• 2:46:46 There are shown to be three Routes in the swamp, as opposed to the hypothetical two in the final.

• Despite being in Contractual Obligations, mailman Snatcher still appears in-game at 2:48:02.

• Jonas adjusts the swamp movement speed for Hat Kid a few times.

• Jonas says that Queen Vanessa's Manor level was inspired by a manor level from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

• 4:17:00 Shows that there was a Purple Bonfire Painting up in the trees above the giant skeleton.

• 4:19:10 New skybox texture is shown off, which matches the final.

• 4:22:14 Jonas talks about potentially adding Hat Abilities, which came to pass.

• Hat Kid's wall-running particle has a lot more condensed dust than it does in the final.

• Hypo (Hypo_Thermic, a dev for the game) appears in the chat a few times. He made some animations for Hat Kid, and says that the cheering animation is an idle but wasn't always meant to be one. Indeed, it was originally seemingly created for unlocking spaceship power panels.

• 4:48:11 Parax, the engine programmer at Gears For Breakfast, mentions in chat the scrapped bonfires Act. Jonas calls him out on it, saying it's a spoiler.

October 29 2016 (3rd Subcon Forest Development Stream)

The only development stream that is pretty much completely missing. The Kickstarter backers were not notified of this stream's scheduling, instead only being announced on social media. The only surviving parts of it are a few short clips that still remain on Twitch. The focus for this stream was once again Subcon Swamp.

• Jonas says that the stream would be about two hours long. It's unknown how long the stream actually lasted for.

• Jonas confirms that Moonjumper is cut.

• Swamp reeds have been added to the area as foliage. The swaying ghost hands have also been added.

• Jonas deletes/hides the Purple Bonfire that he moved in the last stream, but it later reappears on the edge of the right side of the swamp.

• Ghost hands now appear around Hat Kid as she sinks, like in the final game.

November 12 2016 (DeadBird Basement Development Stream)

The last actual 'game development' stream to be held for the game. Instead of Subcon Forest, this stream showcases an early blockout of DeadBird Basement being built up from its earliest stages. Once again, the full stream was archived.

• The layout of this room in DeadBird Basement goes through a number of slight iterations, and ultimately ends up somewhat similar but still fairly different from the final.

• Apparently DeadBird Basement already had music at this point, but it's unknown if it was placeholder and/or was reusing music from another area of the Chapter.

• 11:35 Hat Kid's wall jumping now makes a sound effect that gradually increases in pitch with each consecutive wall jump. This still happens in the final, but is way more subtle. The sound effect is the sound used when activating floor panels, while in the final it's a more natural jump sound.

• Hat Kid now has her leaping ledge climb animation instead of the simple pull-up animation from the Betas.

• 15:23 Jonas has the level view in wireframe mode, and some additional level design can be seen outside of the room he designs in for the duration of the entire stream. It's difficult if not impossible to make any sense out of the level design seen, but a door at the bottom of the layout can be made out that is boarded up. Some of this level design can be seen outside a random window in the main room, although since it's all blockout, the level design inside the boxes can't exactly be seen.

• 40:15 Idiot Bot is shown on stream. It gets stuck immediately. "Failed to make progress" and "Please control me manually!" appear as debug text on screen.

• At precisely 41:29, Jonas hovers over recent maps opened by mistake. "DJGrooves_Boss" is shown as a recent map, as the boss fight had likely begun development by this time. "were_finaleWIP" is shown, but it's unknown what map this is. It could be an even earlier version of DeadBird Basement, or it could be Mustache Girl's castle. "DerpMapDebug" is once again in the list, as it was all the way back in early 2016. This might suggest that the map was being used to test for other things besides the derp kids in Snatcher's boss fight, or more unknown issues with them stemmed up since then.

• 44:02 Jonas confirms that not all of A Hat in Time's earliest content will be available in the Modding Tools.

• 57:55 Jonas confirms that consumable items like the energy juice and revival candy from the Beta have been removed by this point.

• 1:02:48 Jonas accidentally opens the inventory and opens the hat selection menu, which shows the Kid's Hat and cat beanie. He does not hover over the cat beanie, however. The icon for it appears to be identical to the final, however.

• 1:10:45 The DeadBird Studio sandbags still use balloon pop particles when jumped on.

• 1:11:54 Jonas mentions that he mentioned in the 2nd Subcon Swamp stream that he kinda wants to kill diving in Hat. This ultimately came to pass in the final game.

• 1:29:36 Jonas explains why he nerfed Hat Kid's health in Alpha Update 5.

• 1:49:25 Jonas places down a Time Trial Orb, marking its first public demonstration.

• 1:55:59 The early Time Trial Actor is demonstrated. It appears to be largely the same as the final, but when broken, it moves its collectibles to their designated spots much more slowly than in the final. There is also no clapping when the player collects all the collectibles, only a whistle track.

• 2:02:15 Jonas explains that Hat Kid has a cape because she can "fly" by diving.

• When Jonas finishes building lighting, the contents of the Note Actors is visible. One says "Prop Room - tall stacks of shelves, raiders of the lost ark-style". Another one says "Dressing Rooms for Actors". The last one says "Conveyor belt to take props to and back from the studio! Tunnels possible Rift locations?"

• The warning sound for a guard detecting you at this point is akin to a submarine sonar, instead of a high-pitch bird-like noise like in the final.

• 3:02:02 Jonas quickly teleports to other parts of the level in-editor, showing off some blockouts for other areas of DeadBird Basement! The first teleport is the scaffolding platform room, but he doesn't stay in it at first. Second teleport is for the TV room, the visible layout for which appears to be the same as the final. He goes back to the first teleport and shows the scaffolding room a bit more. The room already has several assets placed and has a cubemap. Once again, the layout appears to match the final.

• Some crates are using the early chemical flask icon on them that would be changed into a martini glass in the final. This same early icon would later appear in the Chapter's official trailer next month.

• Hanging boxes are considered for decoration for the level at one point, starting around 3:27:55, which are not present in the level in the final. Jonas ends up removing them later on due to him not wanting players platforming on them.

• 4:24:19 Jonas pulls up early coding for the camera guards for a split second, and there's quite a bit of information pulled up here. The full file path for the class is at the top of NotePad++, revealing that the level, or at least the camera guards, were made for Trainwreck of Science (Now called Last Bird Standing). Jonas also still has the balloon class file open, the DeadBird stage sacks, Hat_Player, Hat_PawnPlatform_WallJump, and the floor panels.

• 4:25:57 Confirmed that by this point, both Subcon Swamp streams were already deleted by Twitch.