Proto:A Hat in Time (Windows, Mac OS X)/Beta/Differences Between Builds

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

No known assets for the game were imported or re-imported between the initial release of the Beta on March 7 2015 and Beta Update 2 on March 12 2015. As such, the only texture and model differences that are documented here are between Beta Update 2 and Beta Update 3.

Texture Differences

Monitor Intro Hat Kid Texture

Beta Base Version	Beta Update 3/Final

The icon used to represent Hat Kid in the Beta builds prior to Beta Update 3 was just a scaled-down version of the HUD icon for Hat Kid's hat. In Beta Update 3, it was changed to its final design.

Monitor Intro Path Texture

Beta Base Version	Beta Update 3/Final

The graphic used to represent the path on the monitor in the intro sequence is different in the initial Beta release, but was updated to its final design starting with Beta Update 3.

Animation Differences

Beta Base Version	Beta Update 3

The animation used for the Hover Badge was updated for the final update to the Betas, now matching the final game's in every way except animation speed. The version used in Beta Base Version through Beta Update 2 has more downwards motion in the animation, while Beta Update 3's keeps Hat Kid at the same altitude.

Localization Differences

Beta Base Version -> Beta Update 2

• On the Beta's release, Act 5 of Mafia Town was titled "The Impossible Race?". After Gears for Breakfast repeatedly received inquiries asking whether or not the various ways of cheating the race were intentional, the act's title was changed to "Cheating the Race".
• The Dream World hidden inside one of the pipes in Subcon Caves accidentally didn't have any localization present for it in the build, and so displayed an error string in-game on the Act Select screen. This was fixed by Beta Update 2, now called "Secret in the Pipe".
• One of Mustache Girl's lines "Hey, you're alright new kid. Do you have a name?" after clearing Barrel Battle was updated to include "new kid", to match the spoken dialogue.
• Another Mustache Girl line in the same cutscene, "They've been raining from the sky ever since the storm. I've seen the goons bring them to their headquarters up waaay there." was changed to remove the red text formatting on "the storm" and added "waaay" to match the spoken dialogue.

Beta Update 2 -> Beta Update 3

• Text was added for the unused water flask and (currently unused) Item Magnet Badge items.
• The settings menu option for VSync had its description updated to indicate that it requires a game restart to take effect.
• Text was added for the currently unused shop menu.
• The hint for diving underwater was originally "In water to dive". Beta Update 3 shortens it to "To dive".
• Unused dialogue files for the Fire Spirits and Sunburnt were added.

Coding Differences

As three of the four Beta builds have been archived, coding changes across the Beta builds can be examined thoroughly. A handful of changes and fixes were made between the initial release of the Beta and Update 2, but a massive amount of changes can be seen between Update 2 and Update 3, given the larger time gap between those builds compared to the others. Beta Update 3 provided its own fixes and QoL changes as well, but the real meat of Update 3 is all of the new objects and mechanics added that are normally unseeable in normal gameplay.

Changes From Beta Base Version to Beta Update 2

• As mentioned in the official changelog, graphical settings now auto-apply in the settings menu.
• Fixed a bug where the Explorer's Badge would vanish from the player's inventory after changing levels.
• The player can no longer climb ladders while carrying an object. This was possible to do in all previous builds, including the Alphas and Prototypes.
• Again, as mentioned in the changelog, if the player enters Mafia Town at the start of the game and returns to the hub before collecting the first Time Piece, they are no longer softlocked.
• "Hat_Platform_Base" and all of its child classes are now considered solid surfaces for carryable objects.
• Players can no longer grab ladders if they're currently hanging on a ledge. Ledge hanging placement code was also cleaned up a little bit.
• Slightly tweaked how the coding handles taking a picture with the in-game camera item.

Changes from Beta Update 2 to Beta Update 3

• As the official changelog states, multiple changes were made to the speedrun timer to make it more accurate and reliable for logging times. Additionally, support for LiveSplit was added.
• One of the biggest additions is the implementation of a very early version of the scrapped water flask system, which can be seen below:
  

This is the only known public build of the game to feature this iteration of the Water Flask system. By using a hex editor and a memory editor, one can trick the game into thinking that the current level being played should be using Water Flasks, which will bring up a meter HUD that uses the unused cocoa textures as placeholder. For each Water Flask Hat Kid has, it displays an additional part of the meter. Since there are no Deadly Heat Safe Volumes placed in any level in the build, the meter will slowly drain unless Hat Kid is in a body of water. If it drains all the way, Hat Kid will begin taking damage. Entering water refills the meter. All of these mechanics can be found leftover in the earliest versions of the final game and the Modding Tools, although the water does not drain nearly as fast as it does here in Beta Update 3.

A short GIF Jonas posted on his Tumblr account a couple weeks after Beta Update 3 released shows this same HUD with the cocoa textures in use, but they pulsate when Hat Kid is outside a safe zone; something that wasn't implemented yet in Beta Update 3.

• The Hover Badge had its duration shortened: 3.0 -> 2.0. Its movement speed was also cut down significantly: 140 -> 60.
• The unused Rough Patch enemy received significant coding upgrades and changes: It now has a red glow effect on its body while chasing the player, it was given a particle that appears when the player approaches it, and the time it takes to begin chasing the player when approached was lengthened slightly (0.34 -> 0.77). It now also shoves the player back when it touches the player.
• The coding for the Mad Crow enemy's stomp attack was commented out, essentially making them behave as they do in the final game.
• The unused Shromb enemy had some coding tweaks as well: It was given sound effects for popping up out of the ground, when it starts to run faster after the player, for being hit, and for exploding. Aside from sounds, it was given a countdown particle to show the time until it explodes, and they now take damage when attacked while still growing in size.
• Physics and rotation offsets for carryable objects were tweaked a fair bit.
• The AI coding for the scrapped Light Plant enemies was changed quite a bit. It was seemingly broken in the earlier Beta builds, as the plants never seemed to attack the player. In Beta Update 3, they now can, even when they seemingly aren't supposed to. Whenever a Light Plant eats a fly and begins glowing, its next attack should be shooting a spit projectile at the player; They don't use this attack in Beta Update 3 at all, nor do they spin their heads around as an alternate melee attack like they did in the Alphas. The only attack they can now use is the standard bite.
• The class file that handles cheats was updated. The command to open the unused Time of Day HUD is now locked behind an editor check, the command to open the item unlock HUD as a test was commented out, and new commands (also locked behind an editor check) were added to pause all enemies in the level, give the player a water flask, and regen the player's water flask supply.
• An unused, commented out point light variable for Pons was removed from its class file.
• The way an enemy handles being squished when defeated with a stomp or homing attack was tweaked a little bit.
• When touching a vault in Mafia Town to show the paths to the vault codes, touching the vault while existing paths are still displaying will now destroy all of the original paths before spawning new ones.
• The unused Actor that spawns a random enemy in Subcon Forest had its coding updated: The way it calculates random spawn chances was changed, and the spawn chance can now be customized.
• HUD can now be opened even while the player is driving a vehicle.
• The unused Debugging HUD was updated to display debug messages when the player is driving a vehicle.
• The coding to render the rocket vehicle HUD was commented out.
• The loading screen with the animating game logo had its display code slightly adjusted.
• Bushes in Mafia Town can now be destroyed, and can now drop an item. This obscure behavior made it into the final game, and is primarily used in Subcon Forest. The final game never informs the player that the bushes can be destroyed.
• When using the camera, when the world freezes, new coding was added to render a target arrow from the player.
• Sunburnt (The NPCs that were going to be used in Sand 'n Sails and ended up used in Alpine Skyline) can now randomize their color based on where they are placed in the map.
• Wall-sliding code was tweaked slightly.
• Unused, leftover coding for the scrapped double jump move from the GoBoiano Prototype was commented out.
• Unused, commented out coding for shaking in the player's camera was deleted from the class file.
• Vehicles were another major thing that was being worked on in-between Beta Update 2 and Update 3. Most coding related to older vehicles, including minecarts, the rocket HUD, and handling the camera for older vehicles was completely removed or commented out. This is largely due to the Sandmobile for Sand 'n Sails being under active development. This is why vehicles in this build don't work anymore; they were left in a state in this build where they aren't functional due to missing models and extra data that isn't available due to assets for class files no longer always being always loaded. While the Sandmobile was present in earlier Beta builds, its coding was incredibly basic and barely different than other standard UDK vehicles.
• When a Time Piece spawns, the game now makes extra sure that all players and enemies are paused during the cinematic.
• Slight change for how Status Effects are handling ticking per frame.
• Subcon Paintings now behave as they do in the final game, as this build implemented an early version of the bonfire system. In previous Beta builds, the paintings were decorative, and could not be picked up or thrown into any fires. In fact, bonfires didn't even exist in Beta Update 2! The paintings also had a slightly different behavior when idle: they still tilt back and forth a little bit, but upon the player approaching one, it'll animate twice as fast, and a radial blur effect will appear around the painting, as if the trapped soul inside is screaming for help.
• Time Pieces can no longer be grabbed if the player is currently in cinematic mode.

New Classes

• An early version of the Item Magnet Badge (called the Item Vacuum Badge in this build) was added, but isn't normally obtainable. It uses the graphics and textures for the Explorer's Badge as placeholder. Compared to the final, it has a slightly larger range of effect.
• The scrapped Bees and Beehives were added in this update, but as the Beta builds are the first builds to not always cook in all default property assets of all classes, they cannot be seen in-game if spawned. They behave just as their leftover coding in the final did.
• As mentioned before, an early version of the bonfire system seen in the final game in Subcon Forest was added in this build. The coding for the final game's bonfires has some small amounts of leftovers from this system; upon completion of a bonfire, it would spill out items as a prize for the player, mostly containing Pons. The bonfire mesh was also seemingly divided into two parts: wood and rocks. The final game has these merged. All four colors of bonfire were added, as well as the unused purple bonfire.
• An early version of the Shop HUD menu was added, which more or less is the same as it is in the final game. However, by default it sells one water flask, indicating that it was added for Sand 'n Sails and not necessarily Badge Seller. The one water flask would cost 1000 Pons, as opposed to the 20 that the leftover localization in the final indicated.
• Speaking of Sand 'n Sails, the unused 'citizen' version of the Sunburnt, the one that walks around, was added in this build. It was leftover in the final game but was removed within the first few patches. Oddly, even though the Sunburnt NPCs were updated to be able to change color in this build, that color changing coding was seemingly never added to this class.
• A Kismet node for checking if the player has DLC installed was added. The only two DLCs it can check for are the Kickstarter Hat and the Soundtrack. The Kickstarter Hat DLC was never released.
• Two vehicle classes were added, which are "Hat_VehicleTest" and "Hat_VehicleSandmobile_Scorp". The test class has no coding in its class file, and does not extend the vehicle class that the Sandmobile does in this build. The other vehicle is a little more interesting. It extends this build's Sandmobile class file, but it seems to be set to use assets from Unreal Tournament, in particular, using the Scorpion vehicle. This is the only known build of the game to contain these class files.
• Additionally, Beta Update 3 removed the unused Airmobile vehicle.