Prerelease:A Hat in Time (Windows, Mac OS X)/2018-Present

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

2018

Before any teasers for the first DLC started appearing, a very important album was released on SoundCloud by Eric Gleiser on June 10 2018, which is the An OST In Time album. It contains some (not all) of the tracks used in the 2013 Prototype version of the game, including some tracks that were never heard before.

Mafia Town - GameBoy

An 8-bit version of the Prototype theme for Mafia Town. Unknown purpose.

Toilet Boss Main Loop

Prototype (Eric Gleiser)	Final (Pascal Stiefel)

An early battle theme for the Toilet of Doom. The track is completely different from the final, having a more wacky/cartoony vibe to it.

Chapter Complete

A triumphant short theme that is very similar to the level select music used in the Prototype builds.

Frost Burn World - Intro

There are four tracks in the album that are for an unknown "Frost Burn World", which based on the name, was likely in the spirit of HailFire Peaks of Banjo-Tooie, being half fire and half ice. No public media or other mention of this world has been shown, and some developers in Gears for Breakfast have actually commented on these tracks, claiming that there was never such a world planned for the game.

Frost Burn World - Lava

A track for the 'lava' part of the world.

Frost Burn World - Ice

A track for the 'ice' part of the world.

Frost Burn World - GameBoy

An 8-bit version of the world's theme.

Aside from leaking a few bits of information about the first DLC through updates to the Modding Beta branch of the game and the Modding Tools, news about the game's first DLC was almost completely radio silent until summer of 2018. Starting in July, Gears for Breakfast would begin posting teaser images on their Twitter and Facebook, showing screenshots of the game in difficult-to-impossible to determine contexts.

A screenshot posted on July 10 2018 showing Hat Kid standing in an unknown location.

Hat Kid looking distressed or dying in a Rift Collapse Death Wish, posted on July 14 2018.

A zoom-in of Snatcher in the titlecard for Beat the Heat, posted on July 23 2018.

Posted on July 25 2018, a squished and slanted screenshot of Virtual Kid in Deadbird Studio. This would be the first public appearance of Virtual Kid.

July 30 2018 had a squished, slanted, and flipped Conductor from the Seal the Deal titlecard.

Two Hat Kids dancing in Peace and Tranqulity, both posted on August 1 2018.

Hat Kid smug dancing up on a ledge near the docks in The Arctic Cruise, posted on August 10 2018.

Posted on August 12 2018 is Hat Kid smug dancing in the dining hall.

Hat Kid smug dancing down at the docks, posted on August 14 2018.

Posted on August 15 2018 is an extreme zoom-in of Bow Kid from the Smashified render that was shown in the DLC 1 reveal.

August 18 2018 had a screenshot of a wavy Virtual Kid in kitchen of the cruise ship.

And finally, on August 20 2018, the first DLC for A Hat in Time was revealed. A few noteworthy differences can be seen in the trailer compared to the release a little less than a month later.

• At 0:16, Fish Dude is seen on the docks instead of the pier.

• At 0:49, the TV screens are the non-animated versions found leftover in the Modding Tools.

• At 0:51, one of the screens in the captain's room is still placeholder, using corgi quest.

• The particle for Time Piece Shards is different at 0:57.

• An Early Death Wish map layout is shown at 1:55. Stamps are using their old ribbon designs leftover in the Modding Tools. Cruisin' for a Bruisin's reward is a square silhouette. Virtual Kid costume HUD icon is an older version, lacking a zipper. Candle Death Wish icons don't have a bow on them when the main objective is completed, only when they're full-cleared. Shadow Puppet costume is using its older paint bucket dye icon. Some Death Wishes also swapped/changed places in the final version.

• At 2:02 Hat Kid is shown doing 10 Seconds until Self-Destruct, and when she collects Pons, a ding counter can be heard, indicating that the Death Wish still had its old bonus at this point instead of the Conductor Tokens bonus.

• Deep Sea Rift lacks the urchins on the bottom of the mountains, like in the leak version.

• At 3:00 Virtual Kid costume is shown, and it appears to be using the PS1 vertex shader that's unused in the final.

Gears for Breakfast recorded their developer commentary for the base game on September 5 2018. Sadly, the entire stream is not known to be archived, and the only surviving parts of it are clips on Twitch.

• Jonas explains that Mafia Town has been one of the hardest levels to optimize.

• Jonas says that the Dweller Mask was the very first ability made for A Hat in Time.

• Jonas confirms that Alpine Skyline began development in 2017.

• Jenna is talking about a change that Jonas made that made "the houses not make sense anymore", and says that the Goats couldn't fit in them anymore. She's likely talking about the Goats originally being much smaller, which can be seen in a piece of concept art.

A screenshot of Virtual Kid in Mafia Town with Nostalgia Badge in Mafia Town was tweeted out on September 10 2018.

Youtuber/Twitch Streamer Failboat received an early build of DLC 1 to showcase on stream a couple days before the DLC came out. There were a total of three videos for this preview, but the third video was recorded after the DLC had been released, so there's nothing new to look for in it. Only the first video has been found to show any noticeable differences to the final version. The first video can be watched here and the second video can be watched here.

The differences found in the first video:

• At 6:42 in, Fish Dude can be seen on the docks instead of the pier, as he was in the reveal trailer. His position change was absolute last-minute.

• Shown at 28:36, the Time Piece Shard counter doesn't show the total amount of shards to get, only the amount you've collected.

• At 41:16 an early layout for the bathroom is shown. It's actually quite different from the final, despite being only three days away.

• At 41:59 the early toilet lid texture is shown. It got wiped within minutes of it being confused with something that the Ice Hat can interact with.

• At 49:08, the egg Seal doesn't say 'egg' upon approaching him.

• Restarting a Death Wish originally didn't kill you.

• The Ice Hat could originally block heat damage in Beat the Heat.

Gears for Breakfast recorded their developer commentary for Arctic Cruise, Death Wish, and Coop on September 27 2018 on Twitch. The entire stream was recently found to have been backed up on a Google Drive link.

• The Arctic Cruise was concepted before the game officially released, at Gamescom 2017.

• The layout of the cruise ship went through numerous iterations. The original iteration was much more closed-off than the final.

• Early versions of Task Master had tasks spawning at complete random.

• Room sizes and room features were originally much more ambitious, but due to complications with converting the designs to 3D, some compromises had to be made, which downsized the scope of each room.

• The 'Three Lives' system in Death Wish originally penalized the player three different ways: time out, pay with Pons to be able to play again, and pay with Yarn to be able to play again.

• Jenna originally wanted to do more unique titlecards for Death Wishes, but ran out of time, so some ended up just being a purple hue shift of the normal titlecard.

• Jenna sketched out roughly 25~ different ideas for a Coop character.

• The Coop Versus mode was inspired by the point tally at the end of each stage in Super Mario 3D World.

• The idea of the mechanic of thirst in Sand 'n Sails was re-visited for Beat the Heat, confirms Jonas.

• Seals were added to the Chapter merely because YellowJello, a developer, asked for them to be.

• In the concept art for the Captain's Room, Jenna stuck a seal in the open pipe in the small tunnel underneath the room. This was never added in the final version.

• The Captain's unused walking animation is brought up by Cameron, and he mentions that it was very difficult to make and wasn't even finished.

On the game's first anniversary, Aruki, a developer, posted a video on Twitter from development of DLC 1. The only notable difference is that Bow Kid's voice is much, much lower than it is in the final version.

On October 5 2018, again on the game's anniversary, the lead 3D artist for the game, William 'Habboi' Nicholls started streaming his own developer commentary for the game. The stream ended up being two parts, and is packed with quite a bit of information about the game's development. It's recommended that you watch the video for yourself, but the major bits of information will be listed here.

• 12:15 Habboi talks about the development of the title screen.

• 19:36 Habboi talks about older versions of the bedroom. He mentions that at one point the bedroom wallpaper was going to be green, which can be seen in a single screenshot. He also talks about the Alpha's intro segment for the bedroom, where you'd start in 2D and have to jump over a box.

• 25:50 Habboi talks about windows added to the bedroom tunnel.

• 28:08 Habboi talks about game dodecahedron being a last minute thing added to the game.

• 30:05 Habboi talks about scrapped coral decorations for Mafia Town. He added them as a prop to the Spaceship Hub instead.

• 31:27 Habboi talks about the secret passage that was once in the kitchen for the flying space pod that was down there in the Beta. He goes into how accessing Chapters changed across development, from time clocks to various objects, to telescopes.

• 33:24 There was going to be a box on the floor in front of the kitchen counter in the Spaceship Hub because Hat Kid is too short to reach the counter.

• 36:20 Habboi talks about the stair concept originally made for the mail room slide. There is concept art of this.

• 41:12 Habboi talks about the Prototype wall tutorial decals.

• 42:24 Habboi talks about the old wall decal next to the pile of Mafia that originally had functionality with the player's sketch.

• 43:05 Habboit talks about Hat Kid getting stinky having no purpose anymore but was a big deal in the 'old days', meaning Calcite.

• 44:16 Habboi talks about old concepts for the black market in Mafia Town, as well as Rapper Mafia. Habboi claims that the scrapped 'auction house' minigame that has coding in Alpha Update 5 and the Beta builds was going to be used here, at the black market.

• 44:20 Someone asks Habboi about the post-release scrapped camera mark Actor. He claims that there wasn't much to them but that there was going to be more of them.

• 49:36 Habboi talks about the grass in Mafia Town once looking like 'Planet Namek' grass. An internal screenshot exists of this.

• 50:55 Habboi talks about the Mafia Town Juice Bar selling stuff, which still existed in the initial console builds of the game.

• 51:50 Habboi talks about the Mafa Cutouts, and how they were used in Calcite for the scrapped basement tutorial with Tim's Friend.

• 55:27 Habboi is asked about the scrapped community stamp polaroid system that was shown in 2014. He goes into great depth about it, saying that it was inspired by Dark Souls, and that you could leave polaroids around levels with pictures on them. He said he felt that the game was losing a bit of its exploration identity, because the polaroids could be used to reveal secrets to new players without them having to find them on their own.

• 1:02:27 Habboi talks about scrapped multiplayer options seen in the Alpha. There are hints that they would be used with an online mode.

• 1:03:40 Habboi is asked about the monitor character that was in the Alpha Spaceship Hub. Habboi says that it was your own personal butler, and it didn't have much more of a role than that.

• 1:09:08 Habboi is asked about the cave underneath Mafia Town. He talks about it a bit, as well as Mafia Town being an 'ant hill'. He's talking about Prototype Mafia Town, which had a lot of dirt and not as many rocks.

• 1:15:22 Habboi talks about the tube that got replaced by the online party machine in the hub when DLC 2 released. This tube once lead to Mafia Town prior to the Beta builds, and to the lab on the Spaceship before the final game.

• 1:16:52 Habboi talks about the tube in the Beta for Trainwreck of Science.

• 1:25:24 Habboi talks about a few different auditions for Mustache Girl. There were quite a variety of different voices considered for her.

• 1:26:55 Habboi talks about the Mustache Girl Tutorial Scene, as he made it. He talks about Badges once being the central focus of the tutorial, instead of Yarn.

• 1:32:21 Habboi talks about earlier versions of She Came From Outer Space, and talks about Oldster.

• 1:34:10 Habboi is asked about the hidden Dweller stuff you could find in the Alpha and (less so) in the Beta builds. He says that the Dweller Mask would originally allow you to see events in the past, and that he might remember a scene that would show Mustache Girl's parents being killed.

• 1:35:12 Habboi talks about the scrapped milkman mafia, and says he didn't have much of a role in the game.

• 1:37:53 Habboi talks about She Came From Outer Space originally being even shorter, with it ending at the "MAFIA!" flag, which it indeed did when it went left from Thor's workshop.

• 1:39:16 Habboi is asked about Thor, and he talks about him a bit and his roles in Mafia Town and Sand 'n Sails. He also talks about Sam the Detective.

• 1:42:45 Habboi is asked about the friend meter with Mustache Girl, and if it was going to apply to anyone else in the game. Habboi answers "kinda", and talks a little bit about the partner system that was being developed in late 2012 and early 2013. It can be seen in action in a couple very early videos.

• 1:44:31 Habboi talks about alternate, earlier methods of accessing Mafia HQ. The minecart, cloud platforming, and rainbow roads are all discussed.

• 1:46:25 Habboi is asked if the hidden poker room in Mafia HQ ever had any real purpose, and he says he thinks so. He also talks about how Mafia HQ has changed quite a lot over the years, not so much in terms of layout, but what happens in order for Hat Kid to reach Mafia Boss.

• 1:48:59 Jonas unexpectedly appears in the chat, explaining that the functionality for the slot machines was disabled because people kept using them and throwing away all their Pons while expecting a reward, even though there was no reward.

• 1:49:40 Habboi points out the location that Sam would've sat in Mafia HQ.

• 1:50:24 Jonas says "stealth minigame" in the chat, possibly hinting at a scrapped stealth section in this room. In the March 2013 trailer for the game, a Mafia in the kitchen is shown telling them to get out, so he may be referring to that scene.

• 1:50:44 Habboi talks about the area leading up to Cooking Cat originally meaning to be more detailed. This detail can be seen in concept art by Luigi.

• 1:57:40 Habboi mentions Mustache Girl not originally standing next to the freezer door.

• 1:58:16 Habboi talks about the scrapped rhythm game in Mafia HQ.

• 1:59:43 Habboi talks about making the Mafia HQ throne room look better not long before release.

• Jonas also says at this point that the coin footstep sound was added for DLC 1. This is not completely true, as the surface type was added in an earlier 2018 build of the game.

• 2:01:22 Habboi talks about Mafia Boss's Beta dialogue in the throne room.

• 2:02:04 Habboi mentions that Mafia Boss used to be a 3D boss. The coding for this boss could be found in the Prototype and Alpha builds.

• 2:05:27 chaofanatic, a developer for the game, says in the chat that he animated the Mustache Girl awakening cutscene.

• 2:07:40 chaofanatic says that Mustache Girl originally took the Time Piece after the cutscene. Habboi confirms this, and explains that the purpose of the unused fake Time Piece Kismet node was made for this cutscene.

• 2:09:18 chaofanatic questions the order of the missions in Mafia Town. He then says soon after that Golden Vault was decidedly after Lava Mafia Town.

• 2:09:47 Habboi talks about the scrapped mafia tie and energy juice items.

• 2:11:11 Habboi talks about the changing themes of Time Rifts over the years. He references Shane Frost's concept art from 2013. He says there was a placeholder song from a rhythm game that served as the inspiration for the Time Rift redesign. Jonas corrects him saying it wasn't from a rhythm game, but instead from Puzzle Agent 2.

• 2:15:04 Habboi states that he designed the first three proper Time Rifts back in 2013, which were then streamed by Narcissa Wright in the Cosmo Prototype in late June.

• 2:15:48 Habboi talks about the scrapped ghost racing feature seen in the Prototypes.

• 2:20:53 Habboi talks a little about Thor's original role in Lava Mafia Town, and then a bit about the older versions of the level. He also mentions the scrapped Pogo powerup.

• 2:24:02 Habboi says the lava streams model originally had guideline arrows that helped him remember which direction the lava would flow.

• 2:25:05 Habboi talks about making an ending for Lava Mafia Town, but it wasn't implemented until the last moment. Habboi was aware that its implementation missed the console release window deadline.

• 2:31:12 Habboi talks about the ending of Lava Mafia Town. He notes that originally, Mafia Boss in his jar form would've sat on the throne, which can be seen in concept art. Habboi also says that Oldster would've once sat on the throne.

• 2:34:55 Jonas says in chat that the Act unlock order changed for Mafia Town pretty late in development and it was too late to change their Act numbers since a lot of game code relied on it.

• 2:34:57 Habboi talks about the original Chapter order (for Subcon Forest and Battle of the Birds) and why it was changed.

• 2:36:50 Habboi talks a little bit about the original purpose of the Time Piece cages from Dead Bird Station.

• 2:43:22 A little bit earlier, someone asked what the idea behind stealth gameplay in Deadbird Studio was. Jonas says in the chat that he doesn't remember why he wanted it.

• 2:44:15 Habboi talks about the ideas behind Relics, and how you could originally decorate your Spaceship with them anywhere, instead of just on podiums.

• 2:45:48 Someone asked Habboi about the chocolate chickens, and he incorrectly says that they were related to Alpine Skyline, when in fact they were made for Sand 'n Sails.

• 2:46:40 Habboi talks about a speedrun skip he accidentally added in Deadbird Studio.

• 3:04:15 Habboi talks about the scrapped windows on certain walls of the train cars in Murder on the Owl Express.

• 3:08:45 Habboi talks about demoing Murder on the Owl Express at Gamescom. Jonas would give Habboi feedback, telling him to change various things. The next day at Gamescom, the build would be different.

• 3:10:45 Habboi mentions that the doors for Murder on the Owl Express were updated at the last moment.

• 3:12:14 Jonas says the Crow Agent laughing stealth was stolen from somewhere but doesn't specify where.

• 3:13:12 Habboi mentions the pictures in Murder on the Owl Express being placeholder for a while.

• 3:14:25 Habboi says that the bunker room originally didn't have glass to show the key in the middle.

• 3:18:28 Jonas says that the room with all the Crow Agents in it looking at the TVs is a reference to an Apple commercial.

• 3:21:08 Habboi mentions that Oldster was going to appear in the sauna room.

• 3:21:48 Habboi says that a treasure chest had Time Stop Yarn in it for some reason in a streamer prerelease build.

• 3:23:18 Jonas confirms the dog cutout is his own pet dog.

• 3:33:05 Habboi is asked about the train crashing on the moon in Trainwreck of Science. Habboi talks a bit about it, and how Hat Kid would be saddled with debt upon arriving on the Moon. This can be see in the Last Bird Standing trailer from December 2016.

• 3:34:10 Habboi is asked about the scrapped winter bookstore. He talks a little about Hat Adult, as well.

• 3:36:29 Habboi talks a little bit about the scrapped Subcon masked song that played in the bookstore in the Alpha builds.

• 3:37:16 Habboi talks a bit about how The Moon changed, including its unique camera and "Animal Crossing Wild World" effect it had early on. Only a couple known screenshots show this effect.

• 3:38:55 Habboi talks a bit about the developer commentary stream, saying that Jonas said he improved Picture Perfect by adding the 'Diva HUD'.

• 3:40:23 Habboi mentions going into the club on the moon, and how Hat Kid would need to find a suit.

• 3:46:29 Habboi talks about Subcon Forest having actual grass at one point. Screenshots exist of this.

• 3:47:04 Habboi talks about the scrapped Subcon Forest map system.

• 3:48:30 Habboi talks about the scrapped Subcon Forest fast travel system. A screenshot of this system exists.

• 3:53:18 Habboi talks about the three background towers that can be seen in the forest.

• 3:55:22 Habboi talks about Vanessa originally turning you to stone, and how she did so prior to the Alpha builds just by looking at you.

• 3:57:30 Habboi talks a little more about Moonjumper and early characteristics of Snatcher.

• 3:58:33 Habboi confirms that the Bonfire Barriers were added quite late in development.

• 3:59:44 Habboi is asked why the third floor in Vanessa's manor got cut instead of being remade, and Habboi says it was due to time constraints. Jonas soon after chimes in that he wouldn't have done it even if he had the time; he felt that the third floor didn't add anything.

• 4:03:27 Habboi talks about 2D Snatcher. He also mentions a large rock nearby the snatcher catcher area in the final that was removed.

• 4:06:35 Habboi talks about older Dweller mechanics, including combining Dwellers into one fruit. This can be seen in footage of an older version of the Toilet of Doom boss fight.

• 4:08:57 Habboi talks about the old Prototype Toilet of Doom and how the decals were used with it.

• 4:10:11 Jonas says in the chat that they considered walling-off Mafia Town in the past similar to how Subcon Forest ended up with the Bonfire Barriers.

• 4:12:38 Habboi talks about the scrapped ice wall and thorn wall scenarios in Subcon Forest.

• 4:13:46 chaofanatic says that he remembers some unknown effect where the thorns on the thorn wall would roll back or something.

• 4:25:59 Jonas says in the chat that the Relic Badge was changed into the Compass Badge for Snatcher Tokens in Death Wish.

• 4:27:17 Habboi talks a little about the scrapped Conductor intruder and how he would tell stories.

• 4:30:20 Habboi talks about Purple Rifts some more.

• 4:33:50 Habboi talks about the scrapped Electro Badge, and how it was tied into some of the older RPG elements that the game used to have very early on.

• 4:41:03 Habboi talks about the Dead Bird Purple Rift originally going on longer.

• 4:58:02 Habboi remarks that The Big Parade was originally a bit harder. He doesn't think the level had any checkpoints.

• 5:06:50 Habboi talks about the original boss for Trainwreck of Science, being the enemy gauntlet inside the club. He explains that all the 'groovy' characters were made for that gauntlet.

• 5:08:35 Habboi talks about Deadbird Studio right before the finale, and how it originally wasn't as blue as it ended up being in the final version.

• 5:12:15 Habboi talks about the concept art for Deadbird Basement.

• 5:18:25 Habboi talks about the stacks of boxes in Deadbird Basement.

• 5:24:35 Habboi says that the Witch Hat from the prerelease builds was never originally planned, and he made it on a whim as a pitch.

• 5:37:40 Habboi talks about the heart-to-heart scene in the Conductor boss fight, saying that it was originally meant for Mafia Boss. Potential leftover localization for this scene could be found in the Alpha builds.

• 5:39:32 Hypo appears in the chat, confirming that the Conductor's talking animations used in the heart-to-heart scene originally "made for something else", which would be the story time Conductor planned for the Spaceship.

• 5:39:39 Habboi says that the bomb originally had a modeled end tip instead of a blue glowing light.

• 5:40:20 Habboi says that the bomb was originally supposed to have a timer in the square on the back of it.

• 5:42:07 Habboi talks about the blue placeholder scissors that could be found in the data for the initial release of the game.

• 5:47:45 Habboi talks about the scrapped intro area mountain in Alpine Skyline.

• 5:48:35 Habboi talks about the initial blockout and pitch for the intro area.

• 5:50:00 Habboi starts talking about Sand 'n Sails and how it transformed into Alpine Skyline. He remarks that the driving was not fun, and that Jonas was experimenting making traveling in the desert interesting. He mentions Sand Skating, but that it didn't quite work out. He then talks about Sand 'n Alps and how weird it appeared to him, although he was down for making the level like that.

• 5:51:57 chaofanatic recalls Sonic Unleashed assets being used as placeholder in Sand 'n Alps.

• 5:52:05 Habboi talks about the older versions of the ziplines. He explains how much more freedom they allowed, being allowed to dismount the ziplines at any time, and how exploration with them was far more rich than it ended up being in the final.

• 5:53:50 Habboi talks about the scrapped gravestone signs that had unused localization leftover in the initial release.

• 5:59:34 Habboi closes the game and a glimpse at his "Notes" that he made can be seen. Early Alps info is at the top of the visible part, and there's a bit talking about Sand 'n Alps that references the trams and people who would be inside of them. It also mentions the sand travel map, which reminded him of a British train underground due to the colored lines and circle stations on it. There's a part about the credits, talking about the original idea of walking right to left that can be seen in concept art. The distance marker seen in the concept art would increase as she was footin' it. There's a part at the bottom talking about Hats, and it mentions the older design seen for the Brewing Hat hazard tape seen in concept art.

Part two of Habboi's developer playthrough.

• 2:14 Habboi confirms that Queen Vanessa was designed by Jonas.

• 4:05 Habboi talks about the ice path to Vanessa's Manor originally being barren. Jonas added puzzles to it sometime later.

• 9:30 Habboi talks about the scrapped bookcase secret passage that could be found in the Alpha and Beta builds.

• 21:05 Habboi talks about the old Toilet of Doom and the bad chocolate. He also talks about older versions of the Toilet of Doom fights.

• 29:45 Habboi talks about a pitch he made to try and improve the Mail Delivery Act, which was a score system for delivering the packages in style.

• 30:25 Habboi talks about the giant shattered hourglass landmark in Subcon Forest.

• 31:07 Habboi talks about the scrapped mail delivery package: the brown mushroom.

• 33:07 Habboi talks about the original boss scenario for Subcon Forest, which would've been Toilet of Doom and Snatcher back-to-back.

• 44:07 Habboi talks about Alpine Skyline in general, being the last level they worked on before the finale.

• 46:48 Habboi talks about a background mountain on the way to the Lava Cake. Their schedule was running tight and Habboi needed some help decorating, so he asked Pascal Stiefel, the composer, to help decorate the level. The mountain with a cave in it that's full of crystals was designed by Pascal.

• 49:30 Habboi talks about the Sand 'n Sails version of the Lava Cake and concepts for Alpine's Lava Cake.

• 51:43 Habboi mentions the Sand 'n Sails Birdhouse being completely different from the Alps version, and how it was more "Twilight Zone-y". Going in and out of birdhouses would make things appear big and small, sideways and upside-down.

• 1:01:37 Habboi talks about the scrapped Shromb enemies being repurposed for the Alpine Skyline Birdhouse.

• 1:03:40 Habboi talks about using an unreleased Birdhouse track in White Tower Forest, a mod level he created. The track used in the mod is heavily edited and warped, not to mention it's only a fraction of the full track. Below is the version of the track used in the mod, and an attempt to restore it:
  

Mod Version	Restoration Attempt

• 1:06:20 Habboi talks about the scrapped stealth gameplay in the Birdhouse. He mentions the unused event of Fatty Bird rolling over in his sleep after an Egg Shromb explodes.

• 1:08:26 Habboi says that the Twilight Path was originally going to have more islands but were scrapped.

• 1:11:45 Habboi talks about the Lazy Paw Gang, and mentions the scrapped Moon Stars mission.

• 1:19:55 Habboi talks about a scrapped rainy atmosphere concept for the Windmill.

• 1:21:38 Habboi mentions the unused deadbird cameras in the Windmill.

• 1:28:40 Habboi talks about Tim the Timelord.

• 1:30:40 Habboi talks about Timmy.

• 1:32:20 Habboi talks about the Dweller decals on the Twilight Path originally only appearing after the Twilight Bell was rang.

• 1:32:50 Habboi says a Sunburnt was once considered to be a Coop partner.

• 1:34:10 Habboi talks about Sand 'n Sails characters.

• 1:35:00 Habboi talks about sprucing up the Twilight Bell shortly before release.

• 1:37:30 Habboi talks about TV Man and the Sand 'n Sails version of the Twilight Dungeon. They apparently got a person to try voice acting him, but he can't remember who it was.

• 1:43:07 Habboi talks about Sandworm. He would pop up at random in Sand 'n Sails to try to get you to buy his merchandise.

• 1:49:30 Habboi mentions the scrapped Big Plant "boss" that was made for Subcon.

• 1:55:25 Habboi talks about scrapped Mustache Girl missions.

• 1:57:20 Habboi talks about the scrapped post-credits cutscene. He says it may have gone unused because it didn't flow well.

• 1:58:45 Habboi talks about older concepts for Purple Rifts.

• 2:00:52 Habboi talks about the scrapped kittens, and about how you could rescue them and bring them aboard your Spaceship.

• 2:01:30 Habboi talks about the scrapped Moon Tablet item.

• 2:02:25 Habboi talks about the scrapped Paper Mario floor panels.

• 2:06:10 Habboi mentions a scrapped Chapter that would have you working for robots who would turn on you in the end and try to kill you.

• 2:10:50 Habboi talks about the history of The Finale. He mentions how the castle model itself got leaked way back in 2015.

• 2:17:40 Habboi talks about the Science Owls.

• 2:20:34 Habboi changed some metal platforms in the Finale from grates to solid metal.

• 2:34:30 Habboi mentions scrapped phases for the Mustache Girl boss fight. The only known one would've involved Tourist and a Crow Agent.

• 2:42:30 Habboi talks about Tour Rift only appearing if you choose 'Yes' to give Mustache Girl a Time Piece at the end of the game.

• 2:51:58 Habboi mentions a DLC idea of Hat Kid being in a fur coat like an Ice Climber on a snowy island. Unknown if this is related to concept art Jonas posted in the game's Discord server several years ago.

And with DLC 1 released, Gears for Breakfast would once again go almost radio silent for a few months as they focused on developing Online Party and Nyakuza Metro. The first teaser images for the Chapter wouldn't appear until February.

2019

On February 9 2019, this zoom-in image of the DLC 2 teaser graphic was tweeted out.

A February 15 2019 screenshot of Hat Kid thinking.

Hat Kid in a pool near the main station, posted on February 22 2019.

Hat Kid dancing by some hedges, posted on March 8 2019.

Hat Kid by a large blue diamond, posted on March 12 2019.

Hat Kid poking her head over a green wall, posted on March 15 2019.

Bow Kid standing by some plants, posted on March 22 2019.

Hat Kid laying on money, posted on March 29 2019. The screenshot was actually edited to remove the cat character on most of the bills to avoid spoilers.

A short video that was posted on Twitter on April 5 2019 showing the new kaleidoscope camera filter.

A screenshot of Hat Kid next to a poster in the metro, posted on April 12 2019.

On April 25 2019, Nyakuza Metro was revealed as the 2nd DLC for the game.

• At 0:22, the main station's sign is using the "Lazy Paw Metro" text from the leak builds.

• At 1:31 the scrapped "Vine" mural can be seen on the right.

• 1:37 Oddly, the sound effect for collecting Power Pons is the older version leftover in the Modding Tools. This is not the case in the leak builds, suggesting this bit of footage of Pink Paw Manhole is from even older than March 31 2019.

• At 3:02 the emote wheel is shown, and it's organized completely differently than it ever is in the final game.

On April 27 2019, a sneak preview stream for the DLC was held by Sara Holmes and Jenna Brown. There aren't any real differences seen or heard in the footage compared to the reveal trailer from a couple days ago, but there's a few development tidbits that Jenna touches on.

• 2:17 Jenna confirms that Nyakuza Metro is a very old concept for A Hat in Time.

• 27:00 Jenna talks about the design choice to color-code areas of the metro.

• 36:18 Jenna explains that the baseball bat weapon was originally made of metal.

The day before the DLC released, on May 10 2019, the guest composer of the music track that plays in the manholes of Nyakuza Metro, 'nelward', posted an early draft of the manhole music, which has a radically different feel to it than the final version. The tempo is much faster, the feel is much goofier, and the composition is much shorter, too.

About a year later, on May 9 2020, a video was uploaded by IGN of three developers from Gears For Breakfast, Jonas, Jenna, and Cameron, reacting to a 36-minute speedrun of their game. Even during this video, the developers mention some development information of the game.

• 7:30 Jonas mentions that earlier versions of Deadbird Studio were not liked very much by playtesters.

• 8:40 Jonas brings up the scrapped rotation post process effect that very early versions of The Moon had in effect.

• 10:48 Jenna talks about designing Rumbi the rumba, and how she didn't want anyone to attack him. Jonas implemented attacking Rumbi anyway.

• 19:50 The team talks about trying to remove the cookies in the Speedrun Performance build.

• 21:10 They briefly mention older versions of the Toilet of Doom boss fight, as well as the fact that the Toilet and Snatcher boss fights were originally back-to-back.

• 22:23 Cameron recalls that the team wanted to have a sequence showing Hat Kid's soul getting sucked into the Toilet of Doom.

• 37:50 Jenna talks about wanting to improve the outdoor model for Mustache Girl's castle, but never did. Jonas also mentions that it got leaked before release.

• 39:03 Cameron brings up the scooter originally being much more powerful, and possibly references Aruki's developer video of him blasting through the Finale with it.

On November 26 2019, one of the 2D artists who contributed Stickers for the game's DLC 2 posted a piece of concept art for the Stickers they contributed, as well as numerous designs that didn't make it into the final game.

• 1st Row - The first, second, and third designs were not used. The first one has Hat Kid squishing her cheeks, the second one shows her covered in Badges, and the third one has her dreaming of cookies.
• 2nd Row - The first and second designs were not used. The first one, which has two variants, shows the Conductor shocked. The second one shows a confused Snatcher.
• 3rd Row - The second and third designs were not used. The second one shows an annoyed Mustache Girl, while the third one is for a shocked Mustache Girl.

With the DLC's release on May 11 2019, and ports of the game brought to Nintendo Switch, XBox Series X, and PlayStation 5, that was the original end planned for A Hat in Time. No new content for the game was planned after that, and the second game being developed by Gears for Breakfast was already in development by the release of DLC 2. However, something unexpected would shake things up in Q2 of 2021, and it started development in early 2020.

2020

Starting in March of 2020, Mathieu 'Werti100' Martel and Jasmine 'Jazzrabbit' Stephens would begin development on one of the most ambitious workshop mods for the game to ever be conceived. Although its identity and true gameplay was never shown before its official reveal in November of 2021, several screenshots and short videos of it in development would be posted on Mathieu's Twitter account and in the Discord server for the game.

The earliest known screenshot of the manor map, dated March 29 2020. Was posted on the Discord server. The level can be seen in its blockout form, and the hedges around the manor are green and lack any of the fancier material effects seen in the final version.

A screenshot of Hat Kid holding a large gear, dated May 4 2020. Was posted on the Discord server. These gears can actually still be found in the map in the final game, and were originally seemingly intended to be used to open the basement area of the map before it was changed to simply pulling a lever.

A short video of a blockout of the dining room, dated May 8 2020. Was posted on Twitter. There appears to be one long table in the room instead of three separate tables at this point, and the prince and Vanessa statues in the room are instead the angel statues from Subcon Forest.

A short video dated May 12 2020, showing a purple Hat Kid team icon. Was posted on the Discord server. This is nowhere to be seen in the final version. Given that there's an unused purple color in a roulette wheel texture in the final, it's possible that this is what the team icon for Snatcher's team looked like at this point in development. It would also explain the name of the texture for Snatcher's team icon in the final: Innocent Ring.

A short video dated June 7 2020 that shows removed grass for the map. Was posted on the Discord server. In the final, this type of grass isn't used at all, though it can still be found leftover in the Modding Tools. The scene in the video appears to be near the tomb, out in the garden. A blockout for the pillars next to the tomb can be seen.

A short video dated June 13 2020 that shows off the secret passage from the study that leads to the basement. Was posted on the Discord server. As seen in the video, originally, the player would open the passage by simply interacting with the candles on the wall. In the final, two buttons must be pressed to unlock it. A Dweller wall can be seen on the left as Hat Kid slides into the basement, which was removed in the final.

A short video dated August 16 2020. Was posted on the Discord server. Werti demonstrates being able to easily change carpet's color on stairs. An early version of the library can be seen with some minor texture differences noticeable.

A screenshot of Hat Kid in an early library, dated September 6 2020. Was posted on Twitter. The circular floor behind Hat Kid is using a different texture, the windows are different, and one of them isn't open.

A short panorama video taken using the game's in-game GIF-maker, dated September 13 2020. Was posted on Twitter. Hat Kid is standing on the 2nd floor, and a few differences can immediately be noticed. First, the stain glass window has a different design, showing the prince and Vanessa both in it, with the prince being upside-down. The carpet on the floor has a completely different design, showing individual flowers. The final goes for a more subtle circular design pattern.

A short video of the map's skybox, dated October 3 2020. Was posted on Twitter. Green trees are present.

A screenshot of Hat Kid peeking into the dining room, dated October 10 2020. Was posted on Twitter. The room has left blockout by now, and more or less appears the same as the final, except the statues are still the angel statues from Subcon Forest.

Another short video showing the skybox off, dated December 6 2020. Was posted on Twitter. The trees have now changed to their final colors, and the light for the manhole in this area can be seen.

Another short video video showing off the removed grass from the map. Dated December 19 2020. Was posted on the Discord server. There is now considerably more detail in the map, and the grass color now matches final.

2021

A short video showing off the event roulette material shader, dated January 30 2021. Was posted on the Discord server.

A screenshot of a ceiling light model, dated February 26 2021. Was posted on the Discord server.

A screenshot of a lamp model, dated March 5 2021. Was posted on the Discord server. The carpet is still using its early design.

A screenshot of a hanging lantern in the lobby area, dated March 6 2021. Was posted on the Discord server.

A screenshot of the tutorial basement, dated March 22 2021. Was posted on the Discord server.

A screenshot of the grass from the lobby area. Dated March 23 2021. Was posted on the Discord server.

A short video of Hat Kid using the box fox Ice Hat flair, dated April 5 2021. Was posted on Twitter. Notably, the hat turns Hat Kid into metal instead of ice.

A short video of Hat Kid idling, dated April 8 2021. Hat Kid is wearing the Box Fox Ice Hat flair. Was posted on Twitter.

A short video of Hat Kid getting cursed off screen in the attic, dated April 13 2021. Was posted on Twitter.

A short video of Hat Kid using the Visualizer Dweller Mask flair. Dated May 6 2021. Was posted on Twitter.

And after that, silence for several months. It can be assumed that Gears for Breakfast somehow became aware of Werti's work, and thought of the Creator's DLC program. It wouldn't be until November of 2021 that anything else would publicly be seen of this mod again, but when it was, it was now a brand new DLC for the game, and it got its own reveal trailer, which premiered on November 16 2021:

Due to being so close to release, the amount of differences seen in the trailer is incredibly small.

• The music for the lobby area heard in the video around 3:26 is apparently an early version of the track, as the final's was imported not long after this trailer was shown.

• At 4:12, the Flash Freeze event is occurring, but the icon is for the Invisibility event.

• At precisely 4:14, in the middle of the clip montage, an early design for the Sprint Steal roulette event can be seen, with the Cursed Kid in the icon having their normal top hat on instead of the Sprint Hat.

Trailer	Final

Early Concepts And HUD Icons

Before the release of Vanessa's Curse, many of the HUD icons for the hat flairs and outfit the player could obtain were fairly different (Especially for the outfit). This is because the original artist was presented with a NDA contract when the mod was being changed into Creator DLC, and the artist wasn't informed of this detail, and so they declined the contract. The art drawn by the artist, as a result, could no longer be used in the project, and had to be completely redrawn for the final version. After the release of the DLC, the original artist posted numerous pieces of art that they did for the mod before it was changed to be DLC, including some concept art.

By far the biggest difference revealed by the early art is a very different punk costume, with a headband instead of a cap, a dress and tank top instead of jeans and a jacket, and a slightly different goth umbrella design. Hat Kid is also shown wearing a choker and having ear piercings, which are absent on the final costume. The leggings on the final version are also partially torn, while the early version's are completely intact. The shoes of the early design are black and white, as opposed to the final's more colored sneakers.

Some additional outfit concepts for this version.

Early	Final

As mentioned above, the hat flair for the costume was originally a headband with bear ears instead of a cap. The shirt for the outfit was a tank top instead of a jacket, which had a heart icon on it. The early umbrella isn't too different from the final, however. The handle was originally longer and the bow at the base of the umbrella was slightly different.

Early	Final

• Bunny Hat - Drawn at a slightly different angle, a blue rim was added along the bottom of the cap, and the tips of the ears are shaped differently. A bit of fluff was also added to the base of the ears.
• Donut Hat - Drawn at a different angle. Early version appears to have a swirl design on the icing, which the final's lacks.
• Box Fox Hat - A striped pattern appears on the bottom of the design, and the early version's stripes on the point are different and more numerous than the final's. The right ear is pierced in the early version, while the left one is pierced in the final's.
• Visualizer - Drawn at a different angle.
• Bird Mask - Its three feather trails at the top are much longer in the early version, while the ones on the side are arranged in a different pattern. The early version appears to be missing the bottom part of the beak.

Early	Final

Team victory graphics were also made, and are drastically different to the final's, as well as being far more simplistic. Much like the unused team graphics leftover in the final, these early graphics are all one image each, instead of being broken up into several pieces for more dynamic animation. For the Snatcher Team victory graphic, Snatcher is more laid-back in the early version, while the final's has him in a very different pose and holding some crowns. In the Vanessa Team victory graphic, the kiddos are clearly shown as being stringed like puppets, while the final's doesn't have anything like this at all. Vanessa's pose is also completely different. Neither of the early victory graphics show Bow Kid, and the amount of kiddos shown in each was increased from three to five.

Additional Concepts and Art

Released by another artist who worked on the mode is a handful of pieces of concept art for some HUD icons, the punk outfit, and even an unused version of the Soul item icon.

Sketches for the icons for the collectible crowns, souls, and the punk outfit hat.

A sketch of the bunny hat flair, using its older design seen above.

A version of the HUD icon for souls that has a bright red orb in the middle of it. In-game, the souls you collect do appear as translucent red orbs.

A couple pieces of concept art for the punk outfit, showing numerous minor differences to the final design. Hat Kid's hair appears in three different styles in the art, with only one of them (the twintails) making it into the final design. The unused hair designs also depict a bow and a ribbon holding up her hair. The symbol on the front of the hat also changed a few times, with it originally appearing as a purple and pink yin-yang kind of symbol with a dripping paint motif, and also as a broken heart. The paint motif was kept in the final design for the outfit as a whole. Hat Kid's shirt under the jacket changed from white to purple. The design with the broken heart hat also depicts Hat Kid with a choker, which was dropped from the final. Hat Kid's shoes in one design are also depicted with pink paint, with a humorous artist note written next to it. The paint was kept on the shoes for the final, but it was removed from the front of the shoes and was made more of a design on the shoe, rather than appearing as actual paint.

A 3D render of an early version of the punk outfit's hat, with yet another early symbol on the front, this one being a stylized triangle.

2022

Starting on April 8, the game's main composer, Pascal Stiefel, began uploading unused, unreleased music tracks that he made for the game on his Youtube channel. He said he would upload one new track every Friday, and this mostly came to pass, however, since June 10 of the same year he has ceased uploading any tracks to his channel or being active on social media. An explanation as to why has not been provided, but he did explain that he has more to release and is busy taking a break for 'some restructuring'. As of the time of writing, it's unknown if he still plans to continue releasing tracks.

April 8

"Empress Conflict"

A very early track intended for Rush Hour, most likely. It sounds radically different than the final's tracks, with a vague western-theme. Pascal himself has stated that "this was made before we settled on the actual metro sound".

April 15

"Hat Kid ~ Traveler of Time (EPIC Orchestral)"

A big, high-quality orchestral version of the game's main theme. Unknown where it would be used in-game.

April 22

"Up to no Good"

A track that, according to internal naming, was meant to be used in Act 3 of the Arctic Cruise before Hat Kid steers the ship into an iceberg. In the final, no special music plays; it's just the level's normal theme. The silence before the ship crashes shares its internal name with this track.

April 29

"The Abandoned Metro (SYNTHWAVE)"

An ominous-sounding theme for Nyakuza Metro. Unknown if it's an early version of the level's main theme or if it was meant to be used in a certain area in the metro.

May 6

"Full Steam Ahead"

Judging by the track's name and the video's background, this was intended for a scrapped cutscene showing the S.S. Literally Can't Sink departing from the docks and setting sail. In the final, this event happens off-screen and is given very little fanfare.

May 13

"Nyakuza Goons Causing Trouble"

A track meant for Nyakuza Metro (duh), with it possibly being intended for a scrapped event showing some cats causing mischief. There's nothing like this in the final at all, unless it was meant for the brief cutscenes where Hat Kid has to give up any Time Piece she collects to Empress's lackeys.

"Lost Rift"

Pascal actually ended up releasing two tracks this day instead of just one. This one, given the image used for the video's background and the other track uploaded the same day, was likely intended for a scrapped Purple Rift themed around the metro and Empress. Gears For Breakfast would go on later this year to state that they did indeed have plans for a Purple Rift for Nyakuza Metro, but scrapped it as they "didn't have anything to say about Empress". In the track uploaded, there appears to be a few variants for different floors of the Rift.

May 20

"Seal The Deal Theme Accordion Concerto (Bon Voyage)"

An extended version of the unused accordion theme found in the Modding Tools. The intro and ending are new, and possibly suggest this was intended for a cutscene at the end of Rock the Boat, after the player grabs the Time Piece.

May 27

"New Adventure (Space Disco Remix)"

A remix of the theme that plays in the Spaceship Hub when first starting the game. Unknown purpose, but might've been intended for Chapter 2.

June 3

"Relaxing Technology"

Another Nyakuza Metro theme. Unknown where it was meant to be used.

April 10

"Magical Puzzle"

A track that was seemingly made for Subcon Forest, according to the video's background image and the general feel of the track. A light Mafia Town motif can be heard in the track. Possibly related to the Fire Spirits.

October 5

In celebration of the game's 5th anniversary, a few members of Gears for Breakfast held a small, casual stream for a couple hours and talked a bit about the game and its development, mostly focusing on the DLC Chapters.

• Street lamps in Metro originally had bloom, but nobody liked it. So they switched to light billboards isntead.

• 27:24 Jonas mentions patching the main metro map sign to overwrite it saying Lazy Paw Metro.

• 28:22 The tunnel at the entrance to the main area of the metro originally had an 'X' on the back of it.

• 32:19 Trains were originally planned to have silhouettes of cats inside.

• 32:33 The ideas from the early Metro leak are mentioned, with trains being able to stop at stations and let passengers on.

• 33:22 Several set pieces in Metro are taken from Mirror's Edge, according to Jonas.

• 39:30 Challenge Road might've been inspired by Bloons Tower Defense 5.

• 41:25 The original theme (movie theme) for Battle of the Bird was Science VS Disco, as Habboi said in his developer playthrough.

• 44:20 Jenna wanted to add cameras around all the normal levels of Battle of the Birds to better give the idea that each level is a movie, but couldn't due to time constraints.

• 45:45 Koidrake mentions the initial concept of Deadbird Studio being a western town.

• The layout of the cruise ship was apparently a nightmare to make.

• 55:03 The Cruise Captain's original introduction idea is explained. The player would originally initially encounter him in the control deck, and the room would be filled with smoke and he'd have a much more depressed personality and body language.

• 59:25 Jonas brings up the scrapped Empress storybook. They didn't go through with it (1:01:43) because they felt they didn't have a lot to say about Empress. It was going to be a story about her being abandoned in a box of other kittens and claws her way to the top of society.

• 1:09:33 Someone's regret is the unused cowboy flair. It apparently wasn't included because nobody knew it needed an icon until it was too late.

• 1:12:33 Jonas's regret is the scrapped Bee Actors.

• 1:13:30 Someone's regrets are unused Alpine Skyline islands. They wanted to release it as a mod, but couldn't be asked to get it all set up.

• 1:22:50 Explanation for how Nyakuza cat NPCs came to be.

• 1:26:50 Fish Dude backstory explained. He was originally a health inspector, which would align with some of his unused dialogue that's leftover.

• 1:28:50 Jenna says that all characters in the game at that point were originally meant to be on the cruise ship.

• Conductor was originally planned to have a vacation shirt, but there was no time/budget for it.

• Vanessa was also gonna be on the ship, and the cabin she was staying in would've been frozen shut.

• 1:31:20 The bottom of the pool was originally going to be glass, allowing the player to see through it.

• 1:33:26 Jonas says that they tested the camera tilting with the ship a little bit early in cruise development.

• 1:39:45 An unknown Empress line was cut from the 'catch her' cutscene right before Rush Hour. They say the localization was in a build, but it has not been found.

• 1:42:01 Jonas wanted Hat Kid to drink, but wasn't allowed due to ESRB ratings.

• 1:49:50 Talks about the cat vacuums in the early Metro leak.

• 1:54:25 Confirms Wii U Port video.