Evolution (A Hat in Time Mod Level)

*Ignore that lighting message. I have no idea what causes it.

A Hat in Time is an indie game that was released on Steam in October of 2017. I had heard a little about it when it first came out (mostly because of the parallels to Mario Odyssey), but I bought and downloaded it for myself the day the first DLC (Seal the Deal) was released in September of 2018. After I beat the game (and completed most of it), I looked into seeing what other people had done with it. Surprisingly enough, all of the assets and the editor were made available by the games' developers, Gears for Breakfast, making the game incredibly easy to mod. In fact, a certain NPC would appear in the main game that lets you play modded levels the player has downloaded without interfering with the main game at all. I haven't uploaded a level mod yet, but I have figured out how to create one. Just to be clear, I didn't put in any original assets; everything in the mod can be found in the base game.

I've been working on a level I've code-named "Evolution". Essentially, I'm bringing the build to school and having people play-test it for me, where they've been giving me feedback and whatnot so I can improve the level. This is meant to emulate play-testing, a key part of the game design process. The "patch notes" are below:

Evolution 1 to Evolution 2

Both Routes:
- Put the Time Piece in a box, making the player need to access the Brewing Hat to beat the level, also teaching them how to get to the alternate route
- Made the Grapple Points more visible
Basics Route :
- Made the first Grapple Point not swing the player into the floor
- Made the Mafia Chef and Crows harder to avoid
- Put a sunglasses dispenser on the Basics route that requires the use of Hats, encouraging the player to go back for a third run
Hat Route:
- Added obstacles for both the Sprint Hat and Time-Stop Hat

Evolution 2 to Evolution 3

Both Routes:
- Added a floor to the more difficult obstacles to keep the player from dying
Basics Route:
- Lowered the first grapple point after the first rising grapple point
- Made the box containing the sunglasses dispenser larger to avoid the player picking it up preemptively
Hat Route:
- Made the first Dweller Platform shorter
- Made the Time-Stop Hat section easier and made it easier to see where the player should jump

Evolution Video.MOV

Now with low-quality video!