Prerelease:A Hat in Time (Windows, Mac OS X)/2015

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

January 2015

In celebration of the Beta builds releasing in 2015, Luigi Lucarelli released some concept art for the game, this one being artwork of trees with faces on them for Subcon Forest. Luigi's Artstation page for the art labels the art as 'Fire Spirit Area Trees'. This concept art is dated January 2 2015.

On January 6 2015, Jonas posted a short GIF on his Tumblr that showed a new way the game handles expressions, using morphs. Also posted on the game's Facebook page.

The Facebook version, which was higher quality and resolution, is not known to have been archived. Only its thumbnail survived:

On January 9 2015, this screenshot of Hat Kid on the moon was tweeted out. The scene shows Hat Kid using the Owl's Brew Badge while walking away from the crashed Science Express. No other characters can be seen in the level, although the level's aesthetics are very similar to the final game's at this point.

On January 23 2015, an interview on Kotaku was conducted with Pascal Stiefel, the composer for the game. The interview was split into two parts, and although it's been since taken down, an archived version of it can be read here for part 1 and here for part 2. One screenshot that isn't known to have appeared outside of the interview article is shown below:

This screenshot of Hat Kid standing next to some signs near the starting area of Subcon Forest is dated no later than January 23 2015. The grass has notably been updated past its Prototype design. The lantern hookshot points are now lit with a fire inside them, as they appear in the Beta builds.

Two more screenshots that are only known to appear in the interview, and are dated no later than January 26 2015. The first screenshot depicts Hat Kid near or on top of the lighthouse in Rainy Mafia Town. The second screenshot is of Hat Kid standing in an early Subcon Village, with flying Dwellers and dark Moonjumper particles floating over the village. These particles actually still exist in the final game's Modding Tools, unused.

On January 24 2015, a video was uploaded to the game's Facebook page that showed Hat Kid using the Owl's Brew Badge to attack some mafia in Mafia HQ. Sadly, the video itself was not archived before the Facebook page was taken down, but its thumbnail was:

Once again, Hat Kid can be seen having the Frozen Solid Badge equipped, a Badge that wasn't normally available in the Beta builds.

February 2015

A screenshot of an updated version of the act select menu was posted no later than February 4 2015. It depicts the planet that appears in the Beta, as well as showing the early name for Subcon Forest's first Act, "Breaking the Ice".

Sometime after the previous screenshot but before the Beta build release date was announced, these three screenshots were posted on the game's Facebook page. The first screenshot shows the kitchen on the Spaceship Hub, and the only apparent difference in it compared to the Betas is that the picture of Mafia Boss on the wall was changed to a picture of a house in a forest. The second screenshot shows Hat Kid laying down on the diving board above her pillow pile in the bedroom. The third screenshot shows Hat Kid with the magnifying glass weapon that was used in older versions of Murder on the Owl Express, in Mafia Town no less. This screenshot would be the first known public appearance of the Mad Crow enemy.

On February 12 2015, Jonas posted this animated GIF on his Tumblr:

This is the spaceship intruder notification the player receives in the Beta when Mustache Girl appears in your Spaceship. This would also be used in the final game whenever a new character or something important appeared in your spaceship.

On February 19 2015, Jonas posted a screenshot of the player unlocking the Owl's Brew Badge on his Tumblr, showing its icon off for the first time.

On February 26, a Kickstarter Backers-only post was made that announced that the Beta build would be releasing on March 7 2015, with an announcement being made on the game's website as well.

Additional information about the Beta's release was also provided on the website that provides some insight on the release and the content that would be available.

• There is a section that lists the playable levels. Notably, Mafia Town's third Act in the Beta builds, 'Repairing the Cannon', was originally called 'Goodnight, Mafia Town'. The name change seems to have been made at the last minute.

• There is a section that explains that the Beta is releasing earlier than they originally planned to during the Kickstarter. It acknowledges that the game is not content-complete and that they wanted more players to be able to help shape the game early on.

March 2015

Two screenshots that advertise the release of the Beta builds.

This screenshot was posted on Jonas's Tumblr and the game's Kickstarter as an update post.

On March 7 2015, the first version of the Beta build was released to Kickstarter backers.

Alongside this release Luigi Lucarelli, a concept artist for the game, released several pieces of concept art he made for the game up until this point.

Two pieces of concept art for Mafia HQ, depicting Cooking Cat and her area of the level.

He also released this sheet of UI icons, showing a few interesting things.

• There is an updated icon for the Electro-Shock Badge, which was scrapped after the Alpha builds.
• There is an icon for a fish item of some kind, alongside some concept art for it.
• The health HUD icons are similar to how they appear in the Beta builds and Pre-DLC2 release of the final game, but with some differences. The rims of the compass are gold instead of bronze, and the 'LIFE' text is wrapped along the bottom instead of the top left.
  

Finally, he released this concept art of various ideas he had. Out of all of them, only the floating hookpoint switch would make it into the final game. The door switches that would seemingly block the player's progress were made, but weren't used in the final game and can only be found in the Modding Tools. A few different logos can be seen for the game at the bottom right, and a very different spaceship design is at the top left. The early idea for the spaceship resembles an actual top hat in shape, and overall looks nothing like the final version. A few gameplay ideas can be seen at the top right: pushing over slot machines, knocking the head off a mafia statue, dropping a safe onto a button, and several carryables, including the unused fish seen above, boxes, and barrels. An unused barrel carryable class could be found in the final game's data early on before being removed.

On March 10 2015, the first update to the Beta builds was released.

On March 12 2015, the second update to the Beta builds was released.

This screenshot was posted on the game's Facebook page sometime before the following screenshot but after the release of Beta Update 2, as Hat Kid is shown holding a Bonfire Painting here, which wasn't programmed until Beta Update 3. Prior to Beta Update 3, the paintings were only background details that reacted to the player getting close to them.

On March 27 2015, someone asked Jonas on Tumblr about the quality of the game and if the game is anywhere close to completion. In response, Jonas explained that the Beta is a vertical slice, and there's plenty of content for the game that wasn't included in it.

This screenshot of Hat Kid with a water flask on her person was posted in the response as well. This marks the first public appearance of Sand 'n Sails's water flasks.

On March 30 2015, the third and finale update to the Beta builds was released.

April 2015

Sometime after Beta Update 3 but before the following screenshot, the above screenshot was posted on the game's Facebook page. It shows Hat Kid next to the Sandmobile, along with a Sand Serpent behind her. The Sandmobile's final model was imported the day after Beta Update 3, so this screenshot was likely posted to show off the model.

On April 13 2015, Jonas posted this screenshot of a Sleepy Raccoon enemy on his Tumblr.

This screenshot is actually one of the only known public appearances of the Birdhouse area in Sand 'n Sails. Bird eggs and nests can be seen in the background, alongside a metal fence and a springboard.

On April 26 2015, this model sheet of the unused Rough Patch enemy was posted on Twitter, which originated from Vincent's (A dev) portfolio website (Which is no longer up, sadly). The sheet provides the texture, polygon statistics, and a piece of concept art for the enemy.

Also on April 26 2015, a Backers-only Kickstarter post was made called 'It's all about the music'. The post begins by hoping that the backers are enjoying the Beta, and shows three new GIFs featuring new content that has been made since the Beta's release:

A GIF of Hat Kid in Rainy Mafia Town, jumping on a shock squid's head down at the docks. These enemies don't appear in Mafia Town in the final game.

A GIF that shows Hat Kid in Cheating the Race, now racing against a rocket mafia instead of a Lazy Paw Gang member. The animations for this mafia were present in the Beta builds, but unused.

A GIF that shows Hat Kid mounting the sandmobile in Sand 'n Sails, complete with the placeholder cocoa meter found in Beta Update 3's data, now with a pulsing effect when outside a safe zone. A sand serpent makes an appearance on the left.

These two screenshots were also shown, showing an updated water shader with ripples.

This screenshot of a white-colored shock squid was also shown, which was shown off on social media earlier than this update due to the black color for the squids already being present in one of the above GIFs.

The post then went into compositions by Grant Kirkhope. The post states that when Grant began composing his third tune for the game, he raised some concerns about his style of music fitting in with the rest of the game. Gears for Breakfast did not take his concerns lightly due to him being a veteran composer, and after some discussion, they reached a mutual agreement for him to stop at this point. They reported that there wasn't any hard feelings between Gears and Grant, and that Grant felt that Pascal could continue doing a good job. However, Grant stopping his compositions for the game broke a Kickstarter stretch goal that promised several more tracks to be composed by him, so the team asked the Backers where they would want the money to go instead. They also provided a list of their own ideas:

• Customizing the HUB with your own choice of furniture.
• Up to 9 acts in chapters (instead of the current up to 8 acts).
• Dream Worlds with multiple sub-levels.
• Extra Dream Worlds.
• The Hat Kid figurine as a silly secret playable character.
• 1-2 additional weapons.
• Additional hats (each with unique functionality).
• Controllable enemies.

Customizing the hub with furniture likely turned into the Relic system. Dream Worlds with sub-levels is a concept that would turn into Purple Time Rifts a few months later. The Hat Kid figure as a playable character was actually something that was implemented into the game at one point, with unique animations and a unique model for the base, but was scrapped. Its class file could be found early on in the final game before being removed, and the assets for it can be found in the Modding Tools. The Nyakuza Metro baseball bat was eventually added as an alternate weapon in DLC2 in 2019, and fishing rod and pool noodle weapons were added for the Summer Event in 2023.

This screenshot was posted on the game's Facebook page on April 30 2015. It depicts Hat Kid running next to a floating present, which is using its older model that can still be found in the final game's Modding Tools.

Also on April 30, another Kickstarter update was posted showing console support progress. The build featured in the video was later revealed in 2017 by members of Gears for Breakfast to actually be running on the Nintendo Wii U. The scene depicts broken textures, unstable framerate, and glitchy sound. The build appears to be old, given the Alpha build text still being at the bottom of the screen. A few differences in it can be noticed when compared to the Beta builds:

• There is no unique music yet for the intro cutscene.

• There is no spaceship intercom voice, nor are there any sound effects for the cutscene.

• There is no unique music for the spaceship after the intro cutscene but before returning to the spaceship after visiting Mafia Town once.

• The text for the location banner says "Hat Kid's Spaceship", instead of "The Spaceship".

• The side of the room with purple walls lacks the small bright stars.

May 2015

On May 1 2015, this screenshot was posted on the game's Facebook page. The screenshot shows giant lava faucets now present in Mafia Town, with Hat Kid standing on top of one. The knob for the faucet is blue, showing that it can be interacted with. In the final, it does not highlight in blue, and instead has a transparent ring around the knob showing that it can be spun.

On May 2 2015, this screenshot of Hat Kid and Mustache Girl high-fiving each other was posted on the game's Facebook page.

On May 3 2015, a video showing the intruder warning was posted on Twitter and the game's Facebook page. It featured Cooking Cat appearing next to a wooden chest. Cooking Cat appears in the Spaceship Hub in the final game, but does not bring a chest onboard. A minor difference in the Spaceship since the Beta builds: a water cooler was removed next to the door that leads to Trainwreck of Science. Previously, there was two water coolers on the left side of the door.

On May 6 2015, this screenshot of the Spaceship Hub was posted on the game's Facebook page, showing more info monitors than were in the Beta builds. There's an additional monitor that tracks the number of Relics the player has obtained, as well as the big monitor now tracking the total amount of Time Pieces collected, like in the final game.

On May 9 2015, this GIF of Hat Kid with bouncing palm trees in Sand 'n Sails was tweeted out and posted on the game's Facebook page. Previous screenshots and footage of the level did not have any of the palm trees like this. A comment on the Facebook post for this confirmed that the effect was inspired by the animating palm trees on the map screen for Desert Land in Super Mario Bros. 3. As a side note, the version of this that was posted on the Facebook page was higher resolution and much clearer, but isn't known to have been archived. Only the thumbnail for the Facebook version survived:

On May 15 2015, a screenshot of Hat Kid talking to a Sunburnt was posted on the game's Facebook page:

This same localization could be found in the initial release of the final game, unused.

On May 17 2015, Gears For Breakfast posted another Backers-only Kickstarter Update called "Progress Update! Cracking open the last regular chapter!". The post explains that the team had been spending the past two months largely working on Sand 'n Sails. They provided a breakdown of how 'complete' each Chapter in the game was:

• Mafia Town - All acts done, unpolished
• Subcon Forest - Majority of acts done
• Trainwreck of Science - Half the acts done
• Sand ‘n Sails - Majority of acts done
• Finale - Big chunks done but waiting until all other acts are done

The post doesn't go too far in depth on the mechanics of Sand 'n Sails or give any kind of closer look at some of the levels made for the Chapter. They just showed the above GIF of Hat Kid jumping onto the sandmobile and the close-up shot of the water flask on Hat Kid.

Alongside this, a video was also uploaded called "Hat Kid Movement Animations", which demonstrates newly-added detail animations for Hat Kid. She now has animations for stopping and doing a 180, as well as land recoil animations. Some of these animations can still be found in the final game, unused. Mustache Girl also has some of these animations leftover, unused, as well as a few that were only found in the initial console releases of the game. In the background of the test room are some trees from Subcon Forest and tree houses.

On May 22 2015, a video was uploaded onto the game's Facebook page that shows a Mafia directing Hat Kid during Heating Up Mafia Town.

The Facebook version is not known to have been archived, and only its thumbnail survived which is again higher resolution and clearer:

On May 23 2015, Jonas posted a screenshot of a new shader on his Tumblr he was working on, which happens to be the tinfoil material shader that would've been used in the Sand 'n Sails Birdhouse:

On May 30 2015, a screenshot of Hat Kid with the burger Relic on the floor of the Spaceship Hub was posted on the game's Facebook page:

Relics were originally, as Habboi stated in his 2018 developer playthrough, going to be able to be placed anywhere in the Spaceship Hub as decorations. This is one of the ideas that was suggested by Gears For Breakfast for where the remaining effort could go after Grant Kirkhope stopped composing music for the game.

June 2015

No later than June 8 2015, this screenshot was tweeted out by Jonas:

Hat Kid is depicted standing on an unknown island in front of an open suitcase with a bunch of blank polaroids flying out of it. This particle still exists in the final game's Modding Tools, unused. The scene appears to be a very early version of Mafia Town's Purple Rift. The model for this small beach island, complete with the hole next to Hat Kid, can also be found in the Modding Tools, unused.

On June 9 2015, Jonas posted a new screenshot on his Tumblr showing Hat Kid in an unknown Purple Time Rift:

On June 12 2015, a screenshot of the Spaceship Hub's basement was posted on the game's Facebook page and Twitter:

At this point, the basement is themed around Sand 'n Sails instead of Alpine Skyline, as the former had not been scrapped yet. The room thus takes on a much warmer color scheme, with far more reds and oranges compared to the blues of the final. The hookpoint pipe on the ceiling has intense steam coming out of it, as does the pipe next to the door that leads back up to the main room. These pipes do expel steam in the final, but use a different, more subtle particle. The room layout and design matches its concept art very faithfully. One of the monitors on the right wall is mistakenly brighter than the other one, a weird error that would make its way into the final game before eventually being fixed.

On June 16 2015, this image, which also originated from Vincent's website, was posted on Twitter, accidentally leaking the castle over two years before players ever saw anything more of The Finale. The model did not change at all before the final game.

On June 17 2015, this screenshot of Hat Kid standing next to Fire Spirits and their bonfire was posted on Twitter and the game's Facebook page. The location the bonfire is at in the screenshot would be replaced by a burning building in the final. The bonfire also has purple tentacles attached to each of the Fire Spirits, which were removed in the final as well. Minor leftover coding for these could be found in the initial release of the game.

A menu screen screenshot, dated June 20 2015. This was posted on Twitter on October 23 2015, with Habboi replying to it asking where the poster found the image. The menu, which may or may not be a mockup, has three options: "Random Play", "Online Play", and "Local Play". This was likely intended to be a menu for playing in Coop, as a 'Single Player' option is seen down on the bottom left. Ultimately, Coop and an online mode would be handled completely differently in the final, with Online Party taking the place of this apparent online Coop mode seen in the screenshot.

On June 28 2015, this screenshot was posted on Twitter and the game's Facebook page, showing the early version of the relic stands that can be found leftover in the final game's Modding Tools. This design of the relic stand also still shows up in Cooking Cat's Relic tutorial in the final game.

July 2015

On July 3 2015, this screenshot was posted on Twitter and the game's Facebook page, showing Hat Kid diving into a Purple Time Rift in Mafia Town that isn't present in this location in the final game.

On July 10 2015, this screenshot was posted on Twitter and the game's Facebook page, showing Hat Kid assembling a Relic on top of the old relic stand.

On July 16 2015, Jonas tweeted out a new design for the act select screen, now matching the final game in every way except for there still being a Free Roam option in Mafia Town and the Acts listing the Act number instead of the name of the Act on the planet.

Starting on July 21 2015, Habboi would begin tweeting out new screenshots of the game, although the majority of them don't really show anything special or new. For the few that do, they will be posted onto this page. For those that don't, they'll still be listed and mentioned with a link to the original tweet.

Habboi tweet on July 21 2015, showing Hat Kid being damaged by a Mad Crow in Rainy Mafia Town.

Habboi tweet on July 23 2015, depicting Hat Kid standing on a bird nest in Mafia Town.

Habboi tweet on July 24 2015, showing Hat Kid using the scrapped Air Attack move near a ladder.

Habboi tweet on July 25 2015, showing Hat Kid falling in Beta Hero's Challenge.

Habboi tweet on July 26 2015, with Hat Kid and a Mad Crow on Mafia Town's beach.

Habboi tweet on July 26 2015, showing Hat Kid bonking on a mushroom in Beta Hero's Challenge.

Habboi tweet on July 26 2015, with Hat Kid using the scrapped Air Attack move above the Conductor.

On July 27 2015, a new Kickstarter post was made that shows off a few of the previous screenshots and also explains that a playtesting session was received rather well by both the playtesters and developers. The playtesters obtained 20 Time Pieces over the course of 6 hours of play time.

Habboi tweet on July 27 2015, with Hat Kid laying down on the floor in Train Rush/Murder on the Science Express near the furnace.

Habboi tweet on July 29 2015, showing Hat Kid looking at some coal on the floor in Train Rush/Murder on the Science Express.

August 2015

On August 1 2015, this artwork was posted on Twitter, showing some characters that hadn't been revealed yet or didn't make it into the final game.

• Timmy is shown, as he wasn't replaced by Bow Kid yet.

• "Cactus B", a character who was shown off in a screenshot in Sand 'n Sails earlier in the year, appears next to a Sunburnt.

• Oldster can be seen in the back, next to the Toilet of Doom. This artwork would mark the first known public appearance of both of these characters (for Toilet of Doom, its updated design).

• DJ Grooves also appears way in the back, also marking his first known public reveal.
  

This promotional art for Subcon Forest was tweeted out on August 7 2015. It depicts Hat Kid wearing the Fox Mask and her normal hat at the same time, something the player can only do in builds prior to the Speedrun Event builds.

Habboi tweet on August 15 2015, with Hat Kid standing in a spider web in an unknown location.

Habboi tweet on August 16 2015, depicting Hat Kid attacking a telescope in the Spaceship Hub's bedroom.

Habboi tweet on August 17 2015, showing Hat Kid next to a Time Piece in a Blue Rift.

Habboi tweet on August 17 2015, showing Hat Kid in a Blue Time Rift with a big smile.

On August 18 2015, Habboi tweeted out a picture showing Hat Kid holding a beach ball by the pool in Mafia Town.

The screenshot shows that Hat Kid's spaceship has been added to the skybox at this point.

Habboi tweet on August 19 2015, showing Hat Kid fighting Mafia Boss while he's riding his Mafia ball.

Habboi tweet on August 20 2015, showing Hat Kid in Subcon Caves with a roosting bat behind her.

Habboi tweet on August 21 2015, showing Hat Kid standing at the front of the train in Train Rush/Murder on the Science Express.

Habboi tweet on August 23 2015, showing Hat Kid fighting Mafia Boss.

On August 30 2015, Jonas tweeted out a screenshot of Mafia Town's act select screen, showing the first appearance of the final game's Act 3:

Somehow, a Purple Rift for Mafia Town has already been completed despite only Act 1 being done. The Acts now display the name of the Act on the planet instead of the Act number, like in the final game.

September 2015

On September 2 2015, a mini-video was tweeted out, showing Hat Kid tripping and falling into a puddle of mud in Rainy Mafia Town:

A screenshot of Hat Kid using a Dye, dated no later than September 2 2015.

Habboi tweet on September 6 2015, showing Hat Kid crouching next to a plate of cookies in Vanessa's manor.

On September 11 2015, Jonas posted a screenshot of Hat Kid and the older 3D version of Snatcher's model on his Tumblr:

Also on September 11, Jonas hosted a Q and A session on Reddit, where he answered many questions from fellow redditors about the game. Some of the more interesting questions and answers:

• Q: Are the puzzles in Vanessa's manor going to be the same?
  • A: 3rd floor is the one that bugs me the most, and the one most likely to get changed!

• Q: What can we expect from the new Chapter 1, Act 3?
  • A: Expect a lot of mud!

• Q: When creating a world, let's say Mafia Town for example, what do/did you and the team look for in regards to inspiration for it's design?
  • A: We usually have a specific theme in mind when we first start out! For Mafia Town, the theme was vertical movement; we wanted the player to be able to move vertically with ease. Since Mafia Town is on a hill (technically a volcano), it's much easier to fall down than it is to get back up, which is why we made it so all the water moves upwards, making it an easy way to transport! For stuff like Trainwreck, the theme was chaos (which we hopefully made clear in act 3-1 that was in the beta!)

• Q: When creating the character Hat Kid, were they always planned to use an Umbrella as a weapon, or were other types of weapons planned/considered?
  • A: Yeah it's always been an umbrella for some reason. Even in the early builds of the game where Hat Kid was just blocks and spheres, she still used an umbrella as a weapon. I can't really remember why I made this choice, to be honest! It just seemed natural.

• Q: Is Timmy Hat kids boyfriend?
  • A: He is not! In early builds he used to live in Vanessa Manor until we decided to make him the co-op partner.

• Q: Could you give me a brief outline of the career pathway that led you to it?
  • A: How Hat in Time was created is highly unusual! I simply decided one summer that I was gonna spend my free time making a game, and that I shouldn't stop until it was done. I was very determined to carry out that task! The same summer I had a prototype ready, and a few months after I met many of my GFB colleagues. A few months in and we decided to launch the Kickstarter!

• Q: When did the idea for the game come to you? Was it in one glorious fit of creativity or was it more calculated?
  • A: Initially A Hat in Time was a hack-n-slash, but halfway through my prototype I found it more fun to jump around than the hack-n-slash gameplay, so I changed it into a platformer! The entire game development has just been slow steps like that: quick prototyping, figuring out what works, and then expand on that!

• Q: I was wondering what you guys are going to do next after this, possibility for a squeal?
  • A: After the game releases, we'll be working on Chapter 6 & 7! After that, it depends on how well the game performs! We'd love to expand the game even further!

• Q: I recall at some point the game had a 'Z-Targeting'-like system from Zelda, though this does not seem to be present in the beta. Was it scrapped, or is it introduced later?
  • A: It's been completely scrapped! It was available in the pre-alpha build, and we never used it, so we decided to scrap it and instead focus on making the targeting more integrated and natural!

• Q: about new game + are you planning on having more hit points on enemy's and bosses that alout of games do or are you going for something different? What are you generally plans for it.
  • A: This is something we're still discussing! I have a lot of ideas for "alternative" NG+, but we haven't settled on one direction yet :)

• Q: Will the final game have a public (Backer) testing period before launch to iron out bugs, or will it be private testing?
  • A: No, the next build available will be the final game! :)

• Q: Have you had any ideas for HiT that you really wanted to try out, but the rest of the team shot the idea down, and if so, what are they?
  • A: Lots! But not all of my ideas are good, and are often shot down for good reason. Everyone on the team constantly have ideas, and we usually juggle them between team members to see if it has any flaws or could be improved.

• Q: will the "Juice Bar" be available in the full game?
  • A: You'll be able to make some purchases at the "Juice Bar?", yes!

Habboi tweet on September 11 2015, showing Hat Kid standing next to an iced Science Owl in Vanessa's manor.

Habboi tweet on September 11 2015, showing Hat Kid at the end of Beta Hero's Challenge.

Habboi tweet on September 12 2015, showing a GIF on the TV that's sitting on Mafia Town's beach.

Habboi tweet on September 14 2015, showing Hat Kid with a funny expression in Mafia HQ's kitchen.

Habboi tweet on September 14 2015, showing a screenshot of Mafia HQ's kitchen.

By September 15 2015, the website for the game got a massive visual overhaul, featuring more organized information at the cost of all the previous blogs, screenshots, and other information being lost. Alongside this website upgrade came five new videos with plenty of footage, especially for Mafia Town. Each Chapter in a section on the website had a little preview video added for it that shows a mission intro for the Chapter.

• Mafia Town's video can be seen here.

• Subcon Forest's video can be seen here.

• Trainwreck of Science's video can be seen here.

• Sand 'n Sails' video can be seen here.

There are numerous differences that can be seen in the mini-videos, except with Trainwreck's video, which appears to match the Beta builds.

In Mafia Town's video:

• The video shows Barrel Battle's mission intro camera. To the left, before the video fully fades in, a blockout of the older version of She Came From Outer Space can be seen. Some floating platforms can be seen near it, as well. A newly-added hot air balloon can also be seen at the top left, floating very close to the market area. One of the umbrellas near the spinning trio of mafia was changed from blue to red. The waterfall at the end of the waterslide has more transparency issues against the ocean than it had in the Beta, and would continue to have issues into the final game.

In Subcon Forest's video:

• The video shows Contractual Obligations' mission intro camera. The level has made an immense amount of visual progress, now looking far more like the final game than it did earlier this year. The grass being used is the old grass that was also used in Mafia Town; the level wouldn't receive its finalized grass texture until just a few months before the final release. The old version of the oak tree at the start is still being used. The water around the oak tree is purple. Light Plants appear to have been scrapped by this point, as Forest Plants can be seen in the level, also marking their first public appearance. Interestingly, Mustache Girl appears at the start, looking in the direction of the oak tree; it's unknown if this video is showcasing the scrapped Mustache Girl mission in the level or if her model is being used as placeholder for the Snatcher Minions. A Badge can be seen up in trees on a leaf platform, but it's uncertain as to what Badge it was. A couple paintings can be seen hanging on trees near the start, with one of them sucking up a Mafia; neither of these paintings appear in this location in the final game. A Pon trail leads up to the two paintings. The two curved roots in front of the pond have light rays as if there's something illuminating their fronts, but no such light source can be seen. The ghost nooses make their first public appearance here.

In Sand 'n Sails' video:

• The video shows the same mission intro camera that Habboi would show in his developer video playthrough of Pumping Pumpkin Factory. A scrapped progress sign model can be seen on top of the top-left building, which is gone by Habboi's video. Oddly, the Sunburnt don't seem to be suffering from the same texture issues that they do in Habboi's video; they all appear with their proper color variants instead of all of them being pure white. An unknown collectible is shown to reside in the tower of the village, which can be seen due to its particle. The desert dance scaling effect was also already implemented at this point, as the telescopes, Pons, and collectibles all use it. Do note that the dancing effect used for the palm trees is done via material shaders and is completely unrelated to the actual script and code that handles the effect for other models and Actors.

There was a somewhat sneaky video trailer also added to the site, for Mafia Town. Mafia Town's Chapter section had a "sneak peek" option that led to a Youtube video trailer for the Chapter. Gears For Breakfast would officially announce and reveal this trailer on New Year's Day 2016.

A trailer for Mafia Town, dated no later than September 13 2015, shows a handful of additions and new features added since the Beta builds released earlier this year.

• Vaults in Mafia Town now have little flags attached to their sides.

• The Time Piece hot air balloon floating over the cargo ship has been removed by this point.

• A hookshot elevator has been added to the ladder section next to the cargo ship.

• The skybox texture has been updated, and is now using the scrapped texture that has differently-shaped clouds that can still be found in the final game's Modding Tools.

• The water ripples that the upwards waterfall is creating down at the docks go out much further than they did in the Betas.

• A little over halfway through the trailer, it switches to Lava Mafia Town. The lava fish hazards have been implemented, and their smoke trails differ from the final's in that they're much straighter.

• The lava faucets now have the interact ring around them that they do in the final game.

• At one point, there's a shot of Hat Kid standing on a default cylinder model out in the middle of the fire sea. This is a blockout of the oil tower, as its model wasn't finished yet.

Finally, a video which uses combined footage from this trailer and the 2014 Alpha release trailer plays in the background of the website. It can be seen more clearly here.

On September 18 2015, Habboi tweeted out a picture explaining the careful color scheme choices that went into Mafia Town's design:

Habboi tweet on September 19 2015, showing Hat Kid on some rocks at Mustache Girl's hideout.

On September 24 2015, Habboi tweeted out a picture showing and explaining his inspirations for Mafia HQ's theater:

On September 26 2015, Habboi tweeted out a picture showing and explaining his inspirations for Mafia HQ's design, as well as showing numerous very early screenshots of the level:

There is also this video, which is dated no later than September 26 2015:

The video depicts Hat Kid signing a contract with Snatcher, who is still using his older 2014 3D model. The contract depicts an early version of Act 1, still called "Breaking the Ice". Two early polaroids show a Snatcher Minion standing near the start of the level and the double barricade of ice and the unused thorn wall at the back of Subcon Village. The description for the contract says to: 1) Break the Ice 2) Make the Flowers Bloom. It's unknown how Hat Kid would've completed the second objective.

October 2015

Sometime in 2015, Aruki recorded a playthrough of Pumping Pumpkin Factory in Sand 'n Sails, and uploaded it to his YouTube channel, unlisted, as a playtesting video. Aruki would continue to do this over the development of the game, and would share a small number of them shortly after the game came out before taking all of them down/privating every single video. However, this small group of videos was preserved, thankfully, and archived. This would be the earliest look at a full level in Sand 'n Sails, which underwent active development earlier this year. Despite how easily Aruki breaks the level in this video, its level design would not appear to change at all before the whole Chapter was scrapped.

As an extra note, Aruki's Explorer Badge in the video is one of the scrapped Badge Rarities.

• 

  Aruki's original post of the video, along with the rough date it was recorded.

On October 3 2015, a screenshot of a new poster for She Came From Outer Space was tweeted out, further indication that the Act was being worked on at this time.

On October 9 2015, a GIF/video of Hat Kid attacking a new Dweller Bell was tweeted out and posted on the game's Facebook page.

The scene appears to take place in the fiery area of the forest.

A higher-quality version was uploaded to the game's Facebook page, but was sadly not archived. Only its thumbnail survived:

On October 16 2015, a teaser screenshot for the Scooter Badge was tweeted out, showing Hat Kid with the Badge equipped in Subcon Forest:

Habboi tweet on October 16 2015, showing Hat Kid doing a front flip in Train Rush.

On October 19 2015, Jonas tweeted out a screenshot of Subcon Forest with only its lighting enabled:

The screenshot is the first known one to show the Snatcher Minions, in particular, the hanging Snatcher Minions.

On October 23 2015, a comparison picture was tweeted out to show how far the game has come since the Prototype builds:

On October 30 2015, the first screenshot of Hat Kid riding around on a scooter was tweeted out:

This screenshot is notable for still being used on the game's Steam Store page currently.

Habboi tweet on October 30 2015, showing Hat Adult in the scrapped Winter Bookstore.

Habboi tweet on October 31 2015, showing Hat Kid looking into the distance in a Blue Time Rift.

November 2015

Habboi tweet on November 3 2015, showing Hat Kid being chased by Queen Vanessa.

Habboi tweet on November 4 2015, showing Hat Kid caught by Queen Vanessa.

On November 5 2015, a screenshot of Hat Kid bouncing on the Burger Relic was tweeted out:

Another screenshot that is still used on the game's Steam Store page.

On November 6 2015, Jonas tweeted out a screenshot of a very early version of the final game's Toilet of Doom arena:

The platform arena appears to be made of wood, and the early unused dweller cages that appear in the background are completely empty.

Habboi tweet on November 6 2015, showing Hat Kid on the beach of Rainy Mafia Town.

On November 7 2015, Jonas tweeted out a picture of a 'happy tree' in an unknown area of Subcon Forest:

In the final game, these trees only appear in the swamp area of the forest.

Habboi tweet on November 7 2015, showing Hat Kid posing next a radio at the front of Train Rush/Murder on the Science Express.

On November 8 2015, in a compliment to Unreal Engine 3's state-based AI programming, Jonas tweeted out a tiny chunk of an early version of the Toilet of Doom's boss code:

Compared to the coding for the boss in the initial release of the final game, there's a function call to play music that does not exist in the final. There are stage checks and a check for if the player has the One-Hit Hero Badge equipped before it 'sleeps' for 0.5 seconds. There is no function call to spawn the Snatcher Minion audience, suggesting that it did not exist yet at this point in development. The attack for CurrentAttack == 0 was changed from 'GooSpit' to 'DoBubblesWithItemsSpit', with the final version also not doing a teleport right before it. CurrentAttack == 1 in the final is called 'EarthquakePlayer', while in this version it's called 'SquashPlayer'. CurrentAttack == 2 does not reference the dweller cages in its function name, suggesting that the moving cages attack did not exist yet.

On November 13 2015, a lost GIF was tweeted out that implied that Hat Kid could no longer swim indefinitely. It would be at this point in development that the drowning mechanic was implemented.

A screenshot of Hat Kid sleeping in her bed in the intro cutscene of the game, dated November 16 2015. Tweeted by Habboi. A new lamp has been added to the nightstand next to the bed.

On November 22 2015, a video of Hat Kid driving the scooter around on the docks in Mafia Town was tweeted out and posted on the game's Facebook page:

The version on Facebook was, again, higher quality but not archived. Only its thumbnail was saved:

It seems the Facebook version also showed more of the video; the Twitter version is cropped.

On November 28 2015, this screenshot of Mafia Jar sitting in the Spaceship Hub's basement was tweeted out. This would be Mafia Jar's first known public appearance.

December 2015

Habboi tweet on December 4 2015, showing Hat Kid swimming in Mafia Town's ocean with fishes.

On December 5 2015, a screenshot of an early version of the Mafia Town Purple Rift was tweeted out:

Also on December 5, a screenshot of Mafia Town's act select screen was tweeted out showing it had two Purple Rifts at this point in development:

The second Purple Rift is the Raccoon Rift, which became Sleepy Subcon in the final game. This is, again, another screenshot that is still used on the game's Steam Store page.

Habboi tweet on December 5 2015, showing a GIF of Hat Kid dancing in the Spaceship Hub bedroom.

Habboi tweet on December 5 2015, showing awkward sideways Mafia in the Mafia HQ bathroom.

Habboi tweet on December 5 2015, in monochrome with the oil tower visible in Mafia Town on the left.

On December 6 2015, two similar screenshots of Hat Kid using the scooter in the Spaceship Hub were posted, one on Twitter and one on Facebook:

A purple carpet was added in front of the Subcon Forest door by this point.

Habboi tweet on December 8 2015, showing Hat Kid in Beta Hero's Challenge.

Habboi tweet on December 9 2015, showing Hat Kid in an unknown bramble-like area.

On December 12 2015, two similar screenshots of Hat Kid next to Snatcher in Subcon Forest were tweeted out by the main Hat Twitter account, and the Twitter account for their engine programmer, Parax:

Snatcher's home appears to be outside at this point, which matches concept art. In the final, this area would become a minor area with subtle references to Moonjumper with ghost furniture floating above it. Hat Kid also shows that she has one of the scrapped Badge Rarities equipped for her Hover Badge. Snatcher is now also using his final model.

Also on December 12, Jonas tweeted out this screenshot of Mustache Girl:

Note that Mustache Girl is standing on a platform in the old version of She Came From Outer Space.

On December 18 2015, an update round-up Kickstarter post was made that showed off some of the recent additions to the game.

A Christmas Eve screenshot showing a snowy version of Mafia Town with Hat Kid standing next to the unused snowman. Was tweeted by Habboi.

On December 28 2015, Jonas tweeted out this screenshot of Snatcher wearing a mailman's hat.

Habboi tweet on December 31 2015, showing Hat Kid standing in Rainy Mafia Town without any rain, confetti, and a different skybox.