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Proto:A Hat in Time (Windows, Mac OS X)/Alpha

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

The Alpha builds were the first builds of the game that Kickstarter backers got to try out. The art style, gameplay, game mechanics, and plot were all very, very different at this point in development. Badges were in a rudimentary state, there was no loadout menu, and there were bugs and glitches galore. The builds display a fascinating part of the game's history and, although definitely more fleshed-out and cohesive than the Prototype builds, give a look at many of the ideas that made their way into the final game in their infancy. Six known Alpha builds were distributed to the backers, however, only two builds have been archived. Alpha Updates 1, 2, 3, and 4 have not yet been recovered, and are assumed lost. Thus, any unique assets and coding featured in those builds cannot be documented here at this time. There was also supposedly a patch to the initial release of the Alpha, which was released within mere hours of the first Alpha build releasing. The changes this patch brought are not fully known, but the video explains that it at least fixed the main menu being buggy. The unpatched first release of the Alpha has also not been recovered; only the patched version has. This video shows the unpatched version in its entirety, with one of the biggest differences being the credits at the very end.

AHatIntime Alpha Titlescreen.png


Builds:
Alpha Base Version - Compiled on February 20 2014 at 5:44 AM.
Alpha Base Version Patch - Released sometime after 5:25 PM on February 20 2014.
Alpha Update 1 - Released on February 22 2014.
Alpha Update 2 - Released on February 27 2014.
Alpha Update 3 - Released on March 5 2014.
Alpha Update 4 - Released on March 8 2014.
Alpha Update 5 - Compiled on March 26 2014 at 2:21 AM.


Official Changelog by Gears For Breakfast:
(Released February 22 2014) Alpha Update 1:

An ingame per-level speedrunning timer has been added that ignores loading times and intro sections.
Added camera invert options for keyboard and controller.
Added controller rumble toggle.
Fixed players dying when flashing The Snatcher in Queen Vanessa Manor.
Fixed rendering issues underwater.
Added underwater music to Mafia Town.
Added a button prompt on how to dive when first entering water.
Fixed rendering bug in cinematic on 2nd floor Queen Vanessa Manor.

(Released February 27 2014) Alpha Update 2:

Invert axis options no longer affect firstperson mode.
Fixed softlock when collecting an item as a Time Piece becomes available.
Fixed a bug where collectibles would disappear when collected while moving.
Made the double jump direction less dominating, which should make it easier to jump on enemies.
Removed the requirement for the player to make impact with a wall before activating wall sliding.
Fixed being able to attack in firstperson.
Fixed a graphical bug where the water would be completely white underwater with high quality shaders off.
Pressing B on controller now returns to previous menu (just like X does).
Added a music volume option to settings menu.
You can change active badge with Q (on controller: RT). This was fixed a while ago but we forgot to log it.
Fixed Mac users receiving Windows binaries instead of Mac binaries. Unfortunately we’ve had to disable the settings menu as some changes to it would cause the game to crash.
Added a music variation for the starting area of Chapter 1 Act 1.
Fixed a bug where Mafia wouldn’t turn towards you when talking.
Reduced volume and frequency of bell in Mafia Town.
Fixed some un-climbable ladders.
Increased music transition times in Vanessa Manor.
Fixed a bug where Queen Vanessa couldn’t see you in certain spots on 1st floor.
Fixed Hat Kid animation freezing on 3rd floor manor.

(Released March 5 2014) Alpha Update 3:

Fixed minor bug when backing out of effects menu.
Fixed a bug where Hat Kid wouldn’t leave footprints.
Fixed two button prompts appearing at once.
Fixed player occlusion not animating in certain spots.
Middle Mouse Button / Right Thumbstick now resets the camera behind the player.
Wall sliding no longer requires the player to be facing the wall.
Made ‘World Detail’ and ‘Realtime Environment Shadows’ their own setting (previously they were merged with other settings).
Added Voice Acting Volume.
Enabled volume options to go up to 150%.
Added fallback for Bink movie playback.
Fixed not being able to attack / dive after a wall jump.

Mafia Town general performance improvements:
Fixed grass rendering from an insane distance.
Some foliage no longer renders with low world detail.
Some particle effects no longer render with medium and low world detail.
Added multiple detail models (LOD) to Mafia Town models.
Some far-away islands no longer render with low world detail.

Added new music to the beach.
Slides now make Hat Kid do a dive.
Removed obsolete barrels and watermelons.
Added a few Energy Bits to make one secret level more visible.
Fixed a bug where the player could get stuck behind the chest on 3rd floor.

(Released March 8 2014) Alpha Update 4:

Fixed a glitch allowing infinite wall jump.
Added Bokeh depth of field.
Added depth of field and advanced depth of field options to settings.
Settings with multiple values now require you to confirm (apply) the changes.
Fixed a bug where the “Watch Out!” message during miniboss would disappear too quickly.
Fixed a bug where you could destroy Mafia in an unintended order during the miniboss.
Added a sound cue when keys are picked up.

(Released March 26 2014) Alpha Update 5:

Settings: Added a graphics detail preset, and moved existing options to “customize”.
Settings: Removed the “High Quality Shaders” option (it is now active by default). The net performance gain from turning this option off was minimal and resulted in significantly longer loading times (due to shaders having to be recompiled).
Settings: Added a “Auto-detect Controller” setting.
Added a new health meter.
Max health has been reduced to 4.
Added a small animation to the energy meter.
Energy meter is now only visible when the player has any badges.
Snatcher badge now dodges in the initially held direction, as opposed to the currently held direction.
Added a new Gamepad system that allows for user-defined controllers (HatinTimeGame/Config/Gamepads/). This system currently uses button layout instead of GUID, we hope to change this in the future. This implementation does not currently have  an in-game interface, we hope to provide that later down the road. Feel free to share any custom configs with us over at the Community Feedback Tracker (for instance, none of us at Gears have a Dualshock 4, and as such cannot provide a DualShock config ourselves at the moment).
Fixed a bug where SaveData was saved in the wrong location. This may reset previous save data, sorry.
HUB now has its actual music playing (instead of The Moonjumper’s theme).
Fixed balloon collision being mis-aligned.
Fixed a bug when re-trying the Mafia mini-boss.
Fixed a bug allowing the play to walk through the kitchen table.
Fixed being able to press a switch on 3rd floor through a wall.
Reduced bloom strength in the winter bookstore.

Mac OSX:
Fixed shader cache being out of date.
Fixed a bug causing the game not to save.
Graphics settings are now available.


Sub-Pages

AHatIntime jump a(Alpha).png
Differences to the Final Game
Good to know the Science Owls could literally be called 'four-eyes' in these builds.
AHatInTime playerhealth full.png
Differences Between Builds
Hat Kid forgot to take her vitamins.


AHatIntime collectible cog01(Proto).png
Unused Textures
All sorts of things in here
Hatintime Firespirit.png
Unused Objects
Watch out for the bad chocolate!
AHatIntime noteblock pages.png
Unused Text
"What is this! You're having an affair!?"


Unused Animations

Hat Kid

All of these animations can only be found in Alpha Update 5, except the Knife Strike animations, which can also be found in the Beta builds, still unused. The knife strike animations appear to have been made for a scrapped rhythm minigame that would take place in Mafia HQ. The Propellor animation is an extremely early version of the animation Hat Kid would use in the Beta builds when using the Hover Badge, and is used in Alpha Update 5 for the unused Propellor upgrade, which was scrapped by the Beta builds.

Mustache Girl

Mafia Boss

Mafia Boss is present in the data for the Alpha builds, despite not being used, and has the same model as he did in the Prototype builds. He still has his animations from the Prototypes too, although he's also gained four more since then.

Rough Patch

The Rough Patch enemy, being in such an early state in the Alpha builds, only has two animations. Somehow, its idle animation is more animated than the one seen in later prerelease footage and the final game's Modding Tools. It also has a spin attack animation, which it uses exclusively in the Alpha builds when attacking Hat Kid.

Venus Trap

The early Venus Trap's idle animation has it wildly waving its tongue around, which it does not do in the Modding Tools version.

Prototype Hat Kid

The entirety of Hat Kid's Prototype animations (minus a couple deleted animations) is present in the data for the Alpha builds. Animations for interacting with various gameplay mechanics in Vanessa's Manor were added that weren't present in the Prototype builds. Oddly, though, the last two known animations to be added to Prototype Hat Kid's animset are these two...odd 'dodging' animations. They appear to be severely unfinished, and are most likely placeholder.

Level Oddities and Secrets

Mafia Town

Island Tent

Hidden on an inaccessible island is a chalkboard inside a tent, chiding the player for snooping around. Not present in the initial release of the Alpha.
AHatIntime leave(Alpha).png

Dweller Ghost Objects

Hidden around Mafia Town in the Alpha builds are several Dweller Ghost objects, which appear in color while wearing the Dweller Mask but colorless without it. There are three cannonballs lined up near the market loaded inside cannons, there's a chair crashed into one of the windows at Seaside Spaghetti, there's a Ghost Mustache Girl sitting at one of the tables, and there's a fleet of Ghost ships far off of the island, with Mafia Boss standing at the bow of the middle one. According to Habboi, the Dweller Mask was originally going to have functionality in the game where it would reveal objects and characters from the past, showing past events. This idea was scrapped at least by the Beta builds, as most of these objects were removed by then. The cannonballs and chair in the window are still present in those builds. The cannonballs even have unused matinee data inside an unused Kismet Sequence called "MafiaAttackFlashback", which shows the cannonballs firing out of the cannons. No Kismet programming is set up to any of these matinees. A video showing all three is shown below:






Tim the Time Lord

AHatIntime Alpha LeftoverTim.png
Tim the Time Lord is still floating above the market area in the Alpha builds, albeit hidden. Sadly, none of his Kismet is leftover in these builds. He's also completely gone by the Beta builds.

Leftover Prototype Crane Meat

AHatIntime Alpha LeftoverPrototypeCraneMeat.png
An unused giant meat is sitting at the end of the path next to the church bell tower in the Alpha builds. This meat is leftover from the Prototype builds, where a crane was hooked onto it and Hat Kid would use it as a platform to access the top of the bell tower. The meat is hidden normally, and can be unhidden by console commands.

Rapper Mafia

AHatIntime RapperMafiaFliesIntotheSky.png
Although the rapping Mafia and his stage were removed for the Alpha builds, the rapping animation is still technically used in-game, but is virtually impossible to see without using console commands. The Mafia that flies away really quickly after Hat Kid defeats him in at the end of Act 1 is actually using the animation, although the animation isn't set to play.

Bird Hunt Leftovers

Leftovers from the leftovers of the bird hunt minimission from before the Prototypes is still in the Alpha builds. The birds and their rings can be unhidden using console commands, and collected while flying around on a rocket. There's no Kismet programming for this, however, so collecting all of the collectible birbs results in nothing happening. Interestingly, more birds were added to this little minimission between the Prototype builds and the Alpha builds, indicating that it was still being considered as a mission in the game for a bit longer.










Unused Secret Level Entrance

Present in all versions of the Alpha is an unused entrance to one of the Secret Levels in Mafia Town. The player can walljump up to the top of the factory's smoke stacks and jump down the one without any bars in it to access the level... in theory. Unfortunately, some dumbo forgot to make the collision of the smoke stacks per poly instead of using a general collision mesh, so Hat Kid can't actually jump down the pipe to use it. It can be accessed with console commands that disable collision on all static meshes, but will need to be re-enabled when the player enters the Secret Level, or they'll keep falling to their death over and over. This was fixed in the Beta builds.





Vanessa's Manor

AHatIntime WTFDogPicture Alpha.png
In the Alpha builds, accessing the secret path behind the bookcase on the first floor of Vanessa's manor actually holds yet another secret within: a painting that can only be seen by entering first-person mode and looking backwards. It's a funny picture of a dog snuggling up in a kid's face. This painting, sadly, was removed in the Beta builds and was replaced with the spooky 'Hat Kid' painting from the 2nd floor. This texture could still be found in the final game's Modding Tools early on, but was eventually removed.

Secret Levels

AHatIntime Alpha DisabledTimeTrialGhosts.png
The Time Trial ghosts from the Prototype builds are actually present in every Secret Level in the Alpha builds, but do not appear normally due to a lack of ghost racing data being supplied with the build. Even so, trying to talk to them no longer works due to them using the outdated and deprecated message system from the Prototypes, which was replaced for the Alpha builds.

Spaceship Hub

The Alpha's Spaceship Hub is mostly incomplete, and can't be roamed around normally. Many of its rooms are very clearly unfinished.

Bedroom

An early version of Hat Kid's bedroom that uses Vanessa's bed as a placeholder. Fixed to the bed is what appears to be a clock face, along with a sign that reads "ACT 1 TOILET OF DOOM". This room would later become the Subcon Forest hub room in the Beta onwards, with the clock face removed from Hat Kid's bed. This clock model can only be found in the Alpha builds, but its textures are still leftover in the final game's Modding Tools. The clock itself is from an early concept of accessing Acts in Chapters, back when time travel was still a major plot element.

Kitchen

A green room with a table in the center and a Forest Dweller. The Forest Dweller isn't present anywhere else in the Alpha. This room would later become the Mafia Town hub room in the Beta builds onward.

Machine Room

An early Trainwreck of Science hub room that borrows machinery assets from the chapter, unlike the Beta onwards.

Mail Room

A domed room whose sole furnishing is a slide, which leads back into the main room of the Spaceship Hub. This would turn into the mail room in the final game.

Basement

A room that, sans viewport and doors, is entirely empty. This is an early version of the basement, which would've been used to access Sand 'n Sails before it was replaced by Alpine Skyline.

musicroom

What appears to be a test room that was used for testing collectibles and music. Contains a red vault code, 4 Electro Shock badge pieces, 4 Owl's Brew badge pieces, a Mafia tie, a Time Piece, and two buttons. One button plays the cutscene that plays when a Time Piece is spawned, and the other plays music from Vanessa's Manor. There's also a seemingly random tiny water volume placed a bit directly above the player's spawn location in the room. In Alpha Update 5, an early version of the cloud model found in the final game is also present.

Unused Kismet Programming

Mafia Town

Leftover Prototype Intro Sequence

There's a bit of Kismet programming leftover from the Prototype builds in Mafia Town, specifically for the intro cutscene, level intro, and conversation with the seagulls. A good chunk of the Kismet nodes are disconnected, however, but can be restored with a fair amount of console commands. Hat Kid's model used in the intro, which is the updated Prototype Hat Kid model that can also be found in the final game's Modding Tools, lacks a hat during the intro cutscene, but otherwise everything else plays out just fine. The seagull conversation, however, does not. It attempts to use the Prototype's message system, which was replaced and deprecated by the Alpha builds. Nonetheless, the trigger volume for it to trigger is still placed, and touching it after restoring the Kismet softlocks the player.





Unused Trigger Volume At Mustache Girl's Hideout

There is an unused trigger volume around Mustache Girl's small cave hideout, and is connected to an unused Sequence called "MuHideout". The Kismet in this Sequence is set to play different music while the player is in the volume unless the current Act is 4, which would be Lava Mafia Town. However, all of it is disabled normally, and the music that would be used here is gone and not present in the game files. This trigger volume was not present in the Prototype builds, and is gone by the Beta builds, along with the entire Sequence.

Leftover Secret Level Rectangles Painting Warp

The painting warp that took the player to Secret Level Rectangles in the GoBoiano Prototype is still present in the Alpha builds, but all of the Kismet involving it is normally disabled. Upon re-enabling it via console commands, the little animation of Hat Kid entering the painting works, as well as the camera angle, but the game softlocks due to the map not existing anymore. This Kismet also still functioned in the Cosmo Prototype, but instead crashed the game due to the lack of the map file. The restored sequence can be seen in action here.

Vanessa's Manor

Unused Leftover Queen Zap Event

There's an unused Sequence in the Kismet programming for the manor in the Alpha builds called "VanessaExplosion" that is completely disabled. This Sequence contains coding leftover from an earlier version of the level, one that featured the player attacking Queen Vanessa with the lights instead of attacking Snatcher Kid with them. Upon being attacked 3 times she would, presumably, die, and cough up the key needed to access the attic. By enabling that Sequence in the Alpha builds as well as all of the Remote Events related to it, and then typing in "re queenzapped3rd" into the developer console, the screen will flash white, a key will fly out of the door (using a unique matinee that is otherwise unused!), and the doorway will get covered in darkness with black smoke coming out of it. The player will also no longer be able to pass through that doorway. A red eye will also rise up from under the door. By Alpha Update 5, this eye would be moved to a nearby room and is no longer a part of this scenario. The key that flies out of the door can't actually be collected. This Kismet programming still exists in the Beta builds in the same way it does in Alpha Update 5.







Inaccessible Acts

Mafia Town

Mafia Town has two unused Acts in builds prior to Alpha Update 5, and a third that was added in said update. These can no longer be accessed as easily as they were in the Prototype builds. Trying to set the current Act via the developer console will do nothing due to a new check that prevents it from running when not playing the game in the editor. By using Cheat Engine or similar software, the check can be disabled, and the unused Acts can be played.

Down With The Mafia (Act 2)

An unused Act exclusive to Alpha Update 5. It seems between the release of Alpha Update 4 and 5, some work was done on the second Act of Mafia Town. Many different ideas were proposed for how Hat Kid would reach Mafia HQ, which included riding a mine cart, flying in the Airmobile, traveling along a rainbow road, and riding gusts of wind. The wind gusts, it seems, were the first idea that was tested in-game, as partial level design for this can be found in this build. A button is now on top of Thor's house in this build, and pressing it makes a platform drop down in front of the player. With the Propellor upgrade the player can acquire in this build by talking to Thor in this Act alone, the player can platform through the partial level design along the wind gusts, avoiding balloons as they cause the player to fall down to the beach below. The level design ends at a few clouds the player can stand on, still far from Mafia HQ.

Time Thief (Act 3)

Time Thief, the unused Act from the Prototype builds, is still present in the Alpha builds, although the placeholder music for it was removed and the HUD no longer appears when the minigame starts. However, the programming still works perfectly fine and will spawn the same Time Piece from the Prototype versions if Hat Kid wins the minigame. The model for Mustache Girl is still her Prototype model, which is otherwise unused in these builds.

Mafia Heat (Act 4)

Remains of the Prototype version of Lava Mafia Town existed in earlier builds of the Alpha. The Act also exists in Alpha Update 5, but the entire Sequence for the Act is disabled, so it doesn't work anymore. The unused lava geyser and tiled crack model from the Prototypes are still present, as well:

Unused Music

Chapter 1 Intro

Leftover from the 2013 prototype intro cutscene for Mafia Town. Goes unused as this cutscene was disabled and the track was composed by Eric Gleiser who has since left Gears For Breakfast.


Welcome to Mafia Town (Lava)

Mafia Town overworld music from the Prototypes, intended to play when Mafia Town is submerged in lava. In the Alpha build this level is not only inaccessible, but also does not play even if the level is accessed via hex editing, leaving this track unused. This track was also composed by Eric Gleiser. The Lava Mafia Town theme was replaced with Pascal's version in the final game.


Mafia Battle

Miniboss music from the Prototypes. Like the above example, this track was replaced with Pascal's miniboss music, yet was left in the Alpha game's files, unused.


Time Race

More remnants from the Prototypes. In the Prototypes, this track played when chasing Tim in Mafia Town, and in Secret Level ghost races in the Cosmo Prototype. As neither Tim nor ghost racing is present in the Alpha builds, this track goes unused.


Beta Hero Challenge Radio

A strange theme that appears to be that of Beta Hero Challenge's theme in the Beta builds, but with a radio filter over it. Not in Alpha Update 5.


Hat Adult Masked Song

Tale of a place... a deep forest... dark, with grace. There he lives blooming inside, a wild field, of big eyes. And there he lives skin so blue, his eyes shot red, the moon the sky, telling lonely lies.
He doesn't know... she waits inside. She lost her mind, many years gone by.


A vocal track of Hat Kid's voice actress singing, likely intended to be layered over TheSubconForest_Masked.ogg as heard below:

While 'The Subcon Forest Masked' is heard in the Alpha's epilogue, the singing is unused.


Unused Audio

Train Rush Timer Lines

Sound(s) Speech Description
"Two minutes and zero seconds until self-destruct. Oh no!" An announcer warning the player of an imminent self-destruct. These audio files are from Trainwreck of Science, which is unplayable in the Alpha builds. Would later be used in the Beta builds and the final game.
"One minute and twenty seconds until self-destruct. Better hurry!" -
"Forty seconds until self-destruct. We're doomed." -
"Ten seconds until self-destruct." -
"Nine." -
"Eight." -
"Seven." -
"Six." -
"Five." -
"Four." -
"Three." -
"Two." -
"One." -
"Goodbye!" -


Black Market Mafia Lines

I'll take one!

I'll take five!

I'll take ten!

I'll take twenty!

Voiced lines for Mafia found only in Alpha Update 5. These lines are meant for the scrapped auction house minigame that Habboi described in his developer playthrough of the game. The coding for it was added by Alpha Update 5, but is not present in any form in the initial Alpha release. The person who provided the voices is actually Jonas himself instead of the normal voice actor for the Mafia, likely to serve as placeholder when testing out the coding for the minigame. Although the coding for the minigame also exists in the Beta builds (updated since Alpha Update 5, as well!), due to the Beta builds being the first builds to not always cook in all assets referenced in a class file's default properties, Alpha Update 5 is currently the only recovered build to contain these voice lines.

Mafia Boss Sound Effects

Two sound effects exclusive to the Alpha builds, called "Deflect" and "Battle Strike" respectively, are meant to be used during the Alpha version of the Mafia Boss fight.


Revisional Differences

Moon Jumper's Theme

Prior to March 26, 2014 (Alpha Update 5), the main menu used an early version of Moon Jumper's Theme as placeholder music. Once the main menu music was added, Moon Jumper's Theme was removed from the Alpha game files entirely. Note that this early rendition lacks a bit of the instrumentation heard in the finalized version below.