Jonas Kaerlev couldn’t believe his eyes.
In just twenty four hours, the kickstarter for his little indie game project had soared
past all his expectations, earning double the funding that he’d been hoping to achieve.
Jonas hadn’t been sure that the project would have even made it to the initial goal
of thirty thousand dollars, so the fact that it had grown so rapidly blew him away.
He and his small team of artists and modders had made something that tapped into an unspoken
need within the gaming community.
People really wanted a cute, cartoonish collectathon platformer, and they were eager to see A Hat
in Time scratch this itch.
While Jonas and his friends had a long way to go with their project, they’d already
managed to build something that was generating significant attention from the gaming world.
Their colorful, energetic, family-friendly platformer was ready to take the world by
storm.
And it was all thanks to a few pieces of cut content from the violent zombie survival game Left 4 Dead.
Jonas Kaerlev wasn’t an expert in game design.
He’d never worked professionally within the industry, and a prior to A Hat in Time,
he’d never even tried making a game.
One thing he did like, though, was playing games with his friends.
While they played a lot of different games together, one title that really caught Jonas’
attention was Left 4 Dead, Valve’s obligatory zombie shooter that allowed four players to
battle undead monsters as they pushed their way through complex levels with varied enemies.
Jonas racked up a lot of hours in the game, obsessing over the various hidden secrets
that could be uncovered.
Eventually, this interest took Jonas beyond simply exploring the finished version of Left
4 Dead.
Searching the internet, he discovered details of some weapon upgrades, such as flashlights,
that had been cut from the final build of the game.
Considering how extensively Valve playtested all of their games, it stood to reason that
they must have felt that these items dramatically changed the gameplay experience, which made
them all the more enticing.
Jonas was intrigued to learn that these items did actually exist within the code of the
game still, but there was no way to access them during regular play.
So, perhaps biting off a little more than he could chew, he decided to try and mod them
back into the game, so that he and his friends could try them out for themselves.
Doing so was not easy.
Jonas had very little programming experience, and as it turned out, Valve’s Source game
engine was incredibly difficult to figure out.
Every time Jonas wanted to test his progress, he had to exit the programming tool, and then
separately run his makeshift game hack.
Eventually, after some trial and error, Jonas managed to get the game mod working the way
he wanted it.
Now, when the player progressed through a level within Left 4 Dead, they would eventually
unlock these bonus weapons and items, helping to dramatically change the gaming experience.
Jonas was proud of his work, and was eager to learn what more he’d be able to do by
modding games.
He kept playing with Valve’s Source engine, messing around to see what else he could accomplish
in other games like Team Fortress 2.
Eventually, he decided to graduate from this program to working with something entirely
different.
A new gamemaking tool, the Unreal Development Kit, had just been made available to amateurs
like Jonas, and he was eager to try it out.
Transitioning to this new software was a breath of fresh air for Jonas!
The entire experience of using the Unreal kit was so much more intuitive and logical
than working in Source!
He found his talents developing much more quickly now that he wasn’t constantly forced
to do everything the hard way.
Spurred on by his progress in learning game coding, Jonas decided to set himself a challenge.
He was going to take a weekend, and try to put together a working game.
There were no rules as to what kind of project this would turn into – he was free to figure
things out as he went.
The only solid goal was that he absolutely had to finish his game, no matter how long
it took.
It was a good thing that Jonas set himself this particular goal, as ultimately, his game
took a lot longer than a weekend to finish.
He didn’t know it yet, but he was about to embark on a four year journey that would
completely change his life.
Not really knowing where to begin, Jonas started by coding a protagonist for his game.
If he could build the player character and figure out how they’d control, he could
work out everything else from there.
He started with the intention of creating a hack and slash game, creating a character
with a sword.
As he worked on this, he soon realized that things were going in the wrong direction.
The swordfighting wasn't particularly fun – instead, the most compelling part of this
initial creation was the jumping mechanic.
Jonas switched gears, stripping away his swordfighting gameplay, and instead focusing on platforming.
As he worked on this, he had the idea to try and create something like the classic collectathon
games of the Nintendo 64 era.
Titles like Banjo Kazooie and Mario 64 had once been commonplace in the game market,
but in recent years, these kinds of games had all but disappeared.
Maybe Jonas could create something that paid tribute to these older titles while also evolving
the formula with modern storytelling and animation?
Of course, if Jonas was going to make this kind of game, he was going to need help from
an actual artist.
At present, his game was still made up of very basic blocks – his main character was
literally just a collection of cubes.
So, as his initial goal of finishing the game in a weekend disappeared entirely, Jonas reached
out to a friend of his, 3D artist Trey Brown, asking for help in making some more complex
artwork.
Just like Jonas, Trey had a prolific history of working on Valve games, and his biggest
claim to fame was that he’d made some hats that had been featured in Team Fortress 2,
which of course made him perfectly suited to this new game that was also shaping up
to be all about hats!
Together, Trey and Jonas began laying the groundwork for the game’s visual style.
Jonas wanted something that reflected cute, cartoonish games like Super Mario Sunshine
and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
Wind Waker in particular became an important point of reference for the fledgling game
project.
Using a cel shaded art style meant that the game’s art could be kept relatively simple
while still looking engaging and eye-catching.
Yes, it felt a little like cheating, but it instantly made the game look a lot more colorful
and fun.
Beyond this, gameplay elements from Wind Waker began seeping into the formula.
Jonas came up with a hookshot to help players navigate the large 3D world, taking direct
inspiration from a similar mechanic in many Zelda games.
The key here was to try and give the newly created protagonist, Hat Kid, a set of abilities
that allowed her to climb platforms as easily as possible.
The game’s core mechanic of leaping about needed to feel fluid and responsive, so that
players wouldn’t get frustrated with the process of trying to move around on the tops
of tall buildings.
As work on the game progressed, the team surrounding it grew.
Other modders and amateur game developers and artists joined the project, including
the game’s new art director, William T Nicholls.
William lived in the United Kingdom, far from Jonas’ home in Denmark, and the pair communicated
primarily over the internet as they worked.
William pitched in with a little of everything, getting involved with level design as well
as creating art assets.
It seemed that this game was going to get a lot bigger, and additional artists and designers
slowly got involved with the project.
These were all volunteers and amateurs, hailing from America and Australia, making the game
a truly international effort.
Work was done primarily during the team’s spare time, which meant that progress was
slow, but with so many talented creators involved, A Hat in Time eventually started to take shape.
It became clear that the scope of the project that Jonas had in mind couldn’t possibly
be achieved if the team couldn’t focus full time on the game.
As such, the team, now formed into the studio Gears for Breakfast, began preparing for a
kickstarter that would hopefully fund their creation.
The initial goals for the kickstarter were fairly basic.
There would be no voice acting, no spaceship hub, no co-operative play mode, and only five
levels or “chapters” to the full game.
Stretch goals were made for all of these elements, but Jonas was less than optimistic about the
chances of achieving these.
While some work had been done on the game’s co-op mode already, it was entirely possible
that there simply wouldn’t be the resources available to be able to build it into the
game.
Nevertheless, the team did engage in some wishful thinking, plotting out what they would
do if they had the funds to make this project as big and impressive as they’d like.
They reached out to professional composer Grant Kirkhope, who had created the soundtrack
for Banjo Kazooie, enquiring how much it would cost to hire him for the game.
Grant was happy to help, and with a solid price tag attached to his work, Gears For
Breakfast came up with stretch goals for their kickstarter that would allow them to include
music from their hero in the finished game.
As the kickstarter went live, Jonas wasn’t sure what to expect.
Were other people as interested in 3D explorative platformers as he was?
Soon, he found himself entirely, completely vindicated.
Support for the project streamed in, and the game received double its initial funding goal
in a single day, allowing the project to grow in scope.
By the time the kickstarter was completed, the game had generated just shy of ten times
the initial thirty thousand dollar goal, meaning that Jonas and his friends could build a far
more complex, polished game than they’d ever hoped to be able to build.
Of course, with extra money came greater pressure to deliver.
The problem with the team’s ambitious stretch goals was that it added a lot more work to
the game, and there was no way A Hat in Time would reach its scheduled release the next
year.
The project dragged on over months and years, as many new team members joined the project,
helping to build a game that was worthy of a much larger release.
While the game had initially only been planned to debut on PC and Mac, Gears For Breakfast
now realized that they could push for console launches as well, making things more complex,
but also helping to expand the reach of their game.
After four more long years of work, A Hat in Time debuted in its finished form to an
eager gaming audience.
Players celebrated this as a rare success story for Kickstarter, as the game not only
met people’s expectations, but exceeded them.
It had taken a lot of work, but the game was worth the wait.
A small team of indie developers, amateur designers, and modders had done the impossible,
and delivered a polished, professional game that became an instant classic.
The moral of the story is that you shouldn’t doubt what you’re capable of.
When he began modding Left 4 Dead, Jonas struggled a lot to learn the basics of coding.
It took a lot of work and effort to hone his skills, but because he didn’t give up, he
was able to grow and learn a new talent.
Don’t be afraid of working on personal projects that take a long time to complete.
Just because something is hard to achieve, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t keep
trying until you succeed.
Rely on others where necessary, and try your best to learn from others.
Remember that A Hat in Time took five years to bear fruit.
The road to success can be rocky, and progress can be slow.
If you keep trying, and if you’re willing to learn and adapt, then no matter how long
it takes, you’ll be able to achieve your goals.