Interlude: Playing what I want - A Hat In Time

So I had a slight hiccough in my play schedule because on October 5th A Hat In Time was released after over four years in development.

It is So. Much. Fun!

I originally backed A Hat In Time on Kickstarter in June of 2013 based on the recommendation of a friend, we're both big fans of old-school 3rd-person quasi-open world games like Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Psychonauts, and Super Mario Sunshine.

Anyway, I've been anticipating this game for a long while and watching the stretch goals expand in the last couple weeks of the funding campaign goes far to explain why the dev time got extended as far as it did. They really feature-creeped the hell out of themselves, but the end product feels really polished for an independent game.

The game itself is the story of Hat Kid going on adventures to collect 40 Time Pieces, that she uses as fuel for her spaceship, that have fallen to a planet's surface after someone from said planet breaks in to claim a toll for Hat Kid passing through their orbit.

As story hooks go it's pretty flimsy, but the rest of the game is so incredibly diverse that you really forget about the framing and just play. The first chapter of the game is a typical intro level where you can run around fairly unrestricted aside from the goals you're pursuing in each "Act" ranging from collecting code tickets to unlock a vault, a mini-boss fight, and the chapter boss fight, to chasing a pensive member of the bad guys while covered in mud looking like a space alien, and cheating your way through a race across the town.

The chapters after the first are where the game takes a turn, both in theme and in story mechanics. Chapter 2 is at a bird movie studio where you earn prestige for each of two bird directors fighting for the next "best director" award. Chapter 3 is in a haunted forest where you get coerced into signing several labor-in-lieu-of-remuneration contracts using your soul as collateral. Chapter 4 is a free roaming series of mountain peaks connected via flag rope highways. I haven't unlocked the 5th chapter yet, though it sounds like that will be the "Final Boss" of the game. 6th and 7th chapters are planned, they were stretch goals in the Kickstarter campaign and as such are probably still being made right now.

I have 11 hours put in so far this month and it really doesn't feel like it's any less interesting than when I started. I think I'm still less than 30% through the game which is nice, I just got a new hat that's supposed to slow down time but I haven't had an opportunity to test it yet.

So there you have it, that's why I barely got anywhere in Condemned in the beginning of the month and why I haven't started my next game on the list yet.