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A Hat in Time Kickstarter. Wind Waker-styled 3D platformer, PC/Mac/possibly Wii U

I remember backing A Hat in Time years ago. I think this game will be the true Banjo Kazooie successor, or the very least, a fun alternative.
 

Kyuur

Member
Still the best new 3D platformer that I've actually been able to see a bunch of footage of. Can't wait for release!
 

Anarky

Banned
I remember backing A Hat in Time years ago. I think this game will be the true Banjo Kazooie successor, or the very least, a fun alternative.

2859690-yooka-laylee_bridgechase_1080p.png
 

Eusis

Member
Wonder if he can just dodge out via NX.

Though that requires NX to actually be a known quantity...

EDIT: And man, Wii U is going to be in such an awkward place for some of these Kickstarters, isn't it? Not a big deal for lower end ones that had quicker turnaround like Shovel Knight, or ones with low floors like Mighty No. 9 and Shantae, but for these that are larger games or just announced later the Wii U is going to officially be a corpse when they come out. Basically there for the minority that WANTED them there, like the few people who haven't gotten a PS4 and are on only PS3, except even fewer.
 

TDLink

Member
I regret backing this game.

I backed at the $50 tier and played the Alpha/Beta that was sent out last year on steam.

It feels very very "off". At least it did back then. The jumping and physics were doing their best to emulate a Mario 64 sort of style but it also doesn't feel quite right. The collectibles don't seem to have much purpose beyond the ability-giving badges. The "humour" is terrible and the gigantic focus on these "Mafia" characters is not good. From the writing you can very much tell its being made by developers whose native language is not English. It feels like one of those Eastern European knock offs. Maybe they've made improvements.

Updates in general have been incredibly sparse. Their most recent social media posts are talking about things in Chapter 3. When they did the campaign they basically had "Chapter 1" fully fleshed out minus polish. Last year when I played it was a sampling of missions from Chapter 1 and 2. They haven't shown or talked about anything post-Chapter 3, which based on how they've handled things leads me to believe those parts of the game are in extremely early development still.

They've already confirmed not all of the promised Kirkhope songs (which were a stretch goal) will actually be made. In fact, I believe there is only one Kirkhope song (the spaceship hub world) when 7, I believe, were originally funded. And as has already been pointed out in the thread they really hammed on about how they were striving for Wii U during the campaign to get additional backing, when now it is very apparent they never intended to develop for the system. Between that and not delivering on the promised tunes the entire campaign was clearly a bit shady.

Yooka-Laylee has since been announced and is likely releasing before it...that is absolutely going to be the true Banjo successor. And its much greater quality is apparent just in the material already released. This is sadly just a poor imitation.
 

Mivey

Member
Yooka-Laylee has since been announced and is likely releasing before it...that is absolutely going to be the true Banjo successor. And its much greater quality is apparent just in the material already released. This is sadly just a poor imitation.
I have been following them on Twitter a while and the dev has stated a few times that they don't target Banjo as an inspiration, more going for Mario Sunshine, among other things. The weird thing is that they even have the name Banjo on their KS page, but especially now that Yooka Laylee is coming, it is actually nice to have different visions within this sub-genre. Would be boring if everyone was targeting the same thing. The fact that the development process is contracted and stuff didn't work out (the music thing) is not really that weird, game dev is rather chaotic. The issue is their shitty communication, which is probably a direct consequence from their size: Playtonic is a rather large studio, by indie standards at this point, where as Gears for Breakfast is, what, two three guys and I think only one of them full-time. It's a wonder they ever managed to get this far.

I don't get the negativity, seeing how the genre is so small these days and any half-way decent game should appreciated.
 

Sölf

Member
I don't get the negativity, seeing how the genre is so small these days and any half-way decent game should appreciated.

So small? More like non existing. When was the last Collect-a-Thon that actually released? Mario Galaxy 2 maybe?
 

TDLink

Member
I have been following them on Twitter a while and the dev has stated a few times that they don't target Banjo as an inspiration, more going for Mario Sunshine, among other things. The weird thing is that they even have the name Banjo on their KS page, but especially now that Yooka Laylee is coming, it is actually nice to have different visions within this sub-genre. Would be boring if everyone was targeting the same thing. The fact that the development process is contracted and stuff didn't work out (the music thing) is not really that weird, game dev is rather chaotic. The issue is their shitty communication, which is probably a direct consequence from their size: Playtonic is a rather large studio, by indie standards at this point, where as Gears for Breakfast is, what, two three guys and I think only one of them full-time. It's a wonder they ever managed to get this far.

I don't get the negativity, seeing how the genre is so small these days and any half-way decent game should appreciated.

My negativity mostly stems from what I actually played, the problems of which I outlined in my last post. The lack of communication would be less of a big deal otherwise. And it definitely does not feel like Mario Sunshine. It's closer to Rare Platformers and they definitely played that up during the campaign with numerous mentions of it being Banjo-like and getting a Rare composer on board for music (which as we know now he barely did). Characters with different dialogue (even with Rare style audio chatter). Lots of collectibles, though most of them seemingly meaningless (unlike Rare). It feels like a poor knock-off in every sense. I don't think that just because the genre is small nowadays that we have to elevate a mediocre game as if it's better than it is. And I understand that things don't work out all the time, but being deceptive during the campaign and already not delivering on certain stretch goals is a big negative.

Sölf;205413581 said:
So small? More like non existing. When was the last Collect-a-Thon that actually released? Mario Galaxy 2 maybe?

Freeze Me came out a few months ago. That is much more a Mario inspired game than this is. And from what I have played much better also.
 

jholmes

Member
Why is the Wii U still in the thread title? I thought that ship had sailed once it was known this was running on UE4.

Not UE4, UE3. Ironically UE4 doesn't have the cost issue attached. (Unless I missed something here, of course.) Bloodstained is going to use a modified version of UE4 on Wii U so that wouldn't necessarily be a deal-breaker anyhow.

Months back Gears for Breakfast did have a quasi-working prototype build that they said was on a console, and said not to worry just which console it was because it wasn't relevant. I'd say "possibly Wii U" is fair to leave in the title given how much footsie they played over the Wii U during the campaign.
 

Crayolan

Member
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On one hand, 2017 makes me sad, but on the other A Hat in Time and Yooka Laylee releasing in the same year is amazing. "3D Platformers are back!"
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