I have designed many unofficial levels for A Hat in Time, a platforming game released in 2017. I use the Unreal Development Kit (the Free Version of Unreal Engine 3) in order to sculpt a variety of levels with different visual themes, objectives, and environments. Not only do I design these 3D environments for the player to explore, but I also program in-game events with a built-in visual scripting agent known as Kismet. For example, if the player touches a certain object, it can apply a status effect, trigger a cutscene, play a sound, or start/stop any other sequence of events. These are simple examples, but many Kismet sequences consist of many parallel moving parts, resulting in an admittedly intimidating mass of nodes and connections. These levels take several hours to design, program, and polish, so I have only designed around 7 that fully released. In addition, I designed all accompanying thumbnails and preview art.
You can view the level Steam Workshop entries here:
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198114971673/myworkshopfiles/?appid=253230
New Hat City
This is my most popular level, currently sitting at over 40,000 lifetime downloads with a 5 star rating. This level consists of an expansive city with multiple objectives and beautiful environments that are filled with details. You can bounce on car hoods, swing from traffic lights, and use the environment to navigate the streets, rooftops, and even building interiors. This level took hundreds of hours to fully complete due to its scale and wide variety of new mechanics- and is a fan favorite in the Hat in Time Steam Workshop.
Ascension
Ascension was made for a level creation contest hosted by the creators of a Hat in Time, Gears for Breakfast. While it did not win, it got an honorable mention from the developers. This level consists of multiple rooms in which the player must collect tokens to move on to the next room. The level starts in an underground cave, and progresses up into the skies and eventually into space. For this project, I tried to match the overall gameplay style of original game while introducing new environments and challenges for the player to explore.
Clockwork Cape
Clockwork Cape features a main objective to climb to the very top of a lighthouse to complete the level, but also has three other missions to complete. This is the first map of mine to recieve expansions in the form of updates in order to breathe new life into the mod and bring back previous players for some more fun and exploration.
Snatcher’s Keep
When making this map, I took a very different approach from my more recent creations. The level is very linear, featuring a castle that the player must navigate while falling into various traps set by a villain from the original game named ‘The Snatcher’. I repurposed the Snatcher’s voicelines from the original game in order to build up the atmosphere, having him taunt you as you progress through the castle and get closer to the end. This is one of my first custom map mods, but it is still a favorite of mine.
