A Hat in Time contains a nod to Luigi's Mansion
A portion of a Kotaku interview with A Hat in Time's Lead 3D Environment Art Director, William T. Nicholls...
K: Mafia City is beautiful with its bright blue skies, colourful characters and cobbled streets. It's light and airy! Then there's that creepy Mansion. I was not aware there was an element to survival horror here in your 3D Collect-a-Thon. It's downright scary! Were there any influences for that level? How fun was it to design the level?
WN: I'm glad you think it's scary! That is the emotion we wanted to evoke the most when we designed Vanessa's Manor. Jonas was the genius behind the idea of Queen Vanessa and her Manor so I don't know what went through his mind when designing it but I can tell you that inspirations such as Luigi's Mansion played a part in the way you control Hat Kid in that level.
Another fun fact is the animation where she tumbles to the floor and crawls backwards is a neat reference Luigi's Mansion Beta and die-hard fans will recognise it.
The overall design for Queen Vanessa was created by our concept artist, Shane Frost and he is an absolute genius when it comes to the abstract and the strange. The music by Pascal Michael Stiefel also helps really define the horror of Vanessa as she stalks the hallways in search of you. I think he really nailed that suspense in the form of music.
Otherwise the actual development of the floors was an interesting challenge. Unlike Mafia City, this level has a fixed camera and doorways which act as gateways that lead into other rooms. We had to work out the best way to make it flow and one of the fun tasks I had to do was create several specifically shaped black planes that were placed between each room. They were used to block the camera and stop players from peering into nearby rooms which would have given them an advantage when avoiding Vanessa.
Jonas had a fun time testing out puzzle ideas and we did unfortunately scrap a few but that's just how the development cycle is. I also had the pleasure of testing them out for him and it was entertaining breaking his sequences and giving him feedback.
Otherwise we felt it was traditional to have a "spooky level" straight after the colourful Mafia City as a sort of contrast. I hope that our fans pay close attention to the details. There's quite a "foxy" story to uncover if you look hard enough!
K: Mafia City is beautiful with its bright blue skies, colourful characters and cobbled streets. It's light and airy! Then there's that creepy Mansion. I was not aware there was an element to survival horror here in your 3D Collect-a-Thon. It's downright scary! Were there any influences for that level? How fun was it to design the level?
WN: I'm glad you think it's scary! That is the emotion we wanted to evoke the most when we designed Vanessa's Manor. Jonas was the genius behind the idea of Queen Vanessa and her Manor so I don't know what went through his mind when designing it but I can tell you that inspirations such as Luigi's Mansion played a part in the way you control Hat Kid in that level.
Another fun fact is the animation where she tumbles to the floor and crawls backwards is a neat reference Luigi's Mansion Beta and die-hard fans will recognise it.
The overall design for Queen Vanessa was created by our concept artist, Shane Frost and he is an absolute genius when it comes to the abstract and the strange. The music by Pascal Michael Stiefel also helps really define the horror of Vanessa as she stalks the hallways in search of you. I think he really nailed that suspense in the form of music.
Otherwise the actual development of the floors was an interesting challenge. Unlike Mafia City, this level has a fixed camera and doorways which act as gateways that lead into other rooms. We had to work out the best way to make it flow and one of the fun tasks I had to do was create several specifically shaped black planes that were placed between each room. They were used to block the camera and stop players from peering into nearby rooms which would have given them an advantage when avoiding Vanessa.
Jonas had a fun time testing out puzzle ideas and we did unfortunately scrap a few but that's just how the development cycle is. I also had the pleasure of testing them out for him and it was entertaining breaking his sequences and giving him feedback.
Otherwise we felt it was traditional to have a "spooky level" straight after the colourful Mafia City as a sort of contrast. I hope that our fans pay close attention to the details. There's quite a "foxy" story to uncover if you look hard enough!
