 Jonas Kalev couldn't believe his eyes. In just 24 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 $30,000, 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 colourful, 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 Kalev wasn't an expert in game design. He'd never worked professionally within the industry, and 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 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 a 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 game making 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. Sperred 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 it, 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 sword fighting wasn't particularly fun. Instead, the most compelling part of this initial creation was the jumping mechanic. Jonas switched gears, stripping away his sword fighting 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. Games like Banjo-Kazooie and Mario 64 had once been commonplace in the game market, but in recent years, these kind 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 the 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 colourful 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 soon joined the project, including the game's new art director, William T. Nichols. William lived in the United Kingdom, far from Jonas's 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 the 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 cooperative play mode, and only five levels or chapters to the 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, inquiring 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 $30,000 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 realised that they could push for console launches as well, making things more complex, but also helping 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 them. 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.