A Hat in Time

A Hat in Time PC is a third-person 3D platformer and collectathon from Gears for Breakfast, and it still appears under that name on the current Steam and GOG storefronts. You play as Hat Kid, a small spacefaring traveler recovering scattered Time Pieces across themed worlds built around exploration, movement challenges, character-driven missions, and collectible hunting.

Movement-first 3D platforming

The central appeal is Hat Kid’s movement. She can jump, double-jump, wall-climb, dive through the air, swing across marked gaps, and use environmental objects to reach higher routes. The controls are designed around chaining actions together rather than simply walking between objectives, so even familiar locations become more interesting when you return with additional abilities.

Each mission, called an Act, awards a Time Piece when its main objective is complete. Acts can ask you to investigate a murder on a train, manage a parade, sneak through a film studio, survive a haunted forest, or clear a focused platforming challenge. This structure gives the game more variety than a simple sequence of obstacle courses.

The five main worlds are divided into chapters with their own characters, visual identity, and rules. Some areas are directed and story-led, while others open into larger spaces that encourage you to search rooftops, towers, caves, side paths, and hidden rooms for additional rewards.

Players who enjoy colorful collectathons with a more structured mission format may also appreciate cheerful third-person platformers such as Super Lucky's Tale, although A Hat in Time puts more emphasis on changing objectives and movement abilities.

Hats, badges, and collectible progression

Hat Kid’s signature system is the ability to stitch new hats from magical yarn. Each hat grants a different power, and switching between them is part of both navigation and puzzle solving. The Kid’s Hat helps identify objectives, the Sprint Hat improves traversal, the Brewing Hat creates explosive potions, the Ice Hat interacts with specific objects, and the Dweller Mask reveals temporary routes and hidden dimensions.

These abilities are not only upgrades for combat. They change how you read a level. A hat may expose a shortcut, activate a platform, reveal an alternate route, or let you cross an area more safely. Yarn is therefore both a collectible and a reason to inspect corners that might otherwise look decorative.

Badges add another layer of customization. They provide passive bonuses or situational tools, such as attracting nearby collectibles, extending certain movement options, revealing hidden items, or modifying Hat Kid’s attacks. Pons, the game’s currency, can be used with the Badge Seller to expand those options, giving exploration a practical reward beyond completion percentages.

The result is a flexible platforming loop: find yarn to unlock hats, use hats to reach new spaces, collect pons to improve your badge setup, and revisit familiar locations with a better understanding of their routes. Completionists can also search for Time Rifts, relics, yarn, hidden collectibles, and other optional objectives.

Worlds built around different challenges

A Hat in Time’s strongest design choice is that its chapters do not all play the same way. Mafia Town introduces the basic movement and collection loop in a compact seaside setting. Battle of the Birds shifts toward competing film directors, set pieces, and mission objectives across Dead Bird Studio. Subcon Forest leans into exploration, atmosphere, contracts, and supernatural platforming.

Alpine Skyline is more open-ended, spreading platforming routes across a large vertical environment where the player must decide which challenges to tackle first. The layout rewards careful observation and movement control instead of simply following a marked path.

The game also uses Time Rifts as self-contained platforming challenges. Some are focused on pure movement, while others use stylized spaces connected to the memories or stories of important characters. They work well as optional detours for players who want harder jumps and extra collectibles.

Combat exists, but it supports the platforming rather than replacing it. Hat Kid uses an umbrella or other close-range tools to deal with enemies, while many encounters are more about positioning, timing, and avoiding hazards than building a complex combat setup.

Base game, DLC, and PC content

The paid base game contains the main Hat Kid adventure, its five primary worlds, the spaceship hub, story Acts, bosses, Time Rifts, collectibles, and the core hat-and-badge systems. The structure is based on completing missions and collecting enough Time Pieces to unlock additional chapters, not on an open-ended service model.

Seal the Deal adds the Arctic Cruise chapter and the optional Death Wish challenge mode. Death Wish revisits missions with stricter conditions and more demanding objectives, making it aimed at players who want a serious test after learning the standard levels.

Nyakuza Metro + Online Party adds a new chapter with ten Time Pieces, the Baseball Bat weapon, stickers, additional badges, dyes, camera filters, flairs, and a Purple Time Rift called Rumbi Factory. It also provides access to Online Party on Steam.

Vanessa’s Curse is a separate Creator DLC focused on multiplayer-only hide-and-seek-style tag matches in Queen Vanessa’s Manor. Players collect crowns and souls while trying to escape or outlast other participants. It also provides access to Online Party, but it is not a solo story expansion.

Steam lists an Ultimate Edition containing the base game, both major story DLC packs, and soundtrack items. The storefront also lists a separate Co-op item and the two paid multiplayer-related DLC products. The GOG version is sold as a DRM-free release and does not include Steam Workshop mod tools or Steam’s large-group Online Party feature.

Who should play A Hat in Time?

A Hat in Time is a strong fit for players who want mission-based collectathons, expressive movement, colorful characters, and worlds that reward exploration. It works particularly well for people who enjoy discovering optional routes instead of rushing directly from one objective marker to the next.

It is also approachable for players who are new to 3D platformers. The main campaign teaches its movement vocabulary gradually, while the harder challenges and optional collectibles provide room for more experienced players to push their execution.

Players looking for deep role-playing progression, extensive combat builds, or a large open-world action game may find the scope narrower than expected. The game’s long-term loop is mastery, collection, and replaying difficult objectives rather than character-stat growth.

For another story-driven 3D platformer with a playful visual identity and a stronger emphasis on environmental interaction, Disney Epic Mickey Rebrushed offers a contrasting platforming adventure. Its paint-and-thinner mechanics make it a different experience, but the audience overlap is clear.

PC features and storefront differences

The Steam release includes full controller support, keyboard and mouse play, Steam Cloud, achievements, leaderboards, captions, Remote Play Together, shared or split-screen co-op, Steam Workshop, and an included level editor. It also includes an in-game screenshot mode and community mod support, making the PC version particularly attractive to players who want more than the standard campaign.

Local multiplayer is available through shared or split-screen play. Online Party is different: it is an optional Steam feature connected to Nyakuza Metro or Vanessa’s Curse, and official support allows groups of up to 50 players in a shared online space. Not every game element is synchronized, because Online Party is designed to let players interact without allowing unrestricted disruption of another player’s progress.

Controller support is broad but not universal. The developer specifically documents support for devices such as the Switch Pro Controller, GameCube controllers used with a Mayflash adapter, Dreamcast controllers with a Mayflash adapter, Logitech F710, and SNES Retrolink controllers. Some third-party Xbox One and DualShock controllers are not supported, and wired connections are recommended when wireless input causes problems.

The Steam version depends on the Steam ecosystem for Workshop, Cloud, Remote Play, and Online Party functionality. The GOG version is DRM-free and can be played without GOG Galaxy, but its distribution omits Steam-specific modding tools and large-group online play.

Steam lists English full audio, with interface and subtitle support for German, Korean, French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Latin American Spanish among the available localizations. Audio localization is more limited than text support.

Similar PC platformers

A Hat in Time sits between classic 3D collectathons and modern indie platformers. Its closest appeal comes from movement experimentation, themed worlds, collectible routes, and a light adventure tone rather than from combat-heavy action.

Players who want a licensed, character-focused alternative can explore cartoon 3D platformers like SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake. It offers linearer world progression and ability-based traversal, while A Hat in Time gives individual Acts more mechanical and objective variety.

Compared with Super Lucky’s Tale, A Hat in Time is generally more mission-driven and more comfortable mixing stealth, investigation, chase sequences, and difficult optional platforming into one campaign. Compared with Disney Epic Mickey Rebrushed, it is less focused on moral choices and environmental alteration, but more focused on movement mastery and collectible routing.

A Hat in Time FAQ

Is A Hat in Time still called A Hat in Time on PC?

Yes. The current Steam and GOG listings use the name A Hat in Time. No verified storefront rebrand or replacement edition was found for the main PC game. The additional products retain the same naming pattern, including Seal the Deal, Nyakuza Metro + Online Party, and Vanessa’s Curse.

Is A Hat in Time a collectathon?

Yes. It is a third-person 3D collectathon built around Time Pieces, yarn, pons, relics, Time Rifts, and optional hidden items. The main progression comes from completing Acts and gathering enough Time Pieces to access more chapters.

Does A Hat in Time have local co-op?

Yes. The Steam listing includes shared and split-screen co-op. Local co-op is separate from Online Party and does not require the large-group online feature.

Does A Hat in Time have online multiplayer?

Yes, but the expanded Online Party feature is tied to the Steam release and is accessed through Nyakuza Metro + Online Party or Vanessa’s Curse. Online Party supports groups of up to 50 players, while Vanessa’s Curse itself is a multiplayer-only mode.

Does A Hat in Time support mods on PC?

The Steam version supports Steam Workshop, community mods, and an included level editor. The GOG release is DRM-free but does not include or support the Steam modding tools.

Which DLC is best for solo players?

Seal the Deal is the clearest solo-focused expansion because it adds the Arctic Cruise chapter and Death Wish challenges. Nyakuza Metro also adds a full chapter and new collectibles, while its Online Party feature is the main reason to choose it for multiplayer.