The Hatboy Project is a mod for BioWare's Mass Effect 3 (2012), written, scripted and implemented entirely as a solo venture from start to finish.
It has been featured on PC Gamer, TechTimes, GamingBible, and TheGamer, and a playable build was released in August, 2022.
It introduces a complete romance path between a female player protagonist, Commander Shepard, and the character of Joker. The mod involves branching dialogue and accounts for many different variables within the conversations it handles, including non-linear plot progression. Placement and pacing in the overall story was also a consideration. The narrative was written with particular focus on "fitting in" alongside the vanilla experience, with its writing praised by users.
Fully voiced through a combination of xVASynth AI technology and splicing vanilla audio, the mod represents a technical achievement and demonstration of commitment. The Hatboy Project was developed over two years.
Skills in audio editing and Wwise, digital cinematography, animation, and proprietary systems involved in working with UDK all had to be learned to a standard acceptable for producing work. Storyboards and even a proof of concept animatic were drawn as visual reference.
It has been featured on PC Gamer, TechTimes, GamingBible, and TheGamer, and a playable build was released in August, 2022.
It introduces a complete romance path between a female player protagonist, Commander Shepard, and the character of Joker. The mod involves branching dialogue and accounts for many different variables within the conversations it handles, including non-linear plot progression. Placement and pacing in the overall story was also a consideration. The narrative was written with particular focus on "fitting in" alongside the vanilla experience, with its writing praised by users.
Fully voiced through a combination of xVASynth AI technology and splicing vanilla audio, the mod represents a technical achievement and demonstration of commitment. The Hatboy Project was developed over two years.
Skills in audio editing and Wwise, digital cinematography, animation, and proprietary systems involved in working with UDK all had to be learned to a standard acceptable for producing work. Storyboards and even a proof of concept animatic were drawn as visual reference.
Notably, the Mass Effect series does not have an officially supported toolset; something I contributed to during the course of this project's development in the form of making lip-sync automation tools available to the community. Everything, including camera work and key-based facial animation, had to be edited blind, without the freedom of a live preview in UDK. The only way to see changes made was to run the game.
Below: A 2 minute trailer made upon release, showcasing the general concept.
Complete scenes can be found on the HatboyProject YouTube channel linked below, and technical deep-dives can be found on the development blog.
Find the mod on Nexus Mods.
Below: A 2 minute trailer made upon release, showcasing the general concept.
Complete scenes can be found on the HatboyProject YouTube channel linked below, and technical deep-dives can be found on the development blog.
Find the mod on Nexus Mods.
Future Plans for Hatboy:
Development began before the official announcement of The Legendary Edition releases. The process has begun in taking Hatboy over to Legendary Edition, using what I've learned to make HB:LE not just functional, but the definitive version of the project.
- Due to technical limitations with audio insertion, not all the content I created could be implemented. Legendary Edition removes these limitations.
- Legendary Edition allows for Hatboy to be built in a clean, non-destructive way right from the start, ensuring it fits alongside vanilla experiences according to the vision.
- A focus on legibility and compatibility with others' work - Efforts have been made to ensure HB:LE's subtitle file is organised differently, to aid in localisation.
- With some technical limitations lifted, a renewed focus on pacing and dialogue placement. By necessity, some areas of the narrative are denser than others, and being rebuilt allows this dialogue to be spread out closer to the initial vision.
- Updated xVASynth capabilites allow for some better reads.
- Better animation skills allow for making some lines stronger.