Moon Jumper

"Are you lost too? I've been lost for as long as I can remember."

"I am the Moonjumper, oh yes, indeed! I live and breathe for this horizon, it's my home!" —The Moonjumper

The Moonjumper
Species:	A Mysterious Puppeteer
Role:	Antagonist

The Moonjumper (also known as The Moon Jumper) is a mysterious puppeteer and one of the main antagonists of Chapter 3 that was scrapped from the final game. He, with Queen Vanessa and the Snatcher, compete for the ownership of the Subcon Forest.

The Snatcher claims that the Moon Jumper used to live in Vanessa's manor.

The Moon Jumper bears a striking resemblance to Vanessa's Prince, having an identical jacket and chains around his wrists likely from his imprisonment beneath Vanessa's Manor.

The Moon jumper is not implemented into the game, although his graphic and his 2D model does appear in the game's files.

Early developer commentary claims that Moonjumper was 'stuck in the horizon', likening it to a prison that he is unable to leave, and that throughout the original level of Subcon Forest, he would attempt to get Hat Kid to join him in the horizon.

Removal

The Moonjumper remained as part of the story up through the Beta Build. He was removed at some point in time during the Beta period of development. It is unknown when specifically the Moonjumper was removed from the game, as developers have stated that he was removed from the story prior to the Beta, but some evidence implies that his existence as a character continued during beta development.

According to Jonas Kærlev, the lead developer, "Basically early on while writing A Hat in Time, I wanted to introduce a lot of characters. So I wrote a lot of characters. When I grew as a writer & game dev, I found it better suited to focus on few characters and evolve them through gameplay. That's why the main characters often interact with you via gameplay (movie scores, contracts, etc). When Snatcher became the main character of Subcon, there wasn't space for any subplots, and so Moonjumper was [removed]".

References in the game

-In the attic, a giant mural of Moon Jumper can be seen.

-The song that plays while in the Badge Seller menu was originally planned for Moonjumper.

-The Moon Jumper's tower is still in Subcon Forest.

-The Prince's painting and Dweller's Mask silhouette still retain Moon Jumper's clothes, as opposed to the new ones he was given in The Tale of Queen Vanessa.

Gallery

Concept Art by Shane Frost. This art was lifted directly to create the Moonjumper's ingame billboard model.

An image found within the game's files, labeled as "moonjumper".

Official art by Shane Frost.

Ditto with added text, used on the game's Kickstarter to announce the 6th chapter.

Ingame footage from the Chapter 2 Trailer.

Ingame footage from Jonas Kærlev's developer commentary, showcasing some of the Moonjumper's only known written lines.

The original logo for the Subcon Forest [1], showing the Moonjumper on the moon, as well as Tim's Friend.

Art by Shane Frost depicting a Humanoid Moonjumper. Multiple humanoid figures resembling The Snatcher, as well as a faded snatcher in the background, are depicted.

Art by Shane Frost depicting an alternative design for the Moonjumper. Note the horned mask, stripes to the sides of the eyes and beneath the mouth, and large cloak.

The Moonjumper after being spawned ingame in the first full release. Note that the Pixel effect around the Moonjumper is now black with colored outlines instead of colored with black outlines.

Another Moonjumper spawned in using commands, this time in Queen Vanessa's Manor. Note that as of the Modding Tools update, most NPCs are no longer spawnable using console commands.

A Beta Screenshot of the Subcon Forest, showcasing the same black pixels that outline the Moonjumper in the final release of the game.

Moonjumpers face drawn on the invisible wall at the top of Queen Vanessa's Manor

Trivia

• Developers have confirmed that Moonjumper was the original Prince; a role later taken by Snatcher.
• A recurring motif in Moonjumper's concept art is the use of puppet strings, showing Moonjumper as a manipulator of events. This too was rolled into Snatcher's design, as shown in the loading screen art for Seal the Deal (Challenge).