Miss Hap (cancelled JA game)

Many months ago I saw an article from around 2001 that claimed that HE was going to have a new girl protagonist in one of their adventure games (I don't know if it was ever posted here).

Well, I just happened to be searching "humongous entertainment alumni" and...surprise, I found this!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2285841599581&set=o.24857172445&type=3&theater

The information was true, and the protagonist's name was "Miss Hap". The project made it as far as a demo before getting shelved because the executives didn't have faith in a girl protagonist. How stupid!

hefan1998 wrote:the executives didn't have faith in a girl protagonist.

Like Freddi? Derp. And the character in that shot looks like a boy anyway. Like Freddi! Well, Freddi's a Fish. (Duh.)

Hard to say if this game would have "saved" Humongous Entertainment from bankruptcy, but more than likely it would have been doomed to obscurity like Moonbase Commander. Apparently a playable demo is out there somewhere, now if only someone can just dump it onto the internet that would be cool. The internet has given us many unreleased games, so here's hoping for something.

Oh man, I had no clue that group existed on Facebook. I would donate an arm and a leg for some of the things in those pictures!

Haha, look what I found! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3439157333094&set=o.24857172445&type=3&src=http%3A%2F%2Fsphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-ak-snc7%2F305651_3439157333094_703335859_n.jpg&size=717%2C960

Seems that they counted foreign versions as separate games! No wonder they made so many! And they all have release dates!!

Hm, I forget what year the British dubs were released, so I guess it wasn't 2000.

Pretty sure it was 2001.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150487183346847&set=o.24857172445&type=3&theater
Okay, really now, what was it with them and Luther?

hefan1998 wrote:The project made it as far as a demo before getting shelved because the executives didn't have faith in a girl protagonist. How stupid!

As always. Really too few people have faith in women...

I do, that's why I say that "femininity is a POLITICAL IDENTITY".

I dunno what it would have been like playing a HE JA game with 3D graphics. It's just not their style. I would have liked to see them tackle having another female protag, though. I suspect that Freddi Fish only got past the execs because with a masculine name and no distinctly female physical features, she could pass as a boy among people who've never played the games.

Looks very cool. Also, that Fatty Bear and Luthor photo. D:

zack4812 wrote:Looks very cool. Also, that Fatty Bear and Luthor photo. D:

Miss Hap was a design by Jay Sopp, who is one of the most talented and amazing artists/designers I've ever worked with. It was a casualty of that time when Humongous/Cavedog were working on new IP's and trying to balance that with the impending buyout that was happening at the time. You'll see this a lot in game dev - a lot of really fantastic ideas get to the presentation stage, but never move forward due to whatever management things are going on at the time.

I wonder if that Miss Hap game has something to do with this unused ad?



I found the ad on the "Cutting Room Floor" wiki page for Spy Fox 3.

Being that Miss Hap would be the first HE game that's "3D", then there's a good chance it's related to that ad for an unknown game.

lava89 wrote:I wonder if that Miss Hap game has something to do with this unused ad?

If anything, it seems like Humongous was finally about to step into the next gen of gaming in 3D and try something erratically new. This trailer for some game, along with Miss Hap and Moonbase Commander, Freddi Fish 6, were all 3D games they had in store surely. Unfortunately, this was right around when they were bought by Atari and there was a big lay off of employees in mid 2001. So their plans for 3D games fell through, in fact, the trailer may have went unused on purpose if they knew there were internal issues with the company around Spy Fox 3's release.

I wonder if there's a similar trailer in Freddi Fish 5 or Pajama Sam: Games to Play on Any Day, as these games also use 16-bit color, though it could be left over from Spy Fox 3.

I also have a theory that this is Moonbase Commander, just at some point in development, the game was re-done from scratch to look 3Dish, but not full 3D as planned.

J2xp. wrote:This trailer for some game, along with Miss Hap and Moonbase Commander, Freddi Fish 6, were all 3D games they had in store surely.

Wow, they had a 3D Freddi game planned? Do you have a source for that, by any chance? I certainly believe you-- just seeing something more official would be awesome, as this is the first time I've heard this.

http://www.paintandpixel.com/enviros/enviros.html

Top middle image. It says proposal for 3D version of 2D game, so again, HE trying something new that never came into fruition.

Wow, thanks for posting that. Looks like the rumors for a planned Pajama Man game were also true.