CONCEPT Super Hilda DX (Concept expansion of Super Hilda fan-project)

[OssieTheOstrich]

This is a concept I plan to expand upon once my hiatus is over and I finished the “Rather Unusual Trilogy“. Also I apologise in advance if this post seems a bit disorganised or clunky (I might edit it afterwards to fix any issues)

Super Hilda DX is planned to be essentially an adaptation of the Hilda Netflix series (Season 1, Season 2, The Mountain King movie, and Season 3) in Mario-styled platforming form, with elements of Telltale Game's story changing mechanics.

Context as to where exactly the original Super Hilda originated from:
Scott Lewis is an animator from the Canadian animation studio Mercury Filmworks; He worked on the Netflix adaptation of the Hilda graphic novel series as a lead animator (he also won the nominated award for Character Animation at the 2019 Annie Awards for his work on the show).

Anyway, around the time of the premier of the show's first season, Scott created two little “fan games” based on the series; Once inspired by the Super Mario Bros. series, while another was inspired by The Legend of Zelda. The Mario one was titled “Super Hilda“ and contained four levels very loosely adapting the show's first episode “Chapter 1: The Hidden People”. The Zelda one was titled “The Legend of Zilda” and contained a lot more content and depth than Super Hilda.

Tweet from a crew member on the show showcasing both Super Hilda and Legend of Zilda:


It was also apparently live-streamed for a charity event but I don't think the stream was archived. That said, other videos showcasing both projects are available on YouTube:



Context into how I got the idea of expanding Super Hilda (AKA Conceptual info backstory):
Around 2022 or so my father recommended my brother (JC) and I to see the show's feature film “Hilda and the Mountain King”, based on the last graphic novel of the series. Now, JC and I had never heard of the show at all before watching it, but we ended up seeing it anyway. Without giving away spoilers (even though I doubt anyone here cares), we thought it was a good movie, and made both of us later see the rest of the show prior to this (you do NOT want to watch the film without watching the first two seasons first, cause you're missing a LOT of context).

Later on I was doing development on the first entry of Mario's Rather Unusual Trilogy, and I got this silly idea of “what if I were to add a level and boss based on that show that JC and I saw”.

That's how I ended up stumbling across the Super Hilda and The Legend of Zilda projects, and after playing through them a bit I ended up taking some of the sprites from both Super Hilda and The Legend of Zilda and used them for the boss rush project, though I did modify some of the sprites and create my own for the project as well.

Fast forward to when I was working on the sequel and threequel entries of the Unusual Trilogy, and I got this weird idea to expand Super Hilda DX since I haven't really seen a lot of Hilda fan games, or even games for that matter (the show's only official game was a mobile game titled “Hilda Creatures“ which is no longer available to play so..), and I felt like the Trolberg worlds in the trilogy had potential to be used in another project..

And bada bing bada boom, I ended up creating some sprites for the hypothetical Super Hilda DX project and trying to decide it's art-style with some mockups.. which I only ended up finishing 1 before I decided to just take a indefinite hiatus from my hobbyist projects..

Images of said mockups:

Mockup of a recreation of the show's first episode, Chapter 1: The Hidden People, with the shading style of the Mario threequel project


Ditto but with the shading style and palette of the show itself


I'll likely go for the this art style since it's more simple (and less taxing, do you know how much shading these have?)

An unfinished mockup for The Mountain King (the scene where Hilda meets Trundle, moments after realising she really has been turned a Troll and cried about it)


Trundle for the previously unfinished mockup (plus an alternate version where he's shaded like the show)


Also random tidbit, the mockup images, had they all been finished, were supposed to be in this order:

Chapter 1: The Hidden People (From Season 1)
Chapter 7: The Beast of Cauldron Island (From Season 2)
Chapter 14: The Mountain King (note that the actual film isn't titled with a chapter number, it's just called “Hilda and The Mountain King“)
Chapter 4: The Laughing Merman (From Season 3)

Mechanics and some other tidbits:
Considering the source material of what I'm expanding (a Mario game with a Hilda skin), I wanted to add some unique flavour to the gameplay like making different characters have special abilities (that make sense within the series' context); For example, Frida (one of Hilda's friends in the show) eventually becomes a witch in training during Season 2, so I thought about having some mechanics revolving around that, like being able to lift objects (or even herself) with magic or some other stuff like that.

Another mechanics I considered was having an option to set the "Relationship & Personalities" of various characters; choices being the original graphic novels, the Netflix series, or the Tie-In books*

So you could have say, Netflix Hilda dealing with Tie-In Johanna** for example. Another thing is that some story choices could bring in elements of other versions into em; For example, letting Louise join the Nissie meeting when adapting the Season 3 episode “Chapter 7: Strange Frequencies" or when adapting the Season 2 episode “Chapter 8: The Fifty Year Night” have the time displaced Mr. Ostenfield see his alternate life like the Tie-Ins* instead of dying like in the Netflix series.

The Mountain King adaptation was gonna have you chose between Hilda's plot, Johanna's plot, and Frida & David's plot (so yes you could play as them with their own unique stats)

Another-other mechanic I thought of was to put a “Pizza Time” inspired segment when adapting the first episode of the show (when Hilda and Twig start to run from the Troll); the previously inert Troll rocks would start to move and attempt to hinder your escape.

Planned Playable Characters (that I put some thought into, so this isn't all of them):


Hilda:



Hilda is pretty much going to be the “Mario” of the game, basically the all-rounder, have average stats for running, jumping, and such. Though honestly there isn't really much to say about her until the Mountain King segment; After turning into a Troll (it makes sense in the context of the story) she gains increased stamina, jump height, strength and other perks, though she's unable to swim and sinks like a rock (because she pretty much is one).

During some story beats she'll have Twig (her Deerfox companion) follow as a partner character, similar to Tails in the Classic Sonic titles.

Johanna:
Hilda's mum, only playable within certain story beats (The Mountain King, couple of Season 3 episodes, especially the final ones). I literally haven't come up with the stats for her at all.

Alfur:
Hilda's little elf friend, again, only playable within certain story beats (Season 1's Chapter 11: The House in the Woods, Season 2's Chapter 12: The Replacement, The Mountain King).

Frida:
One of Hilda's friends: I already mentioned her witch powers that she gains during Season 2, so I won't repeat that.

David:
One of Hilda's friends: I thought maybe he could have stats similar to Luigi since both of their characters are easily scared but brave when the situation calls for it.

Jumpman:
Sorry, what? Yeah apparently in the Hilda universe an equivalent of Mario exists in the form of “Jumpman”, a character seen on a poster in Season 1's “Chapter 5: The Troll Rock” and on a board game in Season 3's “Chapter 7: Strange Frequencies”. This guy is a possible bonus character and would control like Mario but with more moves; SMB2 Crouch Jump, Ground Pound, and other moves (his sound effects would probably be from the arcade versions of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros.)

End of post details:
The menus would resemble a book in some form, the title screen is from the end of the show's intro, and the game would either
- likely have itself be split in to several parts (so a Season 1 .exe would contain Season 1, for example)
- or have em all in one game (yikes can you imagine how large the .exe file would be?)

A remake of levels directly from Super Hilda may also be included as a bonus.

Does all of this sound stupidly ambitous? Yes. Do I want to work on this project by myself? Absolutely not. This is one of those projects where a team is needed cause this is too much for 1 person to handle. Do I plan on doing this project immeditelly after my hiatus is over? No. Let me finish that trilogy and then I'll think about it..

Funny thing for the splash screen moment:


*The Tie-In books are basically small book adaptations of the Netflix series, and contain, among other things:
- Early concepts scrapped from the show
- A LOT of character personality and relationship changes (not all of them good, especially Hilda's relationship with her mum Johanna**)
- For the Season 1 tie-ins, really odd looking artwork
- And some story changes (again, not all of them are good)

**Johanna in the Tie-In novels can be basically described as being a emotionally abusive parent, which is the opposite of how she is in the original graphic novels and the show. Granted this was probably not the intention of the writer of the books, but I find it kinda interesting how this character change even exists in the first place, which is why I kinda want it in as an option.