I was yesterday years old when I learned that the 2015 version of Outer Wilds' Alpha (not its 2013 version) had an alternate version of Hal! I had already played a bit of the 2013 version and knew they weren't in here, so imagine my surprise when I discovered four text files named "MuseumFriend_<number>" in the 2015 Alpha's dialogue!
Anyway, I decided to celebrate by drawing a somewhat younger Hal in their Alpha outfit!
This design may or may not show up in the future in a comic or two about the village's backstory that I'd been meaning to draw for months >:) As FKNO grew more complex and all, a larger and larger amount of headcanons has been established in that fic's chronology, and with it a lot of backstory scenes which have enough material to be little short stories of their own! Notably a couple having to do with the Quantum Grove. Or one which addresses the reason why Gossan's spots are different in the museum photo compared to their appearance in-game. Or one which does both at once (sort of).
. . .
...Also because a couple friends saw it that way due to the angle of the screenshot I shared with them, here's another version in which Hal wears a cowboy hat. I do not know yet whether or not they'll keep the hat. I wouldn't want to draw comics of Tephra-aged Hal with a cowboy hat and have everyone confused :') (Even though their skin colors are very different, it doesn't help that Hal and Tephra have the same spots pattern and that their eyes are similar)
I would have done the same to Hatchy... But alas, they don't even have a model at all in the Alphas. You just play as a disembodied shadow 😔
