The only requirement for making a hat is that you've got an image editor that isn't MSpaint. Photoshop, GIMP, Paint(dot)Net, whatever, as long as it supports transparency, and if you want to make your life significantly easier, layers.

A basic hat is a 64x32 image, split in half. The left side is for when you aren't quacking, and the right side is for when you are. So you can either just make yourself a 64x32 image and get drawing, or you can use this template I stole borrowed from an old hat making guide by Axollyon to align your hat, and so you can see it as it would appear in game.



Once you've got your hat designed (and make sure it's on both sides of the image, otherwise it'll vanish from existence every time you quack) delete the template layer, and save the image as a PNG file. Give it whatever name you want, and toss it into the Hats folder of your Duck Game install (steam/steamapps/common/Duck Game/Hats) and you're done. If you don't have a folder named "Hats" simply create one. The hat will then show up in the selection menu, and you'll be able to use it online, visible for all the other players to see.

If you aren't satisfied with just a hat, you can take it one or two steps further by adding a custom rock design, or a cape to your hat. The process is the same as before, but now the image has to be 96x56, and the template for the layout looks a little bit like this.



If you want just a rock without the cape, or just the cape without a custom rock, all you have to do is crop the respective parts of the image out. Otherwise, you can draw to your hearts content and design every facet of your duck, with a couple pointers.

• Once you put information in the custom rock area, the rock at the rock toss will be fully replaced with it. That means if all you want to do is draw a smiley face on the rock for example, make sure to copy the full rock sprite in to the final result, otherwise you'll just end up with a floating smiley face and no rock.
  
  
• The borders on the template are still part of their respective zones, so you can go over them, just don't go into the other marked areas.
  
  
• Seriously though, don't forget to remove all traces of the template before you save the image. Otherwise you're gonna end up with duck bits and coloured borders all over your design.

Put the final PNG in your Duck Game install, and now you've got some real fancy stuff to show off online.

But if you want to go even further with your customization, you can start playing with Metapixels which let you change offsets, turn your cape in to a trail, and add particle effects. I could write about it myself, but an in depth guide already exists, so I'll link it here if you want to play around with it.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2287647727

Now you'll have a custom hat (or many) to go online with, and flex your creative skills on everyone else. Go forth, and play Duck Game with your new masterpiece headpiece!