I wonder how much of Hypnospace Outlaw was a commentary on it's own development cycle.

Dylan being representative of Tholen being a creative with more ideas than sense, driving himself to finish a project and trying to look past the things that just weren't working. Then, R3eckoning being a manifestation of what Tholen actually thought of the resulting product of Hypnospace Outlaw. Certainly frames the finale of the game as being Tholen making himself wrap up the game and send it off with what little was working satisfactorily, and feeling sorry about all the time he wasted practically screwing around.