Despite being cancelled weeks ago, Hytale looks set to live on in another game entirely.
Late last month, a lead – and former Hytale dev to boot – behind an early access sandbox survival game inspired by eldritch horror themes floated the idea of creating a new mode for the game that'd deliver on some of what Hytale aimed for, and even invited former Hypixel Studios staffers along for the ride.
Now, as per a new blog post, it looks like we're moving ahead with just that. The Vintage Story lead, who goes by Tyron, says the team is reviewing applications and aims to reach out to promising candidates with the goal of forming a three-to-four-person team to work on a new Hytale-like mode for Vintage Story, with scope to expand as the project gains merit and momentum. "So much potential," they say. "It feels like picking your favorite candy from a candy store."
"The new mode would be departing significantly in aesthetics, setting, and game mechanics compared to Vintage Story," they write. "More focused towards fantasy and adventure/RPG-y compared to the gritty, realism-based nature of the current experience. Personally, I would love to see some Elves and Dwarves in there.
"For the time being, it would ship alongside Vintage Story at no additional cost, but in the purely hypothetical scenario where it really takes off, we could spin it off into a fully separate game."
Tyron goes on to say the team plans to be "very open" about what comes next and what shape everything forms. They also flag that both the main Vintage Story and Hytale mode teams will benefit from overlapping on common aspects, like "combat, improved enemy AI, or better NPCs in general."
"For existing players – rest assured, the aesthetics and game mechanics of Vintage Story will remain true to its original vision," Tyron adds.
Following the post's publication, Tyron added an update addressing fan reaction to the news. Mainly, should the team not focus on finishing Vintage Story before essentially bolting on another game altogether?
"We have now 24 in our team, of which 15 are contributing to the game itself (I should update the about us page)," they say. If there's one thing I have learned from hiring this many people, [...] it made us more ambitious, but not necessarily quicker.
"I still carefully review almost every game mechanic and (game mechanic or engine altering) code change that gets added to the game and Saraty still looks over nearly every piece of art and modelling change, to ensure that Vintage Story remains true to its original vision.
"We can only do so much. I can assure you, adding more team members will dilute this vision – Saraty and me would no longer be able to review all the changes the team makes."
As for what comes next, we can only wait and see. That said, it's one way that Hytale might yet survive in some form. Meanwhile, original Hytale and Hypixel Studios founder Simon Collins-Laflamme is trying to buy back the canceled adventure from Riot Games, itself – though admits he kind of "wants Riot to say no" to his offer for the Minecraft rival because it "makes no business sense."
Also, Stardew Valley's ConcernedApe reportedly says he could "possibly" step in to save cancelled Minecraft-like Hytale, but he'd need to know "why it failed" first.
