Hytale lead says "it's a damn miracle we were able to salvage" the once-canceled Minecraft-like: "It should have taken years to fix, but within weeks, we got the game into a playable, fun state"

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"And now, instead of slowing down or celebrating a release, we have to keep pushing for years"

Hytale
(Image credit: Hypixel)

Hytale, the now creator-owned blocky sandbox RPG currently undergoing some deep-seated maintenance to become fully playable, is a rare story of success against all odds in the games industry. Simon Collins-Laflamme, co-director of Hytale and founder of Hypixel, took some time to address the exhaustive work going on to make the game worthwhile on Twitter.

"It's a damn miracle we were able to salvage Hytale," he says. "It was barely playable. All basics were broken. Camera, movement, combat, crafting, building, gameloop, sounds, rendering. Everything, everything was wrong."

"You lose momentum, iteration, and player feedback," he continues. "Now the focus has to be on gameplay first and rebuilding trust by actually shipping things at a rapid pace."

Thankfully, the team is making record time, accomplishing in weeks what could've taken months or years. "It should have taken years to fix, but within weeks, we got the game into a playable, fun state," he says. "And now, instead of slowing down or celebrating a release, we have to keep pushing for years to make up for the time that was lost."

Riot canceled work on Hytale the summer of 2025, and in November, Collins-Laflamme announced he'd reacquired Hytale, to be put out in early access by Hypixel on January 13, 2026. In the replies to this post, he outlines the current plan for getting a workable release in order.

"No meetings, trust the team, push to main and pray," he says. "Solid vision, no prototypes. Cutting some corners, will pay some tech debt later." We'll see more when Hytale becomes available to play.

Hytale owner calls Minecraft "one of the greatest" games of all time, but his own sandbox is going in a "different direction" with crafting more like Terraria.

Anthony McGlynn
Anthony McGlynn
Contributing Writer

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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