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

Hytale has courted comparisons to Minecraft ever since its announcement, and it's not hard to see why. Any blocky sandbox game with survivacrafty elements is inevitably going to be compared to Mojang's global behemoth, but Hytale's lead is working to make his game "very different" to Minecraft even though he loves it as much as the rest of us.

On the two games' similarities, returning Hytale owner and original creator Simon Collins-Laflamme called Minecraft "one of the greatest game[s] of all time" since it's "perfected many designs that no one appreciates" on social media. With that said, Hytale is apparently walking down a "very very different path" by leaning more into "adventure aspects" and keeping modders front of mind.

Collins-Laflamme specifically calls out the game's "fantasy feeling" and emphasis on magic as a key differentiator between the two games. "Another thing is, our crafting is moreso like... Valheim / Terraria instead of grid crafting," he added. "So it's very different and allows us to go in a different direction."

"I have great respect for the people at Mojang, they have created an amazing game and community, our games will be very different," Collins-Laflamme continued. "Minecraft is still one of my favourite game of all time."

Hytale's Early Access launches next month on January 13, 2026 following years in development and a brief cancelation at the hands of Riot Games, before Collins-Laflamme quickly reacquired the rights to the game and restarted development using an older build.

Hytale won't be on Steam at launch as devs "do not see the necessity of it" and want to avoid bad reviews from "people that aren't as well-informed"