Hytale is officially back.

The Hypixel founders have bought the game back from Riot Games, rehired the people who actually built it, and are funding development themselves for the next 10 years. No investors. No publisher. Just the team who cared about the game in the first place.

If you want the official updates, go to https://hytale.com, but here’s a breakdown in normal terms of what’s happening and what to expect as a player and as a creator.

TL;DR

Early Access date: coming soon
Platforms: Windows first, Linux/Mac will be attempted, other platforms much later
Launch content: Exploration Mode, Creative Mode, Modding
Not at launch: Adventure mode + official minigames (both planned)
Engine: Going back to the original PC legacy engine
Funding: 10-year personal commitment, no outside funding
Ownership: Hypixel owns 100% of Hytale again

Pricing (Early Access)

Edition	Price
Standard	$19.99 USD
Supporter	$34.99 USD
Cursebreaker	$69.99 USD

That’s the full breakdown. No paywalls to play. Higher tiers are basically a way to support development.

For Players

This is real Early Access

Not the “polished 1.0 hiding behind an early access tag” kind of thing.

The game is old in some places, unfinished in others, and a lot of systems aren’t balanced yet. You will see bugs, missing features, weird loot tables, and broken stuff. That’s just the current state of development. Early access is how they’re getting feedback instead of guessing in a vacuum.

If you want a complete game with everything working and perfectly tuned, wait until later. If you just want to explore Hytale and watch it grow, early access is worth jumping into.

What you’ll actually get at launch

Exploration Mode

Walk around the world, interact with the environment, see how the engine behaves, try things out.

Creative Mode

Building tools, block editing, messing around with assets, experimenting with systems.

Modding & Self-Hosted Servers

You’ll be able to run your own servers and load custom content on day one. No waiting for “approved creators.” If you know how to make something, you can share it.

Where the tech stands

When they got Hytale back, there were two versions of the game:

1. Legacy Engine (C#/Java — PC only)

This is the engine from the original trailer era — the one that already had gameplay systems, items, block logic, NPCs, and thousands of assets. This version works, and most importantly, it feels like Hytale.

They’re building from here.

2. New Cross-Platform Engine (C++ — still very early)

It was nowhere near ready and had basically no gameplay. It would take two more years just to get it into a usable early access state. That made no sense.

They dropped the cross-platform approach and returned to the engine that lets them build the game now instead of trying to build technology for years.

Cross-platform will come later, but there’s no reason to delay the whole project just to satisfy console companies.

Minigames & Adventure Mode

A lot of people were excited about official minigames and the adventure campaign. Both are planned, but neither will launch with early access.

The team is focusing on:

making the world feel alive
stabilizing core systems
getting modding into people’s hands

Once the sandbox foundation is solid, they’ll move into Adventure Mode and then official Minigames. There’s a separate team assigned for minis, but they’re not rushing it.

In the meantime, communities will be able to build their own experiences on private servers — exactly like Minecraft modding.

Modding, Servers, and Tools

If you care about creating content, this is the important part.

Hytale is built around a simple rule:

The server controls everything.

You don’t need everyone to install separate client mods or 30 external packs. The server hosts the experience. You can change:

NPCs
mobs
block behavior
items
crafting
world gen
UIs
encounters
progression
systems

If you want to make a completely different game mode, you can. That’s the goal.

The main modding “types” right now

1. Server Plugins (Java .jar)

You can go as deep as you want:

minigames
economies
commands
new mechanics
custom rules
backend systems

This is where serious logic and gameplay lives.

2. Data Assets (JSON)

Gameplay configuration:

items
blocks
npc stats
drop tables
world structures
behaviors

If you’ve touched JSON-driven games, you’re already halfway there.

3. Art Assets

Blockbench support is built in. You model → animate → export → load.

This gives creators a pipeline they already know instead of forcing them into some weird private tool.

4. Prefabs + Save Files

You can share entire builds or isolated structures. Prefabs plug into worldgen or creative mode.

Why no Lua or text scripting?

Everyone asked the same question: “Where’s Lua?”

Short answer: they’re not adding it.

Lua just creates a second language that’s weaker than the real engine language. Programmers hate it, and non-programmers still have to learn real programming logic anyway. It becomes an extra headache for everyone.

Instead, they’re doing visual scripting — Unreal-style node graphs.

Designers build gameplay visually
Programmers extend the nodes with real code
No split languages
No duplicate codebases

This means beginners can create logic without blowing up the game, and devs can still go full depth.

Tools available right now

They’re not perfect, but they’re there:

Hytale Asset Editor
Blockbench plugin
Node/graph editor for worldgen & NPCs
Machinima/scene tools from the original trailer days
Creative tools inside the game

The goal is usable tools immediately, not waiting until everything is “beautiful and perfect.”

Server Source

This is huge:

They’re planning to release the server source a month or two after early access.
Not locked down, not hidden.

Read code.
Understand how systems work.
Make your own changes.
Build around it.

They’re letting the modding community look under the hood instead of pretending everything is magic.

Stability

Things will break.

Not a suggestion, a fact.

Keep backups.
Don’t treat early access saves like permanent worlds.
If you’re doing big projects, use version control or at least external saves.

First-party servers (later, not launch)

There will eventually be official servers, but they aren’t there to compete with community servers. They’re there to:

stress test systems
offer baseline game modes
provide working examples
release assets and code for others to build off

Think of them as samples, not replacements.

The long-term goal

Hytale isn’t trying to be just a game.
It’s trying to be a sandbox where:

new creators can experiment
advanced modders can go deep
communities can build their own ideas
servers can become full experiences on their own

Modding isn’t a side feature.
It’s how the game is supposed to live.

Final Thoughts

After everything — the wait, the cancellation, the confusion — Hytale is back where it belongs.

It won’t be instant.
It won’t be polished.
It won’t be magic on day one.

But it’s real again, and it’s in the hands of people who actually care about it.
What happens next isn’t up to some boardroom — it’s up to the players, modders, and server owners who show up.

One update at a time.
One idea at a time.
One server at a time.

Hytale lives.

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