It’s been a tumultuous time for Hytale, an MMORPG-style sandbox created by community members of the popular Minecraft server Hypixel. Hytale has been in development for six years, and progress must’ve been promising as Riot Games acquired Hypixel Games in 2020 during the former’s independent publishing push.
However, in recent years, progress seemed to have stalled, and Riot Games ultimately pulled the plug on the project earlier this year. A former developer chimed in on social media, claiming the new management of Hypixel Games was to blame for the game’s woes, not Riot Games, which he described as “a pleasure to work with.”
Now, Riot has sold the game back to the studio’s original co-founder, Simon Collins-Laflamme. Laflamme admits that Hytale is messy, janky and “there’s a lot of work to be done,” but he wants to coalesce the game around the studio’s original vision without the scope creep that stalled the project as the years went by.
Hytale Has Been Saved
One day after the acquisition, Laflamme has released 16 minutes of raw footage to give community members an update on the current state of Hytale.
“Keep in mind, Hytale is incomplete and buggy, but still beautiful and fun. We have a lot of work to make this a good game, but I believe in my team. The progress we have made in the last few weeks has been incredible.”
In all honesty, I think Laflamme is underselling how good Hytale looks. The footage shows some impressive world generation, complete with beautiful lighting. The music is suitably atmospheric, and the combat looks surprisingly fun, if not a bit derivative.
You can tell it’s not the finished article — there aren’t a lot of creatures populating the various landscapes showcased by Laflamme. Still, you wouldn’t think this is a game that we’ve seen nothing of for four years. Hytale doesn’t seem like the typical incomplete mess that you’d associate with the term ‘development hell’.
The YouTube comments are far more praiseworthy than even I, with one calling the raw footage a “cinematic masterpiece.” All in all, people are just pleased that they can finally see progress after years of radio silence.
- Date Founded
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September 1, 2006
- Subsidiaries
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Riot Forge
- Headquarters
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West Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States
