Hytale: Founder Criticizes "Disconnected" Fans in Reversal Effort

Simon Collins-Laflamme, the founder of Hypixel studio, responsible for the cancelled sandbox game Hytale, continues his battle to revive the project. However, he expresses strong criticism of fan suggestions to recreate the game using other engines or platforms, classifying them as "disconnected" from the original vision of Hytale. Collins-Laflamme's persistence in rescuing the game, even in the face of slim chances, reveals a deep attachment to his initial conception and the inherent challenges of maintaining the integrity of a project after cancellation.

The founder's perspective on Hytale diverges from the community's expectations, highlighting a lack of understanding of the complexity and design decisions that have shaped the game since its inception.

Simon Collins-Laflamme argues that most people "do not understand all the initial decisions, direction, and vision" that were incorporated into Hytale. He emphasizes that the game is not just about its visual appearance, but rather how it "PLAYS and FEELS" at its core. This distinction is crucial to understanding why recreation in generic engines like Unity or Unreal Engine would not be a viable solution for him.

One of the technical points that Collins-Laflamme highlights is that the Hytale server is "written in Java". He explains the logic behind this fundamental choice, aligning the development with the team's previous experience:

Easy transition for developers: The Hypixel team already had a vast number of experienced Java developers, given their experience with the Hypixel server, the largest Minecraft minigame server. This facilitated talent transition and internal expertise utilization.

Massive modding ecosystem: The Minecraft server and modding ecosystem is "massive," providing a "very specific hiring pool with tons of dedicated developers." This advantage was particularly relevant before the exponential growth of platforms like Roblox.

This choice of technology reflects Hytale's original intention to be a "dream platform" for the community, where developers could create and share their own tools and content, similar to how Minecraft operates. The idea was to offer a robust and familiar environment for creation, something that would be compromised by migrating to a completely different and unaligned engine.

Last month, Hypixel studio announced the cancellation of Hytale and the closure of the studio's operations. The game, which had generated considerable hype for its promise to be an evolution of the sandbox genre inspired by Minecraft, failed to overcome development challenges. Collins-Laflamme expressed his intention to contact Riot Games, Hypixel's parent company and publisher of Hytale, to discuss the possibilities of reviving the project. However, he had already admitted that the chances are "almost impossible" and that attempting to bring it back could "make my life a mess for a long time."

Meanwhile, some fans have been venturing to create their own versions of Hytale, like an impressive project shared by Hytale News on Twitter. Despite the community's notable effort, Collins-Laflamme reinforces that visual appearance is not enough; the game needs to "PLAY and FEEL" like the original, which is a complex challenge without the infrastructure and initial vision. The situation of Hytale serves as a reminder of the inherent risks in the development of ambitious games and the fragility of projects when corporate support is withdrawn.