With Hytale entering the sandbox game pantheon, Minecraft and Mojang CCO Jens Bergensten has been poking his head in to see what all the fuss is about. His verdict on the early access version of the game? "Very polished" and worth another look, but a little familiar.
In a post on Bluesky, Bergensten responds to a user wondering about his thoughts on Hytale. The CCO had previously said he's looking forward to trying the game after its surprise revival, after all.
"I'd like it to be more different to Minecraft," Bergensten begins. "It's very polished, but the feeling I get when I play is that I'd rather just play Minecraft. It's very early, though, and I know modding will be an important aspect. I will definitely play more later."
This feels like a pretty solid assessment given that even Hypixel head Simon Collins-Laflamme, who managed to salvage the game after Riot cancelled it (after buying it off him years ago), has been very vocal about how rough and unfinished Hytale is right now.
In a lengthy X/Twitter post reflecting on Hytale's parallels to Minecraft, Collins-Laflamme reckons Bergensten is honestly correct.
"Jebs saying Hytale feels very polished is the best compliment we could ever get," Collins-Laflamme begins. "He is someone I respect very much, and I know he doesn't talk much publicly about other games, so I appreciate that."
Collins-Laflamme argues that many people don't fully "understand the complex design of Minecraft," with the version of the pioneering sandbox game we know today building on and folding in years of features and systems that work in concert. Hytale simply has not had enough time to develop like this; the fact that it was released at all after so many internal reboots is a miracle.
"I'm very critical of our own game - I agree with a lot of the negative feedback and take notes all day," Collins-Laflamme continues. "I have been saying for months that Hytale still has a long way to go, and I still believe it, which is why I keep working every single day. Hearing that Jebs says he will come back to play again later is great, hopefully, to experience the true vision we have for Hytale."
Focusing on the sentiment that "I'd rather just play Minecraft" right now, Collins-Laflamme says, "At this point, he is probably right to feel this way; we haven't had time to add all the features that make us unique, and the early-game experience we have is quite barebones compared to what we can do with World Gen V2 and other upcoming features." This expanded world gen, in particular, is positioned as a quantum leap for the game, greatly raising the ceiling for encounter and environment variety.
He points to a wealth of missing but planned additions, including instanced dungeons, bosses, quests, and stories. The future of Hytale will be less like Minecraft – "something new, more combat-adventure-based, exploration and fantasy-based, and this is why we are making and playing Hytale." I've seen some Terraria sickos calling the game 3D Terraria, and I always liked Terraria more than Minecraft for its focus on combat, exploration, and gear progression, so I suspect this will be music to their ears.
Another user focused on this point, hoping that Hytale "will continue to still feel sandbox-esque and you don't feel 'forced' to do all the things that will be eventually added." In a reply, Collins-Laflamme said, "Yep, very hard challenge but we have a plan".
"It's not to compete with or replace Minecraft; we just want something that resonates with us," Collins-Laflamme says in his main post. He clarifies that, "In the coming years, you will see a major shift between Minecraft and Hytale as we expand our production of extensive modding tools, fantasy worlds, and much more."
