Hytale Modders Have Already Added an 'MMO-Style Dungeon'

Hytale has been out for less than a month, but that hasn’t stopped modders from bringing MMO-esque dungeons and boss fights to the game. It’s been a long, uneasy road to the Minecraft-inspired title’s early access release, so it was uncertain how the game would land among fans once it finally came out. Now, Hytale is officially here, and it took no time for players to take content additions into their own hands.

Hypixel Studios first announced Hytale all the way back in 2018, but things did not go according to plan. Numerous technical hurdles appeared, the engine had to be entirely rebuilt, and Riot Games acquired the game and its developer in 2020 only to sell it back to the original owner five years later. After all that, Hypixel founder Simon Collins-Laflamme said Hytale‘s early access release was a “miracle,” and if early fan engagement is anything to go by, the dream-come-true isn’t over yet.

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Hytale Modders Add “MMO-Style” Dungeon, Complete with Boss Fights

On February 7, Hytale server and modding community Runeteria introduced The Hollow Crypt, a mini-MMORPG built inside the indie sandbox game. As Collins-Laflamme pointed out while sharing the announcement, Runeteria managed to build and release the mod in just three weeks, and all of that was without reaching out to the Hypixel team for support. It’s a testament to both Hytale‘s mod-friendly environment and the dedication of the Runeteria team, with The Hollow Crypt offering a surprisingly vast dungeon, custom weapons to craft and fight with, and even varying levels of boss fights, offering an experience akin to popular MMOs like WoW. There’s more to come for the mod, too, with Runeteria working on a custom asset editor to give players even deeper MMO-esque gameplay.

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Collins-Laflamme even responded to the official Runeteria account on Twitter asking for a behind-the-scenes look at the process so Hypixel could improve modder’s workflow for projects like this. That level of support for the community has helped the game become a hotbed for mods in minimal time, just like Minecraft before it. Case in point, The Hollow Crypt is far from the only ambitious mod either already in the game or coming down the pipeline. Beloved Minecraft modders PokeFind are working on a Pokemon-inspired Hytale mod, and others have brought a full RPG experience with difficulty scaling and skill trees to the game.

The wealth of mods coming out so quickly stands in dramatic opposition to the eight years it took the base game to reach early access. That juxtaposition is a promising sign for Hytale fans, though. While it may have taken a long time for the game to finally arrive, it’s expanding at a rapid pace, both in terms of official updates and in what the modding community is bringing to the table. Collins-Laflamme has also stated that Hypixel is speeding up its Hytale production plans by pre-releasing updates before refining them and shipping out a full launch, so players can experience new content before it’s fully polished. That approach could mean some bugs, but users likely already expect that from a game in early access.

Things have just gotten started for Hytale, but the future looks bright so far. Despite all the development struggles, the game seems to be a hit among its fan base already, and its modding environment promises a wider range of content than what would be possible with Hypixel alone contributing to the title. How things proceed from here may be impossible to predict, but Hytale has secured at least two years’ worth of funding, so fans will have future updates and improvements to look forward to.