After weeks of hints by founder Simon Collins-Laflamme, the long-awaited Hytale, cancelled in June, has been brought back from the dead, with a gameplay video released to boot.
Hytale was first announced in December 2018, and blew up immediately, its trailer boasting a million views per day in its first month. Its unexpected popularity lead to a steep increase in the game's scope over the next couple of years.
Collins-Laflamme, who sold the game along with the entirety of its developer Hypixel Studios to Riot Games in 2020, announced on Monday he has re-purchased the game, which is now being developed by a team of 30 re-hired developers.
With fresh vigour after 7 long years of development hell, Hytale will see a public alpha sooner rather than later. This early access phase will last at least a few years
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He tempers player expectations – It's messy. It's janky. And there's a lot of work to be done.
However, he states that his priority is to just get the game out to players, no matter what.
The assets purchased are the original version of the game, before the engine was rewritten from scratch.
To help "break the curse", he has released today gameplay footage of Hytale, raw and uncut. Recorded and edited this morning by me, just raw, random footage. I mean, I even forgot to mute my mic so you can hear me click
he says.
He goes on to make a very long list of what is wrong with the gameplay in the video – not that fans care about its minor bugs and irregularities.
Additionally, he announces that Hytale will be taking zero money from modders and server owners for two years from release, so that they can help bring us players
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Collins-Laflamme will be assuredly releasing further sneak peeks and teasers for Hytale in the coming weeks, before an announcement will be made on its early access date.