Hypixel Studios, developer of the Minecraft-inspired survival game Hytale, has shown the sandbox game’s modding capabilities with a Vampire Survivors-like prototype that has fans excited ahead of the game’s Early Access launch later this month. In a social media post over the weekend, Hypixel co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme shared a 40-second gameplay clip showcasing a character fending off voxel-based hordes of enemies in a top-down view arena.
According to Collins-Laflamme, the video shows a Hytale mod created by a team member in their spare time, and it’s intended as a proof-of-concept demo for “how different genres” could be realized within the game by fans and modders.
The following video showcases a server-side Hytale mod created by a Hytale team member in their spare time. It’s intended purely as inspiration for how different genres could be realized within Hytale!
The gameplay shown represents only a small subset of our modding… pic.twitter.com/YaszQv9kDb
— Simon (@Simon_Hypixel) January 4, 2026
“The gameplay shown represents only a small subset of our modding capabilities and was used to build a simple, survivor-like experience,” Collins-Laflamme wrote. While the mod is not planned for release as part of the game, Hypixel “may publish it – or similar examples – as reference material for the community.”
The video comes less than two months after Hypixel reacquired the rights to Hytale from League of Legends maker Riot Games, which had previously canceled the project in June of last year. The team released a 16-minute gameplay trailer shortly afterwards, but the latest clip is focused on Hytale’s potential to be a springboard for user-generated content like the Mojang hit that inspired it.
Hytale is gearing up for Early Access
“My prediction is, it will do very well initially and then it will slow down until the modders / servers and us start to release some major content and then it will keep growing for years to come. Especially as we add more modding tools and options,” Collins-Laflamme wrote on X, responding to a user who suggested that Hytale’s release “will probably be something huge.”
The reply came from a larger thread in which the co-founder expressed feeling “anger” as the studio gets closer to the early access launch of this new version of Hytale, which is slated for January 13. According to Collins-Laflamme, that’s due to pouring four years of engineering into rebuilding the game’s engine rather than working on gameplay features. In his eyes, that leaves the team with a “four-year gap and a lot of catching up to do,” alongside a rebuilt engine that is “never gonna be used.”
As previously stated by the developer in a FAQ, the sandbox won’t be available on Steam at launch in order to focus on its existing community. That’s to avoid chasing “a flood of cold first impressions that could overcorrect the game’s direction.” Hypixel explained that while it doesn’t shy away from “honest, negative criticism,” the team is more interested in feedback from players who are already familiar with the game’s development background.
Most importantly, the FAQ notes that Steam “currently doesn’t support” some of Hytale’s modding features, and that the developer “will be in contact with Valve in the near future” to try and fix that. Otherwise it might be a while before Steam users get to recreate the platform’s latest hits inside Hytale.
