Hytale finally came out after many years spent in purgatory (or in a drawer somewhere at Riot HQ). Its release was rushed by its old-new owner, Simon Collins-Laflamme, who believes players had waited far too long to get their hands on the game.
This left it pretty barren, but its first patch is already filling in the gaps, setting the pace for what could become a game bigger than even Minecraft.
Hytale‘s first update, released on Jan. 17, introduced a ton of improvements and fixes and even added several new NPCs to its underground jungles, chiefly dinosaurs. New areas were incorporated into the game to service these NPCs, opening up the game to more exploration and wonder, even if some added content uses placeholders for behavior and other aspects for now.
The team further implemented numerous ambient effects, new sounds, refined the gameplay loop, added new behaviors to existing NPCs, and overall made the game much better than it was when it first launched. Every aspect of the game was touched up in some respect, and while a lot more is to come, this is a tremendous first step toward greatness that Hytale seems destined for.
It’s also great to see the team addressing the biggest complaints players had: lack of content, which is understandable due to the special circumstances of the game’s development. Hytale is quickly growing and getting new stuff, which will soon fill up every barren and empty part of the game. There’s still a long road ahead, but the pace certainly seems just right.
Hytale spent most of its existence as an in-development project and only saw the light of day due to the goodwill of Riot Games and Collins-Laflamme, who remained passionate enough for his creation to save it from certain doom. He aims to turn it into a great product at the end, and we cannot wait to see how everything will turn out.
