Minecraft and Hytale's devs agreed their games needed to feel "more different." Now it's finally happening.

Hytale just gave us a comprehensive look at its future, and one thing is clear: we're not in Minecraft territory anymore. The game Hypixel Studios is making bears its roots in Mojang's sandbox game - the team itself originally came about through the Minecraft modding scene, after all. Comparisons will never truly go away, but the Chapter 1 preview is a reminder that the two projects are now going in very different directions.

Hytale Game Director Simon Collins-Laflamme recalls that both he and Minecraft's Chief Creative officer Jens 'Jeb' Bergensten agreed on this principle. Soon after the game's launch, when asked for his thoughts on Hytale via Bluesky, Jeb answered, "I'd like it to be more different to Minecraft. 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."

At the time, Collins-Laflamme thanked Bergensten for his comments, saying that being called polished "is the best compliment we could have." He also agreed with the sentiment that Hytale needed to stand apart from Minecraft in order to feel worthwhile, something he reflects on again now in the wake of its latest blog. "He was right, and I said it then too. The features that make us unique weren't in the game yet."

"Hytale and Minecraft will always be compared," Collins-Laflamme remarks, "but we're not trying to make the same kind of game." Now that the Hytale Chapter 1 reveal has arrived, that's been made clearer than ever. "Yesterday's blog shows what that means for the future," he explains.

"Handcrafted dungeons with multi-phase boss fights, combat abilities, runeforging, world events, companions involved in the crafting loop, and much more. We want to be a deeper RPG, a stronger adventure identity, and a game that will evolve massively over the next few years. We just happen to be a block game, and we are just getting started."

This distinction is the best outcome for both games, allowing them to coexist and offer very different experiences. We're seeing it elsewhere, too - the likes of Everwind with its more Skyrim-style fantasy RPG vibes, and Vintage Story's more punishing survival themes, prove that the voxel style doesn't have to define how your game plays. I'm certainly more enthusiastic about Hytale's upcoming direction now than I would have been had Hypixel simply attempted to make a more 'modern' Minecraft.