We recently sat down with Jared and Darkhax to discuss Hytale modding. See the full interview below to hear their highlights, things they're looking forward to with Hytale modding, how Hytale modding differs from Minecraft modding, and so much more.
1. Getting Started
For folks who don’t know you yet - what kind of modding or dev work have you done before?
Darkhax: I'm Darkhax, and I've made mods for several games like Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Balatro, and now Hytale! I make all kinds of mods, but I usually focus on mods that add QoL features, and tools for customizing games.
Jared: I'm Jared, I mainly make utility mods for Minecraft that you don't even know you're using, like Controlling, which adds a search bar to the keybinds screen or Clumps, which merges XP orbs together.
What made you want to try modding Hytale in the first place?
Darkhax: Many games treat mods as an afterthought, if they consider them at all. So when I heard that mod support was a big priority for the Hytale dev team, I was immediately interested.
Jared: CurseForge reached out to us asking if we wanted to be involved in modding a new upcoming game, and after learning that it was Hytale, I was super interested to check it out.
When you first jumped in, what stood out right away?
Darkhax: I was honestly shocked by how much content the game has, especially in comparison to other early access games I've played. I spent quite a lot of time just exploring the world, and everything it had to offer.
Jared: Just how much content the game has.
2. Building Mods in Hytale
How would you describe the modding workflow in Hytale so far?
Darkhax: A lot of modding is done inside the game itself. They have a tool called the Asset Editor which allows you to design and implement new mods from directly within the game. If you prefer writing code, they also have a Java based plugin API that is pretty powerful.
Jared: For me the workflow is coming up with an idea, implementing it in a few lines of code / few minutes in the Asset Editor, and then spending 5 hours in Blockbench trying to get something that looks good
Was it easy to get something up and running?
Darkhax: I could not believe how easy adding new things to the game is. I went into things without any guides or documentation, and was able to add new blocks and items without writing a single line of code or touching a single file. Writing Java plugins was less straight forward, but once we figured out the basics it was pretty easy to make all kinds of things.
Jared: It is insanely easy to start modding the game, the Asset Editor makes it super easy to just create content.
Did you run into any “oh wow, this is nice” moments while building your mod?
Darkhax: My experience modding the game was a constant stream of moments like that. Things like chests, crafting benches, and custom GUIs are notoriously tedious in other games, but in Hytale they have simple and straight forward ways to do all of them. No weird hacks, mod loaders, or custom packets required.
Jared: Having the assets reload right after saving them was really nice, and only having to restart the server when making plugins was a much nicer workflow compared to Minecraft having to restart the whole client.
3. Creative Freedom
What kinds of mods feel like a natural fit for Hytale?
Darkhax: The vanilla game definitely leans more into medieval fantasy RPG territory with their content, and I think there is a lot of opportunity for mods that can play to that. I think we will also see a lot of people treat Hytale as makeshift game engine, to create experiences that go far beyond the original experience.
Jared: This is a bit hard to answer, Hytale is such a massive game with so much going on that really anything can fit in. I think magic mods will feel most at home though.
How flexible does Hytale feel when it comes to changing gameplay or adding new ideas?
Darkhax: It's pretty easy to change almost all aspects of the game, as long as you know and understand the limitations of the game engine. The biggest challenge has been finding ways to do things while maintaining compatibility with other mods, and keeping performance impacts reasonable.
Jared: The only thing you can't change in the game is a small handful of systems that are managed by the client, but those systems are deprecated and will be replaced with server side systems, once that is done I can't think of anything that you wouldn't be able to do.
Were there things you wanted to do in other games that Hytale just… lets you do?
Darkhax: The biggest thing for me was custom block animations. I've always been pretty bad with geometry, so being able to create animations using keyframes in BlockBench has been awesome!
Jared: Hytale makes doing lights insanely simple, even colored ones.
4. How Hytale Differs From Minecraft
Coming from Minecraft, what feels different about modding Hytale?
Darkhax: It's clear that Hytale had mods in mind when designing their systems. Everything is expandable and built from components that can be reused elsewhere. Minecraft has been slowly moving in this direction as well for about a decade now, and it has been awesome, but it's still not there.
Jared: They are completely different games in terms of modding, in Minecraft I live in Java code, in Hytale you live in JSON, the Asset Editor and BlockBench.
Does having mod support built into the game change how you approach development?
Darkhax: Having things built into the game has made iterating a lot faster. I feel like I am able to focus more time on the content being added, rather than debugging the game engine and planning out patches.
Jared: Having built in support is a bit of a double edged sword, in a game like Minecraft my first instinct is to just use Mixin to change the game code directly, since they don't really expose anything for modders, however with Hytale there is usually a correct way to do something, you just need to figure out how. Once everything is documented I think this will be a lot better.
If someone’s new to modding, which game do you think would be easier to start with - and why?
Darkhax: This would highly depend on their personal goals, but all things being equal I think Hytale would be the better choice. Being able to iterate quickly also means that you can see the progress you're making in real time. Games like Minecraft have a lot of boilerplate, project setup, and groundwork required to add content to the game, whereas you can add new items and blocks to Hytale quicker than Minecraft can even load a world. I do think you will learn more about software development modding Minecraft though.
Jared: Hytale by a long shot. You don't even need to know how to make a file on your computer and you can mod Hytale just by using the Asset Editor.
5. Community & Servers
What’s the Hytale modding community been like so far?
Darkhax: The community of mod developers is still pretty small, but there has been a strong emphasis on collaboration, sharing documentation, and researching things together. A lot of time has gone into creating documentation and resources for the broader community that will be available after the game launches.
Jared: The community has been really accepting so far! There was some concerns from the modders who had early access that the community would be in uproar that some modders had early access, but everything I have experienced so far has been nothing but open arms.
How important do you think servers and multiplayer will be for mods in Hytale?
Darkhax: Players are able to join any server, including heavily modded servers, using the vanilla client. I think this will make modded servers significantly more popular than they are with other games, as a lot of the friction and upkeep is completely removed.
Jared: I think servers are going to be very big. With servers being able to change so much about the game the user is playing, you could load up Hytale and just by joining servers online you could find yourself playing a wide range of games, similar to Roblox in a way I guess.
Do you see Hytale encouraging more server‑focused or community‑driven mods?
Darkhax: Hytale opens up so many doors for modded servers and I think the community will be very excited to explore those opportunities. I think we will see a huge amount of both though.
Jared: This is hard to say, I think there will be a mix of both, you are going to have players modding their single player worlds with more "content" type mods, but there is going to be a big market for minigame servers as well.
6. What’s Next
What are you most excited to build next in Hytale?
Darkhax: So far, I've made 10 mods which will all be available at release! Moving forward, I think I would really like to work on a power system for machines, similar to the Tesla power system I developed for Minecraft nearly a decade ago. I've iterated on the concept a lot over the years, and have a lot of things I would love to try out.
Jared: I may try and make a magic mod at some point, I haven't put too much thought into it just yet, but I think it would could work well.
Do you think Hytale has the potential to shake things up for sandbox modding?
Darkhax: Hytale has already raised the bar in so many ways, and I think they have proven how well a lot of concepts like ECS work for modding. I don't know if existing games will respond to this in any meaningful way, but I can guarantee that modders and other game developers are looking at how successful modding in Hytale has already been before launch and will be taking lessons away from it.
Jared: Definitely, I think a lot of sandbox games are going to rethink how they do mod support.
Any advice for devs who are thinking about jumping into Hytale modding?
Darkhax: My main advice would be to come at things with a clean slate. There are a lot of preconceived notions from modding other games that will not carry over well to Hytale. There will be plenty of example mods at launch to look at for examples, and we will also be releasing some guides and documentation as well!
Jared: Learn Blockbench and how to make textures
Mods Spotlight
Darkhax and Jared both have many mods available for Hytale today! Some of our favourites include:
EyeSpy - adds a helpful HUD that provides information about things you look at. Think of as a spiritual successor to WAWLA in Minecraft!
Item Magnet - adds a new item to the game that attracts items towards the player. No more lost drops!
Ore Crusher - double your ores! This mod adds a new crafting bench to the game that lets you crush raw ores into powders, which can be smelted into their ingot forms.
Vector Runes - smarter mob farms! These blocks can push mobs, NPCs, players, and items in the direction of the arrow whenever they step on the block.
Check out all of the available Hytale mods on Curseforge today!
