More and more of our focus is now going into making new gameplay content for Hytale. Very exciting times ahead!
There's still a lot of groundwork to push through, but we're moving fast. The updates we've shipped so far have mostly been about getting the foundation in shape so we can actually build content on top of it without falling into a tech debt trap.
As a quick reminder, we had only a few weeks between acquiring Hytale and shipping it. In that window, we had to build a new launcher / website / many backend services, plus a lot of engine and gameplay catch-up, on a codebase that was already a few years out of date in many areas. We promised to deliver as fast as possible, and we did, but that meant the early post-launch updates had to be catch-up work rather than huge content drops. The next step is to put ourselves in a position to roll out content updates for the chapters at a rapid cadence.
As an example, some of the team have been on accessibility / controller support / localization, and so on. That kind of work easily takes a few weeks per area, and those devs are now moving to gameplay. Same story with the movement rewrite: that was needed to properly set up future things like mounts / boats / anti-cheat, and plenty more. Most of this is invisible to players day to day, but it's much better to land early than to retrofit later.
I know a lot of what you're seeing right now is creative tools, modding, and so on. Note that we use those tools ourselves too, so every step forward there improves our workflow as well.
Part of the team is also deep in Chapter 1 right now. That first chapter is going to take some time because so many of the pieces around it are still being put in place, but once we hit the rhythm of chapters, the cadence will start picking up fast. That's the part I'm most looking forward to. The goal is that by the time we reach Chapter 3 we'll be at a really good pace.
We're hiring across many areas to support this content push, as you might have seen. Lots to do, but this is the stretch I've been waiting for!
We have the funds, the team, and the community. All we need now is some time to cook!
🚨 Paul Pogba on Cristiano Ronaldo during his darkest period :
“When the suspension news came out, my phone was full for two days… then suddenly, silence. People I thought were brothers disappeared. Agents stopped calling. Friends became busy. Football can make you feel loved… but it can also show you who’s real.”
“But one name I didn’t expect to hear from was Cristiano.”
“He didn’t call me to talk about football, training, or headlines. He asked me one thing… ‘How is your family? Are you okay mentally?’ That hit me differently.”
“A few days later he told me, ‘If you need anything anything for your family, your recovery, your life call me. Pride should never stop you from accepting help.’”
“At that moment, I wasn’t talking to Cristiano Ronaldo the superstar… I was talking to a man who understood pain, pressure, and loneliness.”
“I’ve played with champions before… but in hard times, you discover who the real ones are.”