Launch Roadmap - Hyntaria

Greetings, adventurers!

With Hytale launching in just 2 weeks, it’s time for an update on what we’ve been working on, our roadmap, and some tech insights!

The Launch

We’re planning to launch a stock SMP Hytale server on release day. This will let the community start playing together while we work on the alpha version of Hyntaria.

At the same time, we’ll begin adapting the Hytale base server to make Hyntaria possible. We’ll develop a custom plugin that acts as the interface between the Hytale server and Hyntaria systems—chat, party, guilds, inventory, pvp and pve activities, rewards, auction house, and more.

We’ll publish live updates on our progress on our Discord.

The Plan for Hyntaria’s Alpha

We want to build the essential systems first—these form the backbone of Hyntaria. They include:

Hub system (a place to be while not in an activity)
Chat system (synchronized across our whole network)
Party system (to play with your friends)
Instancing system (the system that makes activities possible)
Activity queuing system (to queue for activities alone or with friends)

But these systems alone aren’t enough. They’ll be accompanied by the first alpha versions of core activities ( minigames):

PvP arenas (1v1 & 2v2)
PvE dungeons (1–4 players)

What about after the alpha?

We have many—and we really mean many—ideas ready to be implemented, but they’ll come after the core systems listed above.

Here’s a non-exhaustive list:

Battlegrounds (larger group PvP with map objectives)
Raids (larger group scripted PvE dungeons)
A rich open world system (with world bosses, puzzles, and daily challenges)
Crafting and player-driven economy
A gear-based progression system
A custom and flexible class system
Competitive tournaments and community events

We plan to weave these systems into a coherent progression system based on gear and skill—no levels. This means no gatekeeping content and no restrictions on what activities you can attempt with your friends.

An Iterative Approach

Right now you may be wondering when all the features listed above will be available. We understand your excitement!

To deliver content as quickly as possible, we’re adopting an iterative approach. In practice, this means releasing alpha versions (we call them v0 internally) as early as possible.

Expect v0 versions to be really “raw”—pre-artistic phase, with basic functionality in place.

For example, the v0 of arenas will probably be a basic flat cubic map with the script to handle game logic, without polish.

The v0 of dungeons will be a single boss or waves of enemies you must overcome. Future versions will add more scripted encounters, carefully crafted ambiance and theme, puzzle mechanics, complex creature AI, and more.

Why are we doing this? This approach has benefits—we can involve the community, get early feedback, and adjust the design accordingly. It also avoids internal friction and gives time for artists and builders to craft the map and theme properly for v1.

The obvious downside is that people get to play an unfinished, rough version of the activity, but that shouldn’t be an issue for the Hytale community.

This iterative approach is mainly for the alpha stage of Hyntaria. As the team grows and our process matures, we’ll be able to release higher quality activities right from the start.

If you’d like to help us, we’re still looking for map builders and Blockbench artists. More info on this blog post or on our Discord.

Infrastructure Sneak Peek

Hyntaria is being built by a team of experienced engineers. The founders have worked on large-scale multiplayer servers in the past, so we know scaling will be the limiting factor for the growth of a major server like Hyntaria. This is why we’re investing heavily in our server infrastructure.

Base Hytale multiplayer servers are limited in the maximum number of players they can handle at once. While it’s possible to optimize servers at the margin (vertical scaling), this limit won’t disappear—it’ll just move a bit higher. The only solution is to scale horizontally, which means splitting the player load across many different servers. For example, each minigame would run on a different server.

To do this at the scale we want to reach, we’re building a custom multi-server system made specifically for Hytale servers, based on the Transfer Packet in Hytale’s network protocol. This should feel seamless from the player perspective, with near-instant server transfers, allowing us to run as many activities as needed in parallel.

We hope you enjoyed this roadmap and view into the tech that will power Hyntaria. We’re really excited to share more details with you as we make progress on development.

— The Hyntaria Team