Hytale’s Vampire Survivors Remake Highlights Growing Excitement for the Minecraft Competitor

Hypixel Studios, the team behind the Minecraft-inspired survival game Hytale, has recently showcased the game’s modding potential with an exciting prototype reminiscent of Vampire Survivors. This has fans buzzing as the Early Access launch approaches later this month. Over the weekend, co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme shared a 40-second gameplay clip featuring a character battling voxel-based hordes in a top-down arena.

Collins-Laflamme explained that the video highlights a Hytale mod crafted by a team member during their free time, serving as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate how various genres can be explored by fans and modders within the game.

The gameplay shown represents only a small subset of our modding…pic.twitter.com/YaszQv9kDb

— Simon (@Simon_Hypixel) January 4, 2026

“The gameplay shown represents only a small subset of our modding capabilities and was used to build a simple, survivor-like experience,” Collins-Laflamme noted. While this mod won’t be included in the game’s official release, Hypixel may consider publishing it or similar examples as reference material for the community.

This video comes just a couple of months after Hypixel regained the rights to Hytale from Riot Games, which had previously halted the project in June of last year. Following that, the team released a 16-minute gameplay trailer, but this latest clip emphasizes Hytale’s potential as a platform for user-generated content, much like the game that inspired it.

Collins-Laflamme shared his thoughts on the game’s launch trajectory, predicting that it will start strong but may slow down until modders and the team release significant content, leading to sustained growth over the years. He mentioned, “Especially as we add more modding tools and options,” in response to a user who anticipated a massive release.

In a broader discussion, the co-founder expressed feelings of “anger” as the early access launch of this new version of Hytale approaches, scheduled for January 13. He explained that the team has spent four years rebuilding the game’s engine instead of focusing on gameplay features, resulting in a “four-year gap and a lot of catching up to do,” along with an engine that he feels “is never gonna be used.”

As previously mentioned in a FAQ, the sandbox game will not be available on Steam at launch to prioritize its existing community. This decision aims to prevent a “flood of cold first impressions that could overcorrect the game’s direction.” Hypixel clarified that while they welcome “honest, negative criticism,” they are more interested in feedback from players who are already familiar with the game’s development journey.

Importantly, the FAQ also states that Steam “currently doesn’t support” some of Hytale’s modding features, and the developer plans to reach out to Valve soon to address this issue. Until then, it may take a while before Steam users can recreate the platform’s latest hits within Hytale.