對於期待「《Minecraft》挑戰者」的沙盒玩家來說，《Hytale》的開發歷程簡直比遊戲本身的冒險還要跌宕起伏。這款最初於2018年亮相、由著名《Minecraft》伺服器團隊Hypixel Studios打造的RPG沙盒遊戲，曾因背靠拳頭遊戲（Riot Games）的注資而風光無限，卻在2023年陷入了工作室關閉、項目取消的至暗時刻。近日，重新獨立掌舵項目的聯合導演Simon Collins-Laflamme（Hypixel創始人）在社交媒體上吐露心聲，直言能把這遊戲救回來簡直是個「該死的奇蹟」。
在12月30日的推文中，Simon並沒有掩飾內心的憤怒與後怕。他透露，此前為了所謂的跨平台兼容性，團隊花了整整四年時間去重構引擎，而不是打磨遊戲性。這一決策導致的結果是災難性的：「重新接手時，遊戲幾乎處於不可玩的狀態。所有基礎功能——視角、移動、戰鬥、合成、建造、循環玩法、音效、渲染——統統都是壞的。」這就像是花了四年造了一輛看起來很酷的車，結果發現輪子是方的，發動機還打不著火。
People ask me how I feel about getting Hytale back and getting closer to release. Honestly, the transparent answer is anger. The game has insane potential, but four years of engineering went into rebuilding the engine rather than gameplay features. That leaves us with a four-year gap and a lot of catching up to do, and that rebuilt engine is never gonna be used. When you don’t invest in gameplay, you don’t just lose time. You lose momentum, iteration, and player feedback. Now the focus has to be on gameplay first and rebuilding trust by actually shipping things at a rapid pace. It’s a damn miracle we were able to salvage Hytale. It was barely playable. All basics were broken. Camera, movement, combat, crafting, building, gameloop, sounds, rendering. Everything, everything was wrong. It should have taken years to fix, but within weeks, we got the game into a playable, fun state. And now, instead of slowing down or celebrating a release, we have to keep pushing for years to make up for the time that was lost. So yes, I feel anger. And I’m turning that into focus and execution. I’m committing more money, more time, and personal sacrifice to deliver the game this vision deserves.
然而，奇蹟確實發生了。Simon表示，原本預計需要數年才能修復的爛攤子，現在的核心團隊僅用了幾周時間就將其調整到了「可玩且有趣」的狀態。雖然不僅要把這幾年浪費的時間追回來壓力山大，但團隊已經明確放棄了之前的引擎路線。技術負責人Slikey也補充道：「別再幻想我們會撿起那個『新引擎』了，它已經被100%遺棄並封存。」
對於玩家來說，好消息是這次真的不用再等一個又一個「新建文件夾」了。《Hytale》已正式定檔於2026年1月13日開啟搶先體驗（Early Access）。與其為了所謂的完美1.0版本再拖幾年，不如先把遊戲端上來，用核心玩法重建玩家的信任。在這個滿地「餅渣」的遊戲圈，能看到一個「死項目」詐屍復活並承認錯誤，或許本身就值得一張門票。
