Hytale Says Modding Is Core to How the Team Grows

A high-scoring r/pcgaming post is drawing attention to PC Gamer's report on why Hypixel is investing so heavily in Hytale modding tools. The immediate trigger is a new modding contest, but the more important point is founder Simon Collins-Laflamme's explanation that modding is part of the studio's long-term development strategy, not a side activity.

According to PC Gamer, the contest will award 65 winners from a six-figure prize pool. On the same day, Collins-Laflamme wrote on X that the studio does not expect modders to "carry the game" for them. Instead, he said the community will be one of the foundations for where Hytale goes next, which frames modding as a pipeline for ideas, experiments, and future collaboration.

The most notable claim is about hiring. PC Gamer quotes Collins-Laflamme saying Hypixel has recently brought its team to more than 70 people and that many of those hires were people the studio already knew from the modding community. He said the goal is not to build a giant corporate machine, but a small and agile team made up of people who actually build things.

That matters because plenty of studios support mods, but fewer describe mod support as part of their talent strategy. According to the report, Collins-Laflamme sees exceptional mods as a bridge: sometimes the team collaborates, sometimes it learns from the work, and sometimes it hires the people behind it. PC Gamer notes that thousands of Hytale mods are already visible on CurseForge, so the community is active before the game is fully defined.

For players and creators, the Reddit reaction makes sense. A mod-friendly roadmap can extend a game's lifespan, help establish creator norms early, and give Hypixel faster feedback about what resonates. The tradeoff is short-term development cost, which Collins-Laflamme acknowledged, but the studio appears to believe the longer-term payoff in community connection and talent discovery is worth it.