Tested Hytale exploration mode gameloop this morning for 2 hours, no crashes, lots of fun moments. Still lots of work ahead to make it good, focusing on small wins for fast development. Large scale QA starts tomorrow. Morning notes: NPCs are still acting weird sometimes but can be fixed over time. Knockback on enemies feels wrong, needs complete overhaul. We added back shovel tool but made it AoE dig, now it’s actually useful and fun. Mining still feels bad, needs to implement momentum feature and potentially have the signature ability system to tools as a whole (like weapons) so we can have fun coming up with abilities (probably post launch). Side note: Non-creative (exploration mode) building improvements are happening. Block placement is starting to feel good, rotations and connected blocks works well. Today I need to test our builders bench with new changes. The problem is that we have way too many blocks for building and honestly its a mess, dozen of edge cases for crafting and I want to simplify and make it fun, not tedious so players feels like empowered when building and not restricted, but need to keep immersion in mind. Its critical to get it right because its a game where building is core to the game experience and at the moment its not there just yet. Months ago it was very very frustrating to build, now its actually decent but still need improvements. Today we have small changes that might just make it work well. Extra note: Massive progress over the past week, being on our own PC has accelerated progress by so much. However it has personally slowed me down because I have been dealing with interviews, clips, screenshots, QnA and other things. It was important to do, communication is critical so everyone understands the state of the game. The team has been very busy anyway so it was probably a good thing I didn’t put more on their plates. Will do more reports as we progress if you guys like it.

When I say Hytale is not good enough, I genuinely mean it. It's not some reverse psychology trick! Real talk: We are using a 4-year-old game build with over 300 versions (branches) of prototypes that we Frankenstein together in record time into a single branch. None of it was meant to be released this quickly and in this way. There are barely any game progression mechanics configured, and we have to implement them all in record time to make it somewhat enjoyable. Of course, I'm confident it's going to be "ok" for release. However, this is the current situation we are dealing with, on top of all the bug fixes, refactors, clean-ups and other ongoing issues that we are facing. We inherited a true hardcore engineering and design challenge, and we are on the clock to deliver early access. The exploration of the game is fun, don't get me wrong, but man, I wish we had more time to get a few more features or configurations in to enhance that experience, but no, we break the curse of release and fix later. This will come at a significant cost; some people will be permanently convinced the game is doomed to remain in this state, unaware that this is an authentic early access experience. I hope that people who share the game will explain the situation we are in and how we got here. Keep in mind, the gameplay video doesn't show much of the gameloop because, well, there isn't much of it. Combat, game vibe, and exploration are great fun, but there needs to be mechanics to keep it going over time. One thing I have learned over time is to enjoy the painful feedback. It is the most critical part of making games and improving yourself as a game designer. Of course, you have to be filtering out the ones that want to steer you in their own vision of what the game should be, so it's a balancing act. When I read negative feedback on the gameplay video, I don't get defensive or hurt. I'm literally like, "Yep, they are not wrong" or "Why do they think like this? How can I solve their problem?" This has taken me years to get to that point. Our community, over the last 14 years on MC, has not been shy about giving us their feedback. The one thing I can promise is that the game is owned by someone who cares and understands the situation, and I will do my best to empower my team to make a great game, however long it takes. This time, with all of you along for the ride, if you wish to be a part of it.