Hytale devs are working on two significant social features to add to the game, with proximity chat and the potential of ‘portals’ in single-player that allow friends to join your game without having to tweak settings.
News on Hytale continues to come thick and fast following the founders reacquiring the title from Riot Games, with pricing revealed last week and details on the early access release date arriving in the coming days.
The early access launch will be a major step for the future of Hytale, but there is still a lot to come, and two major features have been revealed.
Proximity Chat & Multiplayer Support in Single-Player Coming to Hytale
In an in-depth interview with YouTuber ElRichMC, Hypixel Studios founder Simon Collins-Laflamme answered a range of questions about the development of Hytale and plans for the future, alongside taking the opportunity to reveal two components that are in the works.
One of those is support for multiplayer in single-player worlds, allowing players to have drop-in, drop-out gameplay with friends, but, in a bid to make it more immersive, the current plan is for an item that needs to be built to access the feature.
“I want the game to be more social, so I was thinking, what if, to invite your friends, you have to make a portal? And when you leave the game, they go out from that portal, to make it more immersive,” Collins-Laflamme said.
While this may seem like a simple feature, it’s added that “some other popular games don’t have it,” and the crucial aspect is the ability to “invite your friend with no need to change your firewall settings.”
Another feature that goes hand-in-hand with the planned multiplayer functionality is proximity chat, which is confirmed to be in the works, but Collins-Laflamme admitted he’s “not sure” whether the feature will be available at the early access launch.
Voice chat is “very important” for Hytale, opening the doors for plenty of other experiences to be built, particularly given the expansive modding support the game will have.
What are you most excited to see in Hytale? Share your thoughts with other players in the Insider Gaming Discord.
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