Hold the redstone phone, Hytale is hiring automation devs, and I'm ready for Minecraft kids to make me feel like a fool

Think Hytale needs more wacky physics inventions? World-spanning shafts, deadly machines, and that sort of thing? Well, it looks as if Simon Collins-Laflamme does, too. A recent tweet from the game director behind this year’s big sandbox game explains that Hypixel Studios is now hiring automation and tinkering devs/designers. And the players are already foaming at the thought of the opportunities such a system might enable. What’s the point of a massive creative sandbox if you can’t make a functional Millennium Falcon move through the sky at a few frames per second, anyway?

Just one day after asking modders to share their custom Hytale creations in the replies of his latest post, Simon’s next message was a recruitment notice calling for automation and tinkering devs/designers to work on the game. While Hytale is already set for free publicity for life thanks to its easy building tools, the potential of an engineering system akin to Minecraft’s iconic automation-powering redstone is mindblowing.

“Hiring automation & tinkering devs/designers for Hytale,” it reads. “We’re exploring physics-driven systems built around real, physical parts. Gears, shafts, belts, pulleys, rotation, motion, power generation and transmission, logic, and machines that players can assemble, break, and optimize.

“The design challenge is to make it feel like a natural extension of the game, fully optional, easy to engage with at a small scale, yet capable of deep complexity and automation for players who want to go further! Tag a dev or modder who builds this kind of stuff. I’ll be scouting in the coming weeks, and roles will be open to apply for if needed by then!”

Now, as someone who can barely set up a redstone switch in Minecraft without spending hours on the Wiki and ultimately achieving nothing, the thought of a similar system coming to Hytale almost has me ready to uninstall it.

Seeing people build Gameboys in Minecraft – or even Windows 95 in Hytale – makes me feel incredibly foolish, and I’m obviously very insecure about that. But with the Hytale community on Reddit foaming at the thought of something akin to Minecraft’s Create mod – which has over 160 million downloads on Curseforge – coming to their new favorite sandbox crafting game, they’re busy pondering the possibilities – including the very valid idea of copper wires and gears making the low-tier ore a little less useless ten minutes into a playthrough.

The hiring post being on X made it the perfect forum for open discussion with Simon himself, with interested teams speaking with Simon directly in the replies. ‘Seyager,’ an electrical engineer working on the Hynergy mod, managed to lock in the chance to chat with Simon almost immediately. Maybe we’ll hear more about that next week.

Deeper down, others touched on how they’d rather any Hytale automation system be centered around magic rather than fancy physics, complex circuits, and “big metal/wooden machines.” One person’s idea of going the “mechanical with partial magic portions” approach with “magic as a possible power source” got a response from the head honcho, who suggested that said magical power source could be “harvested from places/nodes to fuel your machines.” Now we’re talking.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that any hired tinkerer will manage to ship a full-blown physics system to Hytale. “We’re exploring,” is a key opening line in Simon’s headhunt. It’s also followed up with conditions like the final product being “a natural extension of the game” that’s “easy to engage with at a small scale,” which might just be enough for me, “yet capable of deep complexity,” which sounds like a recipe for a system that will immediately overwhelm my simple mind.

My imagination is vast, but my ability to do much with it? Severely lacking. But I’m happy for those who manage to make me feel like a massive idiot. I’m quite happy clicking a rock in Runescape and staring at the screen until my inventory fills up, but I appreciate any effort to make an automatic beef blender in the big survival crafting game.