Hey HYTOPIA Community!
May was a month of massive technical leaps, quality-of-life upgrades, and foundational improvements that make HYTOPIA more powerful than ever. From a complete World Editor overhaul to game-changing SDK features like world switching and wedge colliders, here’s everything you need to know:
World Editor: From Spaghetti to Stability
“The Great Refactor”: We kicked off the month with a crucial foundation update to our world editor at build.hytopia.com.
Major New Features:
- Redesigned UI with compact sidebar toggle for smaller screens
- Placement Size Tools: Choose from 1×1, 3×3, 5×5, and diamond placement patterns
- Smart Search: Find blocks, models, and schematics instantly
- Schematics Tab: Save and reuse AI-generated structures
- Remove Hidden Blocks Tool: Automatically hollow out terrain for optimization
Performance Gains:
- Chunks now load 2-4x faster on initial load
- Instanced meshing for previews dramatically improves frame rates
- Eliminated redundant rebuilds that were happening every 10 seconds
Creator Dashboard: Complete Control for Developers
The launch of our Creator Dashboard at hytopia.com/create, give developers a comprehensive self-service platform:
- Direct Upload: Upload game packages without intermediaries
- Customization Suite: Control settings, tags, and media galleries
- Live Testing Environment: Test your games in real-time
- Real-time Crash Reports: Debug issues as they happen
- One-Click Review Submission: Streamlined publishing process
SDK Evolution: Power and Performance
SDK 0.4.5: Introducing Wedge Colliders
We introduced wedge colliders – essentially “ramps” that players can walk up smoothly. This opened up entirely new possibilities for level design:
- Create stairs, ramps, and sloped terrain
- Fully configurable in x, y, z directions
- modelPreferredShape: Tell the engine what physics shape to use for automatic collider generation
- Support for
trimeshcolliders that tightly match model visuals
SDK 0.5.2: World Switching Revolution
This major release introduced World Switching capabilities through the new WorldManager:
- Multiple Worlds: Create complex multi-area experiences
- Swimming Mechanics: Full swimming support with automatic liquid detection
- Performance Optimizations: Significant engine improvements across the board
- Breaking Changes: Refactored PlayerEntity to DefaultPlayerEntity for better extensibility
SDK 0.6.1: The Performance Update
We delivered massive performance optimizations that affect every aspect of the engine:
- New Player Controller: 48 animations available with dramatically improved movement
- Skybox Control: Adjust brightness via
world.setSkyboxIntensity()for day/night cycles - Flexible World Creation: Optional automatic world creation for more control
- Enhanced Entity Controllers: Automatic animation triggers for move, idle, jump states
SDK 0.6.5: Polish and Fixes
We wrapped up the month with important quality-of-life improvements:
- Fixed
applyImpulse: Now works correctly with players for knockback and external forces - Debug Rendering: Visualize colliders and sensors without performance impact
- Selective Debug Views: Control what collider types render in debug mode
What’s Next?
While we’ve made incredible progress, we’re not stopping here. Our roadmap includes:
- Enhanced Collider Support: Trimesh for precise model matching, wedge for stairs/ramps, and sensor for non-colliding areas
- Missing Texture System Fix: Complete overhaul of the texture pipeline
- Visual Collider Representation: See collider types directly in the editor
- One of the most exciting upgrade coming to the default character animations and movements in the next HYTOPIA SDK release
Founder’s Corner: Leading by Example
Our co-founders aren’t just building the platform, they’re actively creating games that showcase HYTOPIA’s incredible versatility and push our tools to their limits.
Arkdev: “Frontiers” – Farming Meets MMORPG
Arkdev has been hard at work on “Frontiers,” an ambitious farming-sim/MMORPG crossover that’s already demonstrating some of our latest SDK features in action:
Arkdev implemented a complete day/night cycle system. Each full cycle runs 24 minutes in real-time, creating dynamic gameplay opportunities as the world transitions from day to night.
The game features intelligent NPC pathfinding around cities and recently gained a dodge roll mechanic inspired by souls-like games.
Temptranquil: Tower Defense Excellence
Temptranquil is pushing HYTOPIA in a completely different direction with a top-down tower defense game that showcases our engine’s incredible flexibility:
Managing tons of projectiles, enemies, towers, upgrades, and waves simultaneously—all while maintaining smooth performance thanks to our May performance optimizations.
From 3D adventures to top-down strategy games, this project proves that HYTOPIA isn’t limited to any single game type. The same engine that powers farming sims and MMORPGs can seamlessly handle real-time strategy mechanics.
Both projects are perfect examples of how our May updates—from performance optimizations to advanced physics—translate into real gameplay innovations. Our founders aren’t just talking about what’s possible with HYTOPIA; they’re building it.
Community Appreciation
Special recognition goes to our community contributor who tackled the complex codebase refactoring that made much of May’s progress possible. The HYTOPIA platform thrives because of developers like you who push the boundaries of what’s possible.
May 2025 proved that HYTOPIA is more than just a game development platform, we’re building the foundation for the next generation of multiplayer experiences. With improved stability, powerful new features, and a relentless focus on performance, we can’t wait to see what you’ll create.
Ready to start building? Visit build.hytopia.com to try the latest editor, or check out our Creator Dashboard to publish your next game.
Game Jam #3 is starting soon! Register at gamejam.hytopia.com and put these new tools to the test.
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