One modder has already got Doom running inside the voxel-sandbox Hytale, and it's not even out yet: It plays 'a bit like a broken keyboard'

Hytale is first and foremost a sandbox adventure RPG inspired by Minecraft, but having been made by a team of top Minecraft modders and community members, it's also built with modding in mind. And when mods are involved, things are bound to get very weird, very fast.

"I'll be honest, I didn't plan for this…two to three nights with not enough sleep later and here we go: Doom running 100% inside a Hytale mod, before Hytale is even released," said the modder. "To quote @Simon_Hypixel [the co-founder of Hytale's development studio]: 'what'." That being, befuddlement at this cursed creation.

And yes, you read that right, they've done all this before the official Hytale launch time has even rolled around, since the developers let modders get cooking early. Nevertheless, that means we've got Doom running in Hytale before the general playerbase has had hands on Hytale itself.

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Hytale: A very pixelated screenshot of Doom gameplay inside Hytale, showing the character shooting at an enemy, displayed on a large 'screen' made of blocks. — (Image credit: Hypixel)

As for how this works exactly, it clearly took a bit of tinkering. As I understand it, the modder uses a full Java port of Doom and downsamples each image to Hytale to display at 20fps. The 80x60 block grid changes to the nearest colour to match the images sent over by Doom, so I'd have to imagine there's a fair bit of input delay. Speaking of inputs, it's fully controlled in-game and feels "a bit like a broken keyboard," according to the modder.

Getting Doom to run on things it was never meant to run on is one of gaming's greatest tests, seeing it playable on everything from your motherboard's BIOS, old potatoes, a Lego brick, a home pregnancy test, and even Doom running inside Doom. Hytale, clearly, has passed the test, though I'm not sure I want to try it for myself.

Rory has made the fatal error of playing way too many live service games at once, and somehow still finding time for everything in between. Sure, he’s an expert at Destiny 2, Call of Duty, and more, but at what cost? He’s even sunk 1,000 hours into The Elder Scrolls Online over the years. At least he put all those hours spent grinding challenges to good use over the years as a freelancer and guides editor. In his spare time, he’s also an avid video creator, often breaking down the environmental design of his favourite games. If you can’t track him down, he’s probably lost in a cave with a bunch of dwarves shouting “rock and stone” to no end.

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