PC Gamer's super-survivalist Chris Livingston called Vintage Story his "" in 2024, noting that it "looks like Minecraft but is way more complex." It wasn't new new, having been in development since 2016, but it was new to him (and us), in part because it's not available on Steam, and thus has remained kind of under the radar.
It's back in the spotlight now thanks to the recent cancellation of a different Minecraft-lookin' game, Hytale, which was . Shortly after it [[link]] was cancelled, Vintage Story team lead Tyron, a former Hytale developer themselves, about the possibility of creating "a small sub-project within our Team of developers to bring out an additional game mode for Vintage Story that can at least in part deliver on the vision of what Hytale set out to become."
An FAQ addresses a number of concerns Vintage Story fans have about the new project, primarily to reassure everyone that adding a Hytale-inspired game mode won't be a drain or a drag on the core project. It also explains why Tyron believes the Vintage Studio effort can succeed where Hytale itself failed even when backed by years of Riot money, including a sustainable approach to development—"We don't live off of debt!"—and a willingness to ship "imperfect, flawed products and improve [them] over time."
"When I worked for Hytale in 2015 I really felt their passion for what they are working on," Tyron wrote. "The team there really believed in the work they did. It was also this very experience that gave me the confidence to start Vintage Story in the first place. It was Noxy that saw my work on worldgen and handed an olive branch to me—believed in my skills to work on their project.