Image credit: Microsoft and Hypixel Studios

If you thought the competition between Hytale and Minecraft was just about which one has the better building blocks, get ready for something much stranger.

A modder has managed to make Minecraft playable inside Hytale.

Not a visual reference, but a functioning version of Minecraft running within Hytale’s engine. This goes far beyond a clever Easter egg. It is an actual technical demonstration of what Hytale’s modding tools can do, and it works.

The Wizardry of Sadat Sahib: How It Works

Since Hytale entered its very early access phase on January 13, the modding scene has taken off. There are already over 5.6 million mod downloads on CurseForge and more than 2,000 mods available. That includes everything from gameplay tweaks to entirely new systems. But one project has started to pull ahead in terms of complexity and sheer ambition.

Learn more about Hytale Mods.

The creator behind this work is 15-year-old modder Sadat Sahib, known online as iamcxv7 or SSquadTeam. He is no stranger to weird experiments. He is the same person who previously ran Doom and Windows 95 inside Hytale. His latest mod takes things a step further: Minecraft Classic 0.30 running as a visual display inside Hytale.

Sahib built a custom software renderer that runs on the CPU. It processes each pixel of the Minecraft game world and then streams the rendered frames through Hytale’s in-game map system. The result is a playable version of Minecraft rendered as part of the Hytale environment. Players can interact with it directly, and it works well enough to showcase real gameplay inside the host engine.

Sahib is also working on something even more experimental: a mod that allows for communication between the two games. This cross-play project would let Minecraft and Hytale users interact in shared spaces. According to Sahib, the mod uses what he calls “packet trickery”. It is a custom communication layer designed to make both engines talk to each other. Right now, it includes basic chat functionality and some early combat systems.

None of these mods are currently available for public download. Sahib has been clear that the cross-play mod is still very unstable and not ready for wider use. What is out there now is more of a working proof of concept than a polished release. But the potential is clear.

Hytale Is Built for Modders

To really understand why this matters, you need to consider how Hytale is being built. Hypixel Studios launched the game with a clear priority: give modders the tools first. Hytale entered early access without features like Adventure Mode, but with an editor and scripting support already active.  The focus not only on playing but also on building new things from the start is something new.

This is where it differs from Minecraft. Minecraft has a legendary modding scene, but much of that came from fans working around the base game’s limitations. Mojang did not originally design Minecraft with modding in mind. Hytale is doing the opposite. It wants modding to be part of the core experience from day one.

What Happens When the Whole Community Gets Involved?

The fact that someone is running Minecraft inside Hytale a week after launch says a lot. It really shows that the engine is capable of supporting wildly unorthodox projects. It also suggests that the limits on what modders can do are going to be much higher than people expected.

If this pace continues, Hytale could become a major platform for creators who want more control than Minecraft currently offers. The tools are already enabling things that would take months or years elsewhere. Whether or not Hytale replaces Minecraft in popularity is still unknown. But in terms of technical freedom, it is making its case early.

A 15-year-old figured out how to run two engines at once and link them together. That alone should turn some heads. The next question is what happens when dozens or hundreds of creators start doing the same.

What happens when the toolkit gets more stable, and the ideas get bigger? What happens when someone decides to run a different game entirely, not as a joke, but as a functioning add-on? These questions make Hytale one of the most interesting sandbox projects in development today.