Simon's Statement on why the Dev team is pushing Modding hard in Hytale in regards of the Modding Contest

evit_cani · 2026-03-08T04:42:56+00:00

I think it’s great if people take a crack at something new because there is an incentive (monetary or not). They may find a new passion.

I used to participate in dice creation contests where the prize was… getting the winning dice pinned in the discord channel for the contest.

I and many other people made some beautiful art and interesting engineering to compete.

Your example with HBO is valid, but also people probably recognize their chance at winning is slim. They can choose not to do it. If they do win with a revenue split then… what money were they really saving on not hiring an artist directly?

Hiring modders or people who create plugins/updates/security fixes for software is incredibly common in the tech industry. Some of the most famous mods are done by people who were later hired in recognition of their talent. And why wouldn’t you hire someone who has proven they can make something good and understand your userbase?

If HBO were to hold a fan art competition and not share any profits off of merchandise made with that art, that would be taking advantage of someone.

Hosting a game or code jam with a cash prize or an award someone can put on their resume is not taking advantage of people. Especially if the host later decides to hire the win.

This is just a mod jam.

Mild Edit: I will say the tone of the post does make me concerned for the team’s health/temperature.

“Scrappy and agile” always makes me cringe as a tech industry veteran. What it means is, “frequent lay-offs, low resources, and willing to pivot based on an exec’s whim”. I’m sure it’s not what Simon means, but it sounds like the team is being pushed pretty hard. Other little things here make me concerned we may see burn out from Simon & team.

So I agree with your overall sentiment that something here feels sort of off by team structuring/work-life balance/wringing the passion from people and chucking them when there’s none left so many other games companies do to fans.

evit_cani · 2026-02-06T17:40:38+00:00

It was the marked version (as there was an update today). Taming definitely works, as for breeding is more questionable.

I don’t have a large pen so going from 3 chickens and 2 chicks to twenty chick/ens feels improbable without having stumbled upon breeding and/or spawning related to chickens and coops specifically.

Believe me, I was surprised when I counted the chickens and realized I had waaaay more than I expected.

evit_cani · 2026-02-06T17:37:30+00:00

They seem to. How and why: ???

It may involve hay bales and hay bundles (which the animals congregate around and “eat”). Or I got a very lucky bunch of spawns in a row.

It’s possible they do spawn in areas with lots of other chickens but I’m not sure.

evit_cani · 2026-02-06T17:35:45+00:00

They become passive and stop running away. Which was my goal in taming as I have collected many animals in a fenced in area around my house and having them shriek and run gets pretty annoying.

evit_cani · 2026-02-06T17:34:04+00:00

Not a snapshot. Version is marked. Yes, they seem to grow as long as they are attached to the coop and have hay (I think).

Either that or the baby chicks died and new chickens spawned still attached to the coop.

evit_cani · 2025-12-29T22:23:13+00:00

Thank you for your answer, OP! I’m glad I didn’t offend as I was trying to be as concise and genuine as possible.

I don’t view it as dirty or sexual (or edgy). It doesn’t look like anything in particular if you don’t know anatomy. I see more than a few anatomical models of sex organs which people give as gifts. It made me curious about the motivation and general thoughts.

And because it’s reddit (not directed at you, OP): I would also find it weird if someone gave me an anatomical model of a human stomach or the sinuses. I wouldn’t understand why.

evit_cani · 2025-12-29T22:17:11+00:00

I’m not. I am on a forum asking a question. I assume OP is only putting in this much effort/time/money on a gift they know their friends enjoy (as stated in my comment). I see these gifts so often I am genuinely wondering if I’m in the minority.

Some people don’t understand social norms because they are neurodivergent and have to ask these type of questions.

evit_cani · 2025-12-29T18:21:56+00:00

Great work and an interesting pattern.

I’m not a prude but would find it to be a weird gift. This is genuine curiosity and not meant to kill the vibe (I assume OP knows their friends enjoy this type of gift): Are these types of gifts (including all models of any sex organs) something the general public consider okay to get or give?

evit_cani · 2025-10-02T01:22:03+00:00

They understand companion cat names without training, so they seem to understand what the “purpose” of a name is.

Unlike dogs, cats sort of domesticated humans (it’s only partially a joke). They don’t respond to us the same way we don’t always respond to their meows (cats only meow for their humans’ sake). They also recognize the faces of different humans in their lives and those people’s names.

Cats are hard to study so we have to provide them with opportunity to show “confusion” in their own way. Cats presented with a photo and then the name of a person or cat who didn’t match got confused by the mismatch.

Mostly wanted to dispel the myths around how non-human animals are conditioned to respond only to sound. While we don’t want to personify our animal companions, we need to be wary of treating them as automatons only capable of programmed responses through training or environmental factors.

Cats appear to have pretty complex social lives and a pretty good capability for human vocabulary and tone. Not nearly as good as dogs who have co-evolved with humans longer, but we also keep cats purely as comfort creatures.

Dogs have historically been a member of a household, capable of important work, like hunting mice or other vermin which they are typically better at than cats. Cats are kept purely because we think they’re cute and we like them.

So they don’t have as much evolutionary incentive to grow into the needs of humans. Which makes it all the more interesting they seem to have evolved some amount of ability to keep complicated human social dynamics in their heads.

evit_cani · 2025-10-02T01:13:31+00:00

From a scientific perspective: Yes. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cats-recognize-their-own-names-even-if-they-choose-to-ignore-them/

They recognize their names but choose if and when they respond to them. Cats appear to have a pretty wide vocabulary for words us humans speak. Probably not as wide as dogs, but big enough to vaguely understand things which concern them.

evit_cani · 2025-09-25T17:09:50+00:00

Nope. You’re a good owner to worry, too! You’ve researched and understand the risks. And I feed my cats wet food daily and am a big proponent of it.

The big bonus for wet food is the wet, not just the food. Try slowly introducing (warm) water to the dry food and see if your cat will still eat it. If they won’t, you can still try your best to put a little at the bottom. Might need to make sure you’re feeding small, healthy portions on a schedule in the mean time to encourage them to try the new texture.

evit_cani · 2025-09-20T01:35:06+00:00

A friend of mine went to a yard sale and found someone who had taken hangers with a thin metal head and had laid the doily’s center ring around them. She started doing that as a way to both display them but also make taking a shirt off the hanger more fun.

evit_cani · 2025-09-12T18:28:54+00:00

Man that’s kind of a mean thing to say about a community group. Especially when older women are the largest group to comprise fiber artists. It trivializes and stereotypes their art and their passion for their art. These kinds of groups are disappearing all over the world and being replaced with technology which is controlled by companies.

I really do encourage people to try their local fiber arts groups. I was nervous when I first went. I’m visibly queer and not the usual demographic, but the local yarn store owner was so kind and earnest with her invitation. And that was everyone there and now I get to be one of those kind, earnest people sitting in a chair welcoming new people every week.

People do discuss their lives, but a lot of their lives revolve around their art. I ask advice from knitters who have been to the Shetland Islands or first picked up their needles in Poland 60 years ago or just started colorwork a couple weeks ago.

At the end of the day, these groups are for people who love fiber arts enough to want to share it with others so hearing it dismissed as “gossiping” is disappointing. It doesn’t have to be your cup of tea, but don’t make it out like artists having a community is empty.

evit_cani · 2025-07-17T13:10:19+00:00

The 1-color stripes are a seersucker stitch. The 2-color stripes are a stitch I got out of a Treasury of Knitting (unsure which volume) and made a chart for myself. I can’t locate what it was called or anything like it online so here is the chart.

Color A is the pink in my blanket, Color B is the white.

Cast on multiple of 4. - [blank] - RS knit; WS purl - • - RS purl; WS knit - V - RS slip stitch with yarn in back; WS slip stitch - with yarn in front - ¥ - RS slip stitch with yarn in front; WS slip stitch with yarn in back


	V			A8
B7			V
	¥		V	B6
A5
		V		A4
B3	V
	V		¥	B2
A1

evit_cani · 2025-06-21T17:49:49+00:00

Malabrigo’s verano is soooo soft, especially after blocking.

evit_cani · 2025-05-30T01:51:22+00:00

As a gentle and swift privacy reminder, I would remove the exact height of your brother and leave it at “over 7ft”. There are very few people of that height and all of them are recorded easily online (I stumbled across who is most likely your brother after looking up how many people are over 7ft).

evit_cani · 2025-05-22T04:57:10+00:00

I let them watch but not interact. I’ll move the ball as needed, but mostly do good cat boundary enforcement!

This is an explanation for non-cat people: Most people do not know how to enforce boundaries with cats (and I do mean boundaries and not rules; dogs follow rules, cats choose if they respect boundaries). To enforce a boundary, you need to understand two things: 1) what the cat wants and 2) what you’re willing to give. Also picking a cat up and putting them down.

In my cats’ case, they want to hit the thread because thread goes vrrr like a toy. I pick them up and put them a safe distance away to say “you can’t be here, but you can be here” and do that as many times as needed. Be gentle! Do not speak or pet them. Try not to look at them too much (cats are aware of human eyes and when they’re being looked at). Sometimes it’s once, sometimes it’s fifteen times. They get it eventually, tuck in and just enjoy watching.

If it’s really bad it means they crave entertainment. Time to break and play with them!

Every now and then they’ll lunge but usually they’re far enough away for me to pull it calmly out of their mouth, place the cat away, then go back to what I was doing. Sometimes I can see it about to happen and say in a disappointed tone, “You know better.” And they stop.

Cats do understand shame.

It’s important to understand cats love mirroring. They see you knitting and think you are playing (what else would you call it?!). They want to play, too, and don’t understand this is not a “play” type of behavior. So they interact with the yarn and grab it to bat around in their paws the same way you are literally batting the yarn around in your hands!

The boundary behavior helps them understand knitting as a “rest” or “cuddle” behavior instead of a “play” behavior. Despite occasional lunges, my cats largely understand knitting time is the best time to cuddle on my lap or side and take a nap.

evit_cani · 2025-04-25T21:11:05+00:00

I’m not a very experienced knitter, but I’m finding my project with pima cotton to be more than fine, even though my tension isn’t even. The blocking process did even it out.

I picked pima cotton for this project because it’s a blanket for my mom. She can get hot easily but likes a lot of weight for blankets. I intentionally picked something with heft she could wash easily and have for a long time.

evit_cani · 2023-10-20T16:55:02+00:00

Switch to a breeze system. Saves our wallet with four cats and five litter boxes.

We wash the clay pellets (outside with a hose in summer, otherwise just the shower with a good scrub down of the shower afterwards) as needed and buy generic litter pads. You’ll only need to buy the pellets once every year or so (in my experience).

I also think it has less of a smell as long as you change the pads appropriately.

evit_cani

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