The Spawn Chunks 385: What Can Minecraft Learn From Hytale?

Jan 19, 2026 | podcast

Podcast Audio
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Acast | RSS Feed

Jonny, and Joel cover a small technical snapshot for Minecraft 26.1, answer listener email about anvils, and explore Hytale, a new voxel, survival RPG and discuss what lessons Minecraft, and Hytale can learn from one another.

Support The Spawn Chunks on Patreon

Become a patron!

Login

Joel

Twitch | YouTubeVODs | The Citadel Cafe | Twitter | JoelDuggan.com

  • The Citadel | Mushroom Island
    • Briefly dug out a few layers of the power core chamber in the center of the command center.
      • Looks like this could be a big dig to get the right scale, and effect.
        • Not looking forward to hitting the deepslate layers. Hoping to hit a lush cave or two on the way down.
      • Power Core Chamber Digging (YouTube.com/JoelDugganVODs)
  • Hytale
    • Spent the rest of the week playing Hytale on stream.

Jonny

YouTube | Twitch | Bluesky | Hermitcraft Recap

  • The Minecraft Survival Guide, Season 3
    • Managed to airlift the coral nautilus back to the Windy City, where it will live in a coral fishtank!
      • It was eventually joined by a regular nautilus, and a zombie nautilus, but adding the non-zombie variant to the tank proved more difficult than expected. There were several dips it into a series of ponds along the route to make sure it didn’t suffocate.
    • Choppin’ Tuesday – Minecraft Survival Guide LIVE! (Twitch.tv/Pixlriffs)

Minecraft News

Chunk Mail

SpawnChunkMail@gmail.com

FROM: Harvey L.
SUBJECT: Name Tags & Anvils

With the new craftable name tags do you feel we need to update the anvil? 

At first I imagined a cheaper cost to craft anvils, but I was then brought back to something you guys bring up a lot when it comes to mechanics, how is this conveyed to the player? Currently the anvil can only spawn naturally in a Woodland Mansion. Do you think it would be better to have a cheaper craft cost or have them spawn naturally in villages? 

They could be a new job block, but that’s not necessary since regular furnaces, and crafting tables also spawn in villages, and aren’t job blocks.

Harvey died from an anvil falling on his head.

FROM: Sage C.
SUBJECT: Emotional Attachment To Villagers

Dear Joel, and Pix, 

With the next drop having “emotional attachment to mobs” as a design pillar, I’ve been thinking about a small problem with villagers.

In Java edition any free-roaming villagers tend to slowly but inevitably die over time due to small bits of damage taken from pathfinding off of ledges that are slightly too tall. This stifles my motivation to name any villagers as they are very likely to eventually disappear.

A small parity change could fix this problem. In Bedrock Edition villagers actually regain health while they sleep! But in Java Edition for some reason they don’t.

Do you think a parity fix like this is important? 

Are there any other small parity issues you would like to see addressed?

Sage slowly died from twenty sprained ankles.

Thanks to our top patrons!

Content Engineers

Cynebeald

Hunter555

Jumbosale

MindTripMedia

That Penguin Dood

Ore Producers

ArchaeoPlays

Fire_Dragon_19

Loewe88

Sarunint

Community Miners

Alexander

Banchor

Brad S.

Brock

Dosage

Gingerlily

Ikea Sub

Impact

Jeffrothian

KraftDragon

LuckyLittleUnicorn

Nerdpants_McGee

OhDoctor

Protius

RandomGuest

Rocktiki

Saphiraugen

Scotsman

Shakespeargirl

Sharon_thfg

TheVixen38

UNinja12

Join us on

What can Minecraft learn from Hytale?

Hytale’s highly anticipated release come on Tuesday, January 13th, quickly becoming the most played game on Twitch that day. Both Jonny, and Joel played Hytale this week, and discuss what they’ve learned about the game, and what both games could learn from their blocky, sandbox, neighbour.