New Worlds Contest: 7 Tips for Standing Out in Hytale's $100K Modding Competition

The Hytale x CurseForge New Worlds contest opened on March 3 with a $100,000 prize pool across WorldGen, NPCs, and Experiences categories. Submissions close April 28, giving you roughly 6 weeks from today. Whether you're already deep into a project or still deciding what to build, here are 7 practical tips based on what we learned from the first Mod Jam and general competition best practices. 1. Pick One Category and Go Deep You can submit to multiple categories, but spreading your effort usually produces weaker entries across the board. The winners of the January/February Mod Jam all had one thing in common: they were laser-focused on doing one thing exceptionally well rather than trying to do everything. "Songs of the Machine" by PacificKB won first place because it nailed a single, polished concept with remarkable depth, not because it tried to also add weather, vehicles, and cooking. Action: Decide on WorldGen, NPCs, or Experiences by this weekend. Then scope your project to fit the remaining time. 2. Make the First 60 Seconds Count Judges are reviewing dozens or hundreds of submissions. Your mod needs to make an impression quickly. A beautiful, immediately comprehensible experience in the first minute beats a complex system that takes 30 minutes to understand. For WorldGen, this means your world should look visually striking the moment a player spawns in. Strong landmarks, distinct color palettes, and a sense of place. For NPCs, your creature should have personality the instant a player encounters it. Interesting idle animations, distinctive visual design, and clear behavioral patterns. For Experiences, your gameplay loop should be understandable within 60 seconds. If the player doesn't know what they're supposed to do after a minute, you've lost them. 3. Polish Over Features The Mod Jam judged entries on creativity, technical complexity, fun/gameplay value, adherence to theme, and overall quality. Experienced judges consistently say that polish influences every category. A polished mod with 3 features beats an unpolished mod with 10 features, because polish colors how judges perceive creativity, technical skill, and gameplay value. Concrete polish items that matter: Sound effects and ambient audio Particle effects for impacts and transitions Smooth animations rather than snapping Clear UI elements for any custom interfaces Edge case handling (what happens if a player does something unexpected?) 4. Document Everything on Your CurseForge Page Your CurseForge listing is your pitch. Judges and community voters will look at it. A bare-bones listing with no screenshots, no description, and no installation instructions signals low effort regardless of the mod's actual quality. Your listing should include: Screenshots or video showing the mod in action Clear description of what the mod does and how it works Installation instructions if there's any configuration needed Known issues (being upfront about bugs builds trust) Credits if you're working with a team 5. Don't Sleep on the Mid-Contest Drops The contest includes $9,000 in mid-contest prizes awarded to 30 winners across three separate drops (10 winners of $300 each per drop). These reward early and consistent participation, which means submitting a work-in-progress early is strategically valuable. Upload an initial version to CurseForge early in the contest period, then iterate. This gives you a chance at mid-contest prize money while also getting early feedback from the community that you can use to improve your final submission. 6. Think About Replayability A mod that's impressive once but has no reason to revisit will score lower than one that keeps players coming back. For each category: WorldGen: Procedural generation with enough variation that each world feels different NPCs: Creatures with varied behaviors, multiple encounter types, or progression-tied difficulty Experiences: Randomized elements, difficulty scaling, or social features that make each playthrough different 7. Play to the Community Vote Beyond the judged categories, $10,000 in Community Favorites prizes ($2,000 each for 5 winners) will be decided by community voting. The finalists are announced on May 5 and voting runs until May 12. This means your mod needs to be accessible to average players, not just impressive to technical judges. Community voters respond to mods that are fun, visually appealing, and easy to understand. If your project is technically brilliant but requires reading a 2,000-word guide to appreciate, it will struggle in the community vote. Build something that's fun in the first 5 minutes. Technical depth can come after the initial hook. Important Reminders AI-generated visual assets are banned. Your textures, models, and art must be handmade. Projects must be new. Created after Hytale Early Access launch (January 2026). One judged prize per person. You can enter multiple categories but only win one. Team submissions allowed. The prize goes to the project owner to distribute. Full contest rules are on the official New Worlds contest page. Good luck! If your contest entry includes a server for testing, list it on HytaleCharts so players can find and test your creation before submissions close.