Hytale ModJam / Distant Oceans

A WGv2
ocean biome
mod‑jammed for Hytale

For the Distant Oceans ModJam entry, I helped turn a broad ocean-zone pitch into a playable WGv2 biome pack: planning the depth model, building a complete custom biome, authoring props and textures, working in Hytale's custom Node Editor, integrating team biomes, and making scope calls when exciting ideas became too expensive for play.

Planning Depth bands, transitions, shared densities, and biome-specific goals.
Worldgen Hytale Node Editor graphs, masks, densities, settings, and prefab placement logic.
Assets Custom props, textures, material palette choices, and placement passes.
Integration Combined team biomes, troubleshot issues, and cut expensive ideas down to playable scope.
Planning Model

Making a big ocean readable

View planning board

The Miro board gave the team a shared map; Discord became the day-to-day place where we tested assumptions, posted clips, and untangled generator issues. This depth model turned a loose ocean fantasy into authorable layers: shore transitions, underwater city space, kelp forests, coral reef, trench density, cave density, and shared land points of interest.

The goal was not to over-document the fun out of it. It was to give each contributor enough structure that their biome could feel distinct without breaking the larger ocean zone.

Ocean biome planning diagram showing water depth bands, pressure ranges, transition zones, and labels for land, shore, underwater city, kelp forest, coral reef, trench, and cave density.
Shared Rules

Depth, pressure, transition, and density rules gave individual biome ideas a stable backbone to plug into.

Biome Identity

Each area needed a clear gameplay and visual role: city ruins, kelp spires, coral forms, trenches, caves, and traversal landmarks.

Implementation

From design map to playable biome

I helped set the general design approach for the biome pack's functionality and the team's working structure, then moved into implementation inside the actual mod project. My own biome gave me a full pass through the pipeline, while integration work made the project practical: ideas had to survive real generator behavior, performance limits, placement bugs, and the way multiple authors' systems collided inside one map.

Structure

Biome function and team flow

Helped shape how the pack divided responsibilities: shared rules first, distinct biome identities second, then integration passes to keep the full ocean coherent.

Ownership

One complete custom biome

Built a full custom biome from intended player experience through worldgen configuration, density tuning, authored prefabs, weather, and cleanup passes.

Integration

Team biomes into one map

Worked through map-level integration with the team, including broken configs, biome collisions, placement bugs, and authored areas that needed to sit together naturally.

Scope

Ambition vs. playable cost

Advanced underwater city generation and sewer ideas were explored, then cut back toward smaller authored structures, ruins, and traversal landmarks that players could actually find and read.

Video References

Showing the space in motion

These clips are the payoff: drifting through deep water, reading landmarks through haze, finding ruins and resource pockets, and seeing how terrain density turns into moment-to-moment route choices. The worldgen showcase also includes some of my solo exploration outside the ModJam, which helped sharpen what I wanted Distant Oceans to do.

Distant Oceans Biome Mod

The public mod showcase for Distant Oceans: multiple undersea biomes, traversal spaces, and themed areas that needed a shared planning model to feel connected instead of scattered. Download Distant Oceans on CurseForge.

WorldGen Showcase

A broader worldgen showcase that includes Distant Oceans context plus some of my solo work outside the ModJam. It connects the planning artifacts to the player-facing exploration experience.

Authored Assets

Props and materials that made the biome feel authored

The asset work was small-scale but important: props needed to read underwater, support the biome's resource fantasy, and fit generated spaces without becoming noise. I used Discord as the working log for model checks, placement questions, material comparisons, and the practical question that mattered most: does the idea survive in game?

Hytale sand-floor placement test for a naval mine prefab inside an ocean biome.

Naval mine spawn pass

Worked through the naval-mine idea from model and paint intent into prefab and placement questions: anchoring, floor material, spawn frequency, and how the hazard should sit beside kelp, coral, ruins, and open sand.

Hytale asset-editor view of a glowing green kelp bulb prop.

Kelp bulbs

Built glowing kelp-bulb assets as a readable resource and landmark idea for dense underwater foliage, giving players a clearer reward signal inside kelp-heavy spaces.

Rendered ultramarine crystal material comparison with semi-transparent cyan and purple crystal forms.

Ultramarine crystals

Iterated ultramarine crystal variants, including opacity and material decisions, so the resource felt distinct without fighting the water rendering.

Underwater Hytale city generation screenshot with aqua ruin blocks, fish, kelp, and traversal spaces.

Aqua city generation

Aqua stone forms and cyan crystal texture work gave the generated city spaces a distinct material read instead of leaning entirely on default blocks.