What is Minecraft? It is a java-based web computer game the kids had been playing for a few weeks. The free version allows them to play a primitive version of the game in single-player mode. I checked out the paid version and upgraded them each for €15. The game was created by a mysterious and revered Swedish indie game developer named Markus Persson, known as Notch (@notch) and his team of 8 others called Mojang. As my kids showed me the somewhat crudely drawn lego-inspired world of trees, grass, oceans, islands, zombies, spiders, skeletons and the dreaded creepers, I was intrigued. They were mining for ore, collecting supplies, crafting new items with pre-determined recipes and sharing their learnings. There were no spaceships, no lasers, no bullets, no armies and no blood. In place of the fast-twitch first-person-shooter games dominating console and PC gaming was a construction oriented world set in primitive times that, according to Carl Manneh, the managing director, has captured the imagination of about 12 million free users and 3 million paid users worldwide. (Yep, that’s more than $60M in revenue in less than two years.)
- David Pakman
Game development is fun. There’s programming, design, testing and just plain good old silliness. Here’s a brief snapshot - a retelling of what I did this weekend!
I was putting in a few extra hours on Minecraft this weekend, refactoring code so biomes could directly decorate the terrain…
