Minecraft

[Eli Delventhal]

The problem with space is that it is 'fully 3d', our earthly environment is 'mostly 2d'.

=> 'fully 3d' is vast, boring, and incomprehensible.

Instead of actually going in space, I think it would be good just to visit other planets. Then the code change would be quite minor.

[Nate]

You know you can dig into the ground right?

No, I punch the hell out of it, but the block doesn't break. Same with trees. I just went back and tried again... holding the punch button down works. I knew I had to be missing something... now I get it! Carry on.

[Spasi]

Minecraft review on wired.com

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[SwampChicken]

Excellent to see so much coverage...

Looks like we have a superstar in our midst guys..

[Nate]

AAaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhahahaha!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnjSWPxJxNs
I laughed so hard I actually had tears! Uuuuuhm, this is my house.... uuuuhmmmm...

[ryanm]

Had an epiphany this morning about what Minecraft multiplayer could turn into: A first-person Settlers.
All of the roles (miner, toolmaker, lumberjack, fisherman, etc) are already there, players just need some incentive to specialise. This could be achieved with building patterns: build a structure to a certain design and it increases the efficiency of some task.
For example:

• Sawmill: Logs will yield more units of wood when crafted here
• Lumberjack's hut: Bring an axe to the hut and it will be supercharged for 5 minutes, allowing trees to be chopped down more quickly, or the yield of logs to increase.  The hut will have to recharge for 5 minutes after use
• Forester's hut: Bring saplings to the hut before planting and they will grow more quickly and end up larger
• Blacksmith's forge: Tools made here will last longer
• Pig farm: generates pigs when supplied with grain
• Guard posts: supercharge weapons and armour for a period: needs to be supplied with gold and beer

.. and so on. The efficiency increase could be automatic or linked to a minigame, puzzle-pirates style. This would also provide a way for mobile phone players to contribute to the economy - they can't run the full client (latency, phone performance, play opportunity issues) but they can operate the sawmill or forge by playing a minigame.

So you can either be the crazy guy who lives alone on a mountain and makes everything himself, self-sufficient but just scraping by, or you can be a sophisticated urbanite, part of a bustling economy that demands some toil but rewards with efficient defence from the aggressive monster incursions and greater free time to pursue your floating-castle-made-of-diamonds dream.

[kappa]

Its even on Australian TV!!

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/video/default.htm?pres=20100920_2030&story=5

its taking over the world

[Orangy Tang]

No, I punch the hell out of it, but the block doesn't break. Same with trees. I just went back and tried again... holding the punch button down works. I knew I had to be missing something... now I get it! Carry on.

This seems to be a really common newbie problem, I've seen about 50% of people I've introduced the game to do this. I'm all for leaving out tutorials until a game is mostly finished, but Minecraft could *really* do with a line of text somewhere to tell new users to hold the mouse button and not spam it.

[SimonH]

http://www.cubelands.com/

It'll be interesting to watch java and unity squaring up against each other - Go Markus!

[kappa]

http://www.cubelands.com/

It'll be interesting to watch java and unity squaring up against each other - Go Markus!

Hmm, surprising lack of any reference to minecraft on that site

It looks pretty nice but I guess most of that is attributed to the Unity3D engine, guess we'll see if a 2 man studio can keep up with Markus's crazy development speed.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[zammbi]

http://www.cubelands.com/

It'll be interesting to watch java and unity squaring up against each other - Go Markus!

Sue! hehe...

Everyone wants a piece of the Minecraft cash

But I'm sure this has no chance to vs Minecraft so hopefully the go in their own direction.

[Nate]

This seems to be a really common newbie problem, I've seen about 50% of people I've introduced the game to do this. I'm all for leaving out tutorials until a game is mostly finished, but Minecraft could *really* do with a line of text somewhere to tell new users to hold the mouse button and not spam it.

The game could detect if a player doesn't hold down the mouse button after a few minutes of starting play and show a message. Once you destroy one block, you get it.

[princec]

We've added a whole bunch of things like that in Revenge of the Titans now. Like when Chaz's girlfriend Jess was playing she didn't even realise she could scroll the screen around - we detect a lack of scrolling after a few seconds and pop up a hint now. And so on.

Cubelands has the graphics that possibly Minecraft should have had. But then I have no doubt Minecraft will eventually be receiving some nice graphics too.

Cas

[zammbi]

Cubelands has the graphics that possibly Minecraft should have had. But then I have no doubt Minecraft will eventually be receiving some nice graphics too.

I'm going to disagree.
Minecraft has quite a unique blocky/pixel look. I do like nicer graphics myself but I don't think Minecraft should change now.

[DzzD]

I'm going to disagree.
Minecraft has quite a unique blocky/pixel look. I do like nicer graphics myself but I don't think Minecraft should change now.

sure the pixel are wanted in minecraft but smooth texture may be a bit "less tiring" for eyes, may be more attractive on screenshot too (it would have been nice to have an option to select between smooth and pixelated textures)

[Eli Delventhal]

sure the pixel are wanted in minecraft but smooth texture may be a bit "less tiring" for eyes, may be more attractive on screenshot too (it would have been nice to have an option to select between smooth and pixelated textures)

You can pretty easily install mods to get different looks. I have one that looks like it came out of an SNES RPG, it's quite pretty. I think if Markus improved just a few of the textures and otherwise made it easier to install mods (still is up to the power users to do it), then that would be enough.

[kulpae]

I showed Minecraft to few of my friends and they all said it's not worth playing, because they don't like the graphics of it...
weird, it never bothered me...
I played it with an enhanced texture pack (Painterly Pack), but now after the update I decided to stay with the original textures...

kulpae

[Eli Delventhal]

I showed Minecraft to few of my friends and they all said it's not worth playing, because they don't like the graphics of it...
weird, it never bothered me...
I played it with an enhanced texture pack (Painterly Pack), but now after the update I decided to stay with the original textures...

kulpae

Was there an art update?

The big issue with the high res textures is that they can't animate.

[princec]

What Markus actually has to watch out for is Zynga.

Cas

[Mads]

No, I punch the hell out of it, but the block doesn't break. Same with trees. I just went back and tried again... holding the punch button down works. I knew I had to be missing something... now I get it! Carry on.

I bought the game and did this aswell.. It took me 5 hours in-game   

[Eli Delventhal]

What Markus actually has to watch out for is Zynga.

Cas

Nah, Zynga only makes a game if it's total shit and not actually fun, but is addictive. They're like a casino. They're all about maximizing revenue, not about making a great experience – and that's why only people like Markus could make Minecraft.

[princec]

No, that's what we'd like to think Zynga do. In reality Zynga spot anything that makes tons of cash, copy it perfectly, make it nicer, then tune the hell out of it to make it make even more money. If they think they can make a million from a Facebook implemented Minecraft clone they will. The Cubelands guy only started a few months ago and he's already got it looking good.

Cas

[Riven]

The Cubelands guy only started a few months ago and he's already got it looking good.

Look at how small those worlds are. At those scales, it's all simple. Even Minecraft Classic was bigger, and had better framerates. The fog distance is pathetic. These guys have a nice sandbox, in a 3rd-party game engine, which means they can't optimize it properly, and quickly they'll run into complexities not many people can solve. Minecraft's engine looks easy, but it aint.

[princec]

Yes, but actually, Minecraft's engine is a lot simpler than you think, so if it takes a couple of guys a couple of months to rip off the gameplay, it'll only take another couple of guys a couple of months to come up with a proper engine. Zynga has the money, the motivation, and the evil to do this sort of thing. Just a thought anyway. It might not happen.

Cas

[Riven]

so if it takes a couple of guys a couple of months to rip off the gameplay, it'll only take another couple of guys a couple of months to come up with a proper engine.

Well, it makes little sense to argue about how many guys it would take a certain amount of time to do something unknown.

[Eli Delventhal]

Also, Zynga sells freemium games. They'd need to figure out a way to monetize Minecraft as such.

In hindsight, I think it could be done (pay $1 for some diamond!) pretty easily, actually.

[princec]

Indeed. Minecraft is very much a known. And it won't be two guys, it'll be a big team. The source code is practically there in front of you to reverse engineer. And the whole game is totally exploitable for whale harvesting by its very design.

Cas

[DzzD]

Indeed. Minecraft is very much a known. And it won't be two guys, it'll be a big team. The source code is practically there in front of you to reverse engineer. And the whole game is totally exploitable for whale harvesting by its very design.

Cas

I would say IMHO, that the harder to do is not coding but rather succed in building a comunity by finding new & really good idea (as the simplicity to build world in Minecraft, water flow, monsters, etc...), and improving the gameplay ( as Minecraft done from Infiniminer), also the use of Applet is there probably a better idea than Unity engine. if they dont bring anything new, they will be no reason that people talk about them or play it rather than minecraft.

[princec]

...Zynga are experts at harvesting communities. They've got one ready made, called Facebook. It's actually the core reason they are worth billions already. Trust me, they can do it if they want to.

Cas

[Eli Delventhal]

My coworkers at ngmoco are now finally starting to play Minecraft. I'm trying to get the IT guy to start an official ngmoco Minecraft server for us to play on during lunch breaks.

Woot.