Minecraft is a sandbox world simulator which allows players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world. It is currently in development, originally by creator Markus “Notch” Persson and now by his company formed from the proceeds of the game, Mojang Specifications. Minecraft has been developed on the Java platform.
The gameplay is inspired by Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper, and Infiniminer.[3][4] The game is divided into two main modes, Beta and Classic, where Classic is focused entirely on construction while Beta additionally contains enemies, a health meter, and additional features and items. Beta is the currently updated version of the game.
Minecraft was developed for about a week before its public release on May 17, 2009 on the TIGSource forums, where it gained a considerable level of popularity. It has been continually updated and patched since then, and while only in beta release, it had garnered hundreds of thousands of sales and critical notice and acclaim from many reviewers
Much of the gameplay is based about gathering resources and building things, and it has quite a complex crafting system you should check out the two videos below.
In September 2010, Persson announced that he and a friend were starting a video game company, Mojang Specifications, with the money generated by Minecraft. This company was intended to back the development of Minecraft and another, unrelated game which the friend would primarily work on.
As part of creating the company, Persson has hired “an artist, a web site developer and a business guy” as well as additional programmers and setting up an office in Stockholm for the company to operate in.[11][12] Although Persson plans to spend the majority of his time working on Minecraft while his partner spends the majority of his time working on the other game, Persson claims that “everyone working at the company will be involved in both projects to some degree”.[12] He said that part of the motivation behind hiring staff was that he felt that he was spending too much time working on the website and reading emails rather than developing Minecraft.[12]
The four additional employees are Jens Bergensten, who will be working as a programmer; Daniel Kaplan, the “business guy”; Jakob Porser, who will be working on the other game for Mojang; and “Junkboy”, a pixel artist.[13][14][15] The plans for Persson’s new company were delayed by weeks when his account with PayPal, containing over USD $763,000 in proceeds from Minecraft sales, was frozen due to a “suspicious withdrawal or deposit”.[16] On October 20, 2010, the official web-site suffered a prolonged DDoS attack.
On December 11, 2010, Markus Persson announced via his personal blog that Minecraft would be entering its Beta testing phase on December 20, 2010, and that the price would be raised to €14.95.[19]
He further stated that users who bought the game after this date would no longer receive all future content free of charge as it “scared both the lawyers and the board.” However, bug fixes and all updates leading up to and including the release would still be free.
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