Minecraft

Nitz · Sep 28, 2010, 09:47:46

Anyone here played this at all?

http://www.minecraft.net

It's a sandbox game which provides 2 types of gameplay at the moment. There is a Single Player Mode called "Minecraft Alpha - Survival Single Player", where during the day you spend your time mining for resources, exploring dungeons, the randomly generated world, crafting tools/equipment to use and building just about anything you want whilst at night you spend your time ~~hiding away~~ defending your creations from the monsters that spawn.

Then there is the Multiplayer, which at the moment doesn't have the monsters (AFAIK) but allows users to host their own servers with their own parameters. As you can no doubt imagine, pretty much everyone turns off resource collecting and just uses the command console to provide the necessary equipment/resources in other to construct their weird & wonderful creations.

It is slowly gaining popularity and is spreading through the blogosphere like a raging wildfire. But it is surprisingly fun.

esh · Sep 28, 2010, 16:27:21

The guy who makes this has sold about 200,000 copies so far at $10 a piece. Not bad going.

Nitz · Sep 28, 2010, 16:57:28

He recently announced that he has made his first million euro. Then Paypal suspended his account due to "fraudulent transactions"

Technical Ben · Sep 28, 2010, 20:23:26

Quote from: esh on Sep 28, 2010, 16:27:21
The guy who makes this has sold about 200,000 copies so far at $10 a piece. Not bad going.

Nope. He has sold about 26,000 in a day, so over one month he can smash that (although it's mushroomed the last month so not sure on the total). I think it's a lot more! :O

One word of warning though! Don't get it. It's too addicting. It's like one of those facebook games that people play until they die of starvation...

[edit] This review kind of sums up the additivity (warning, they swear way too much on the site, oh well.

So may be "Not Safe For Work").
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/9/17/

Niall · Sep 28, 2010, 20:28:49

I must be missing something. From that video, he'd have to pay me a LOT of money to even waste 10 minutes of my time!

wecpcs · Sep 28, 2010, 21:15:24

Quote from: Niall on Sep 28, 2010, 20:28:49
I must be missing something. From that video, he'd have to pay me a LOT of money to even waste 10 minutes of my time!

I totally agree, I have seen better games on the Atari VCS2600 and that is very ancient.

Colin

esh · Sep 29, 2010, 00:51:20

Personally I'm quite happy that a relatively simple tile based game with sprite graphics can still catch on and be popular these days. The video of someone attempting to show others how to build a proper fireplace in your minecraft home and then subsequently burning the entire mansion down is quite hilarious though.

Nitz · Sep 29, 2010, 08:46:22

Yes, it may not look like a 2010 AAA title but the gameplay is pure awesome, and like Technical Ben has said, it is extremely addicting.

esh, I've seen that video too. The fella was so proud at the beginning explaining how long it took and that he needed help then all of a sudden... FIRE! haha.
Here's the video for anyone that's interested (fire starts about 1:20 seconds in): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnjSWPxJxNs

zappaDPJ · Sep 29, 2010, 10:46:08

I do agree that graphics are only a small part of the equation. Game play is what counts and some of the most enduring games have often been those with the most minimal graphics.

Technical Ben · Sep 29, 2010, 16:01:32

Quote from: zappaDPJ on Sep 29, 2010, 10:46:08

I do agree that graphics are only a small part of the equation. Game play is what counts and some of the most enduring games have often been those with the most minimal graphics.

The game has far more interactivity than half of those out there today. If the likes of Halo or Half life or COD took the tools in this game (only something simple like water) and used them, they would be pure win too.
But in most games, the water is drawn on, the walls look like cardboard, so lifeless it's practically like playing a slide show. It's the little details that help really. At least Minecraft starts off as a cardboard box simulator in the first place.

esh · Sep 29, 2010, 17:07:07

I'm quite a big fan of sandbox games even if they do have limited longevity. RPGs were the closest you got to that in really old games (which is why I love them too) but I remember stuff like Theme Park really kicking off the whole sort of sandbox genre in the early 90s.

esh · Oct 18, 2010, 09:57:54

This is getting a massive update on the 31st for your information, including more monsters, limited lifetime of light sources (excluding the new 'lanterns') and ...a "hell dimension"!?

Nitz · Oct 18, 2010, 11:20:18

Yeah, I've seen the announcement

The Update looks to be rather good. I believe the "Hell Dimension" is a fast-travel, something akin to Babylon 5.

Technical Ben · Oct 18, 2010, 12:45:18

Yep. It's still only beta, but getting more fleshed out now.

Cannot wait until biodomes are ready. Means it will have multiple landscapes, deserts and all sorts.

esh · Oct 27, 2010, 13:22:30

I managed to crash it a few times, mostly to do with boats (they seem a little buggy). This is a very good reason to make backups of your saves... seems that a game crash can leave the saves folder in a state that doesn't recover.

Kind of annoyed with the way water works right now. Since water doesn't spread on water, I can't build a lake for example.

But yes, looking forward to the updates. And multiplayer.

Technical Ben · Oct 27, 2010, 15:15:18

Quote from: esh on Oct 27, 2010, 13:22:30
I managed to crash it a few times, mostly to do with boats (they seem a little buggy). This is a very good reason to make backups of your saves... seems that a game crash can leave the saves folder in a state that doesn't recover.

Kind of annoyed with the way water works right now. Since water doesn't spread on water, I can't build a lake for example.

But yes, looking forward to the updates. And multiplayer.

Hopefully that will be addressed some how. The only solution I can see working is using "sea level" that floods only from the sea. The problem is, Notch trialled it the way you want. But that led to level wide flooding when someone emptied a bucket/water at the top of a mountain. So the solution was to make it flow short distances. I mean, you cannot really make a lake that easy in real life either. There are tutorials on how to make a lake in the minecraft forums. It requires you to do things like make a checker board of water. Or place it from the sea, one block line at a time (I'm thinking like a empty lake, covered by a layer of soil. Replace each block of soil with 1 block of water. Would take a while, but would work).

esh · Oct 27, 2010, 20:58:34

Ah yes I see how you'd do that. It's just not particularly intuitive. My world files are getting quite large now... hit the 20MB margin. I also found some... clay! Wooo!

Technical Ben · Oct 28, 2010, 12:19:06

Quote from: esh on Oct 27, 2010, 20:58:34
Ah yes I see how you'd do that. It's just not particularly intuitive. My world files are getting quite large now... hit the 20MB margin. I also found some... clay! Wooo!

Mine tend not to go past 10mb., But that;s because I explore in a radius, not a straight line. And then mine/examine what is there. I'll wait till the update and biospheres before I get 100mb size levels.

(Because I'd be trekking through tundra and deserts.)

esh · Oct 28, 2010, 12:24:39

It's because I got lost in a boat

Technical Ben · Oct 28, 2010, 12:47:36

Quote from: esh on Oct 28, 2010, 12:24:39
It's because I got lost in a boat

I tend to build large towers, put torches on them, and keep them in view. I put a land mark out as far as I can see, then walk on, and repeat. Else I'd also get lost.
Caves are the worst. They all look the same, and wind around in unbearable shapes. I've almost got totally stuck before.

esh · Oct 30, 2010, 01:05:55

Have you looked at the isometric map tools, they are quite fun. I mean, I suppose you might consider it cheating, but I just find it intriguing to look at the map from above and see any structures and identifying what is what. I just stick a random point on the map and say I'm going to build *there*. If you have anything cool, post a pic!

esh · Oct 31, 2010, 10:02:25

Just as a warning to players, there are stacks of bugs in the new update, including you might lose all your stuff on reload or if you die. Armour is also useless among other things. Remember to play offline if you don't want the update yet

Technical Ben · Nov 01, 2010, 14:58:42

Well. I think most has been fixed by today. Else wait till the BETA update. That might be about 6 months down the line though.

I suppose it's good to point out this is not a finished game. The creator has just been very nice and let everyone play his trial builds/alphas and what not.

esh · Nov 01, 2010, 15:53:34

Yep very true. But since i have a working version (and it works very nicely) I'll probably just hold on to that until things have settled down. SP1 so to speak

Apparently it's really chugging for a lot of folks now, I don't know why.

Technical Ben · Nov 01, 2010, 22:15:48

Only in Multiplayer. It seems stuck in a loop on one of the commands.
Single player is slightly slower. But it does have more types of landscapes now, so I suppose that's most of it.