By Jim Rossignol on October 12th, 2012 at 6:00 pm.
Markus “Not”-”Minecraft”-”ch” Persson* has released some footage of his work on Elite-style space game, 0x10c (pronounced “Notch’s New Game”), in which you control the pilot aboard a working spacecraft, filled with varied and vulnerable systems. PCG quotes Notch as saying: “The goal is to have it feel a bit like Firefly. You can try to land on a planet but you mess up and, instead of having the ship just explode like it would in real life, the landing gear gets broken. Then you have to try to fix that by finding resources. Instead of the adventure being flying from here to here, it’s: I set the destination, oh god I hit a small asteroid and the cloaking device broke. I think they really nailed that kind of emergent aspect in FTL.” The silent video shows lasers, lights, and some other stuff. And if it’s got lasers, that means one thing: it’s got pew! pew!
I haven’t seen anyone hitting any asteroids to make their spaceship to hide from aliens that come during the night, so I am not sure I like it.
[*Did that work? I thought it might. I'm very tired.]
12/10/2012 at 18:08 GameCat says:
*It works.
12/10/2012 at 18:09 whorrak says:
Does this mean I’m one step closer to piloting Serenity?
12/10/2012 at 22:16 Mctittles says:
Firefly seems to be the buzzword of the year for games, but I don’t really understand why. It was a great show, but not much game material there as most episodes were characters driven.
Firefly does NOT have:
faster than light travel
lazer guns
alien races
transporters
robots
space battles
guns on their ship
sound in space
a “programmable” ship computer
sci-fi themed fonts and music
wormholes, nebulas, time distortions and other token sci-fi disasters
Firefly DOES have:
western theme
horse travel on many planets
character driven drama
comedy
I have yet to see any game throwing this buzzword around come close to having anything to do with the Firefly series.
All of them that mention the buzzword have quite a bit in common with Star-Trek though.
12/10/2012 at 23:43 kaltes says:
Firefly has lasers, and they figure prominently in the plots of two stories. Lots of ships have guns, and even the firefly attached a gun in the movie. Of course there was a huge space battle at the end of the movie. The show clearly showed that the greater setting featured all kinds of high tech sci-fi stuff in the core planets, it was just that the backwater “rim” was supposed to be low tech and poor.
Notch is just name-dropping firefly because the show is cool and has an indie feel to it. Minecraft was a good idea (which many other people would have had within a year or two if he didnt get to it first) but Notch failed to make it into a good GAME. The whole appeal of minecraft was the promise of future development which never came to pass because Notch got drunk off his own hype and decided that fleshing out and finishing the game in any meaningful sense wasn’t worth his time.
Notch admitted on his blog that he tends to get very passionate for an idea, works hard on it at first, then drops it and leaves it to rot, before finally picking it up and slapping a rushed finish on it just to be done with it. He did that with minecraft and he is going to do it with this game, only since this game is not as simple as procedural generation of blocks, I don’t think he will make it anywhere near the point of a product people could buy before he gets tired of it and moves on.
A space sandbox is an old idea which has not been successfully implemented with modern technology. Pulling it off would require a lot of very polished interlocking systems/mechanics to keep players interested in exploration and exploitation of resources, while also giving them useful things to do with their resources and goals that will keep players interested. I don’t think Notch has the personal discipline to sit down and make a game with any real depth.
13/10/2012 at 05:38 Baddiekins says:
Dinnerbone is the hero Minecraft needs, not the one it deserves.
But seriously, Notch just cut and run way to quick on Minecraft. He got out while it was on top and left it to Jeb.
13/10/2012 at 11:23 noodlecake says:
People just can’t wait to bash Notch. Minecraft is awesome. You just dislike it because it’s popular and you like to be awkward. I had a lot of fun playing the vanilla minecraft and because it has such great potential for modding, had a lot more fun playing Tekkit. I played Minecraft for about 5 times as long as I played Skyrim and Skyrim cost a lot more money to make and was made by a lot more people. Notch is probably referencing Firefly because he thinks it is relevant to the game, no other reason.
13/10/2012 at 11:35 Klaus says:
Minecraft being awesome is your opinion. I do not think it’s awesome; I don’t think it’s entirely crap but it’s not something I would want to spend more time on. Apparently, other people don’t think it’s that awesome either. And that’s ok.
13/10/2012 at 16:03 Sparkasaurusmex says:
I like Minecraft, too, but Kaltes is spot on.
15/10/2012 at 16:31 Machinations says:
“You just dislike it because it’s popular and you like to be awkward”
Thats some pretty convoluted reasoning, right there.
I don’t hate MineCraft, but I do see, clearly, thaty Notch abandoned the project, when the primary driver was all the promised systems that were coming. Instead, he abandoned it ; Notch to me is not someone I would want to give money to based on a promise.
Whatever happened to Scrolls? I predict here that whatever Notch comes out with next will be a disappointment, and even the blind MineCraft fans will finally realize their lionized hero really only cares about parting suckers from their money.
13/10/2012 at 12:27 MellowKrogoth says:
Minecraft is way too open a game for anyone to be satisfied of the direction it takes.
The initial survival versions are a very good game in their own right though. A simple yet beautiful blocky world to explore populated by cute animals during the day, the attraction of unknown landscapes and caves with dangers in the dark, simple crafting…
All the stuff added later is just extra lego bricks for the set.
13/10/2012 at 16:04 Sparkasaurusmex says:
Actually, publishing the single player world to LAN is the best part of Minecraft and didn’t get added until well after Notch left.
13/10/2012 at 22:49 EugenS says:
I would say eve online has all that
12/10/2012 at 23:50 Matthew94 says:
Firefly has lasers, they were in the episode where they defended the brothel.
13/10/2012 at 00:25 Lanfranc says:
Firefly isn’t so much about whether or not there are lasers or wormholes. It’s about a certain set of themes, relating to living on the margins of society, unburdened and self-reliant, able to make the world or (in the case of sci-fi) even the universe your sandbox. It’s essentially the same themes that drive e.g. games like Frontier or EVE, characters like Han Solo or Jack Sparrow, or indeed much of the old Wild West mythology. Firefly just tends to be used as a reference point for it because it was such an excellent and prominent example of the idea.
13/10/2012 at 06:33 MarigoldFleur says:
At least somebody gets it.
13/10/2012 at 03:15 Runs With Foxes says:
Firefly is shit.
13/10/2012 at 03:32 Shadram says:
You are wrong.
13/10/2012 at 07:15 Gira says:
No, it really is. It’s puerile shit for Whedonite manchildren.
13/10/2012 at 07:52 lurkalisk says:
If, to you, Firefly is puerile, then I would hate to see what you call “mature”.
13/10/2012 at 08:10 Text_Fish says:
Personally I wouldn’t say Firefly is mature. It has a few mature themes in it, but it’s still essentially cow boys and indians in space with quite a cliched set of character types and a lot of basic good v. evil stories. The world is well realized and the script is pacey which makes up for its potential shortfalls. If you allow yourself to be entertained by it, then it’s very fun, but due to a lack of any other explanation I’m forced to the conclusion that these people calling it shit are lumping it in with less well written sci-fi things like Star Trek and Star Gate and are therefore depriving themselves of a very fun experience. It’s their loss.
13/10/2012 at 10:28 ukpanik says:
“It’s puerile shit for Whedonite manchildren”
That doesn’t carry much weight coming from someone that plays video games heheheh.
We are all “menchildren” you buffoon.
13/10/2012 at 10:38 Doesn'tmeananything says:
Yeah, Crusader Kings 2 is the shit among kids now.
13/10/2012 at 11:17 ukpanik says:
I’ve been playing strategy games since 8yrs old.
I’m sure you are a manly man though…your majesty.
13/10/2012 at 11:49 ffordesoon says:
Ah, Gira. Hating fun as always, I see.
“Whedonite manchildren.” Jesus. Yeah, let’s make ridiculous generalizations about people who like a television show. That’s always constructive.
13/10/2012 at 16:27 Lanfranc says:
I’m going to quote Lewis in full here, because it’s almost like he wrote this for this discussion:
“Critics who treat ‘adult’ as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”
Playing cowboys and indians in space is awesome. Imagine how dreary life would be if we did not have the opportunity to become “manchildren” from time to time, if everything had to be so serious all the time.
13/10/2012 at 11:50 Victuz says:
From what I see it doesn’t seem like comparing this to Firefly has any real point. What I would love to see some day is a space sandbox game that actually focuses on being a smuggler. Because let’s be honest it’s never been done right.
There are space games that have a smuggling mechanic but all it means is that your goods are more valuable and sometimes officers of the law might get pissed off. That’s it, I’ve never played a game that would actually make it interesting enough to make it anything beyond a mean to get that super ship slightly faster.
Perhaps one day, probably not with this one though. It sounds interesting but it seems more like a “spaceship engineer” simulator rather than anything else.
We’ll see. I’ll try to remain optimistic and hey, Jeb is always there to make things work :3
13/10/2012 at 20:33 Mctittles says:
You plan the heist like the older Rainbow Six 3 planning stages, including any fighter ships, where to torch through a hull, etc. My dream game :)
12/10/2012 at 18:10 bit_crusherrr says:
This game definitely has a lot of potential.
12/10/2012 at 18:12 x1501 says:
Even though no one can possibly see it from looking at the available footage.
12/10/2012 at 18:30 Havok says:
What game..?
12/10/2012 at 19:51 blind_boy_grunt says:
0x10c
12/10/2012 at 23:46 kaltes says:
You missed the joke… 0c0x1cx or whatever its called is not a “game” any more than one of Notch’s sperm is his son.
13/10/2012 at 01:46 blind_boy_grunt says:
so did not
13/10/2012 at 11:05 Tei says:
This game has high voltage
14/10/2012 at 21:21 Cvnk says:
But isn’t that true of every single game project ever? From the moment the developer writes the first line of code? They all have “potential” to be something interesting.
12/10/2012 at 18:10 msarge says:
I am still wondering how important being able to program and interface with the in game computer will be.
Can’t wait to see if this is any good.
12/10/2012 at 19:12 Grey Ganado says:
It will be very important until people start releasing Operating Systems.
13/10/2012 at 03:29 SquareWheel says:
The DCPU won’t be powerful enough (intentionally so) to write a POSIX layer or anything. It’s certainly a game for geeks.
12/10/2012 at 18:10 Hoaxfish says:
It will be like namedrop your favourite thing (no promises now)
13/10/2012 at 11:24 Inglourious Badger says:
lasagne and sex? Great!
12/10/2012 at 18:11 TheManko says:
That’s about as early as early footage can get. I’d prefer it if the space ship was a bit better lit. Maybe it’s an eco space ship though.
12/10/2012 at 18:18 Discopanda says:
Ooh. Is it gonna be like a first person FTL/Minecraft hybrid? CAUSE THAT WOULD BE NEAT!
12/10/2012 at 18:25 Phantoon says:
Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping for. FTL needed a bit more roguelike, less time limit.
12/10/2012 at 18:29 Discopanda says:
FTL is also mostly closed off to modding. Sadfaic :(
12/10/2012 at 19:17 jrodman says:
Is this gaelic?
12/10/2012 at 20:19 Bobzer says:
You would need to be more specific, Gaelic isn’t a language, there are, however, gaelic languages like Irish, Scottish, Welsh etc.
12/10/2012 at 21:10 CountVlad says:
Technicly it’s Irish, Scottish and Manx. Welsh is Brythonic along with Cornish and Breton. ;)
18/10/2012 at 11:30 solidsquid says:
Technically Scottish can be either Scots (lowland Scotland) or Scottish Gaelic (northern Scotland)
12/10/2012 at 21:14 CountVlad says:
You mean like Blockade Runner? By the looks of it this game could be taking a slightly different direction. I didn’t spot any blocks in there, but I suppose it is early days. Looking forward to it! :D
12/10/2012 at 18:21 communisthamster says:
Looking very bleak out that window. I hope the main game sticks with that, and doesn’t paste a horrible day-glo nebula picture from APOD as the skybox. Space is generally black, the nebula are exciting* because they’re some of the few things that aren’t featureless black expanses. When space games just make every skybox a lurid gold/purple explosion it’s boring.
I wonder if this will be the other game that people have asked for forever, and no mainstream dev ever touched. DayZ was the open world multiplayer zombie game, will ox10c be the open world space sim where you walk around your ship?
*except irl they’re more grey, since the APOD photos are in false colour.
13/10/2012 at 14:40 Prime says:
God, THIS.
If I see one more space game where the colour black has been all but banished from the backgrounds I will throw something very hard, and possibly explosive, at whoever made the game. If I wanted to have an adventure in a day-glo colour factory I’d go clubbing. Space, the space I see sometimes on cold, cloudless nights, is fucking BLACK. Yes there are Nebulae but not every game has to be set inside one!
12/10/2012 at 18:21 MrLebanon says:
The youtube comments make me giggle:
“….people in the comments wanting to buy it are eating it up before anything is even ready. anyone who isn’t just blindly supporting notch realizes this game is absolutely nothing so far, that a simple lighting engine isn’t impressive, and that within years this will probably be nowhere close to done because this guy who made millions off something lucky still won’t hire a proper team to assist on a project nor will he stop using java meaning he can never fully develop something stable.”
LoudHouseVG
“sorry, just a LIGHTING ENGINE?? What is with the emulated CPU, the room editor and the hardware?
Get you facts right ;)”
TheHexaCube
“it’s a computer that he typed “crash” into and it crashed. holy smokes, that sure was impressive. it’s why he heavily focused on it so much in this video and not the lightning and shooting the gun that doesn’t even spawn bullets in the correct position. the description makes it clear this was to show off lightning and essentially nothing else, sorry. i also like the drop of “emulated CPU” like that means something. it must be nice to just go off things he has said without thinking.”
LoudHouseVG
I have to say, I really don’t think notch has any tricks up his sleeve after minecraft… and even with minecraft he failed to make it into all that it was going to be – he just left it to whatshisface to do mediocre updates here and there
12/10/2012 at 19:06 eks says:
Those were definitely worth reposting here.
12/10/2012 at 19:22 Tim Ward says:
People on Youtube just aren’t that bright? WHO KNEW.
17/10/2012 at 06:07 Net_Bastard says:
Fucking love Loudhouse.
12/10/2012 at 18:24 Phantoon says:
“The goal is to have it feel a bit like Firefly”
CURSE YOU! I didn’t want to give him any more money after he went egotripping when Minecraft was such a huge success.
But if it’s anything like that, I’ll have to.
12/10/2012 at 19:00 Vandelay says:
So, it is going to have a fantastic cast of characters, stunningly acted by a group of actors who are clearly having a great time, whilst telling a story that celebrates the outsider and is critical of an authority that tells them how they should behave?
Definitely something I would want to play, but I reckon that is not the game he is making.
12/10/2012 at 22:13 TechnicalBen says:
Vandelay, I watched it entirely for spaceships in space. Does that make me shallow?
12/10/2012 at 22:31 Snakejuice says:
No it just makes you different human being than Vandelay.
12/10/2012 at 21:28 Geen says:
Fuck…
Cannot… Resist… Urge…. To…. Give… Notch… My… Money….
12/10/2012 at 18:25 ch4os1337 says:
Anyone else think this looks worse than aids?
12/10/2012 at 18:26 Phantoon says:
Nope.
12/10/2012 at 19:10 ch4os1337 says:
Really? I can just see this not turning out to be good. The premise sounds fine however.
*And before anybody says it I know it’s pre-alpha and I know what that means, I still think it wont be improved enough for me to like it but I could be wrong. Look at the pre-apha footage for Hawken compared to this.
Until it’s out however none of you can say how good it will be.
12/10/2012 at 20:30 Crazy Horse says:
Even in the best case scenario where this game turns out to be roughly as enjoyable as Minecrft it can be almost certain that, like Minecraft, this game’s full concept potential will never be realized.
I hope I’m wrong but it seems to me that brilliant innovation and passion are not what is needed to make a ‘Great’ game as much as mere dedication and refinement.
12/10/2012 at 22:22 Dan Lowe says:
I think you’re both crazy as it will ultimately be the community who decides to what extent the game will reach, and I can’t believe that NO ONE will want to put in the effort to meet the potential you’ve [likely conservatively] predicted.
And just a few weeks ago there was barely footage of even an in-game engine. We have a long way to go.
13/10/2012 at 00:02 kaltes says:
Dan Lowe,
Are you telling me it is the “community” – by which you apparently mean those modders who volunteer massive amounts of their time with no pay – the “community”‘s job to finish Notch’s game for him?
Modders can’t replace real development in significant ways. They can add content, and they can tweak flaws in the game to improve gameplay, but they can’t make your whole game for you. Minecraft was a great example of this. Minecraft has a lot of mods, many of which are not compatible, so they get organized into mod packs which, again, arent really compatible with one another usually, so you have to pick which mod pack to use, like yogsbox or technic or whatever, and then you have a game with more stuff in it, but there still isn’t a game. Why? Because the modders can add stuff, like items, but they cant change core gameplay mechanics. They can’t create a whole game from scratch. Even if they could, it wouldnt be supported or expanded upon with patches like a real game would because there would be no financial incentive. I also dislike the idea that modders do the work and Notch gets the money.
13/10/2012 at 12:50 MellowKrogoth says:
@Crazy Horse What is this supposed “Minecraft full potential” you speak of?
@ kaltes People have changed and can change every game mechanic in Minecraft, they have access to the goddamn source code because it’s Java and Notch (unlike, say, Blizzard) doesn’t send lawyers after people who decompile his code.
And Minecraft modders are actually allowed to make money (hence all the adfly links), but this is poisoning the community. Compared to, say, the Elder Scrolls modding community, modders seem to be much more at other’s throats and are even more asshats about copyright issues, instead of trying to build a common repository of cool stuff.
Really there’s nothing wrong with modders working for free. Many games such as CounterStrike were born that way. It was an amazing learning experience for budding game developers who then went commercial. Without the incentive and the player base that comes with a popular game, they would never have created their mod/game in the first place.
13/10/2012 at 05:54 BrendanJB says:
“Look at the pre-apha footage for Hawken compared to this.”
That isn’t how pre-alpha’s work.
18/10/2012 at 11:40 solidsquid says:
Notch essentially seems to be treating this a bit like the screencasts he’s done with Ludum Dare. As soon as there’s something to show he’s posting screenshots, and as soon as there’s the ability to he’s posting videos of walking through showing off the lighting engine. Hawken’s pre-alpha stuff was intended for marketing, so was at a much later stage of pre-alpha (which just means they haven’t reached the final polishing phase yet, and could mean anything from “only one weapon works” to “So we’ve got the models being drawn on the screen. That’s about it so far”)
12/10/2012 at 18:29 Snuffy the Evil says:
Well I’d rather have some new pre-alpha footage of a promising concept than HIV so, uh, no.
12/10/2012 at 18:30 Hoaxfish says:
aids doesn’t really look that bad since it’s tiny
13/10/2012 at 03:42 The Colonel says:
http://std.about.com/od/hivaids/f/hivdifaids.htm
Enjoy
12/10/2012 at 18:30 DrGonzo says:
I think it looks A LOT like Quake 1. But it sounds fantastic.
12/10/2012 at 18:32 DJ Madeira says:
That’s what got me. I could really buy that this is space by those fantastic sound effects. C418?
12/10/2012 at 22:15 TechnicalBen says:
In space no one can hear C418 sound effects!
12/10/2012 at 18:33 caddyB says:
Not the right website to talk like that.
12/10/2012 at 18:36 x1501 says:
The right site, of course, would be stopaidscampaign.org .
12/10/2012 at 18:58 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
“Anyone else think this looks worse than dunking a biscuit in your tea and having it go soft too quickly so globs of soggy biscuit fall into the cup?”
12/10/2012 at 19:03 caddyB says:
Damn. I can relate to that, and agreed.
12/10/2012 at 20:00 cptgone says:
the most cringe-worthy thing i’ve read all month.
people should use a spoon to wet their cookies!
18/10/2012 at 11:46 solidsquid says:
Biscuits, on the other hand, should be dunked
13/10/2012 at 03:43 The Colonel says:
NOT IN MY TEA!
13/10/2012 at 08:43 LionsPhil says:
Quite possibly so. At least that can be remedied—uncouth as it may be—with a spoon.
12/10/2012 at 18:35 yourgrandma says:
nope… it looks more like cancer to me
12/10/2012 at 18:50 jrodman says:
Please clean up your language, or please someone delete this post.
12/10/2012 at 19:01 yourgrandma says:
I guess it would be offensive if viruses were considered living beings.
12/10/2012 at 19:04 jrodman says:
So now you show that you are a deliberate troll. Great. Shoo.
12/10/2012 at 21:54 EPICTHEFAIL says:
Well, they are. Kind of, though the difference between a lifeform and an oddly shaped glob of protein that does stuff gets fuzzy at that level. YMMV. Also: piss off, soccer mom.
12/10/2012 at 19:25 derbefrier says:
lighten up it was a joke. laughing is good for you
12/10/2012 at 19:27 jrodman says:
No, jokes are funny.
12/10/2012 at 21:53 skinlo says:
I smiled a little inside.
13/10/2012 at 03:44 The Colonel says:
There are plenty of jokes you can make that don’t piss people off and make you look like an ignorant, unfeeling fuck.
13/10/2012 at 04:05 ffordesoon says:
For example:
“Anyone else think this looks worse than a cup full of vomit that is itself made of dried vomit?”
“Anyone else think this looks worse than Prince Harry at a Halloween party?”
“Anyone else think this looks worse than a guy who makes an ill-advised and lazy AIDS joke and is rightly pilloried for it?”
12/10/2012 at 18:30 Swabbleflange says:
Notchtis
12/10/2012 at 19:36 Wulf says:
Noap. The alien worlds of Noctis actually looked quite beautiful in their own way. This? Not so much.
12/10/2012 at 18:31 fawker says:
Well that looks as graphically horrible as I’ve come to expect from his games.
When is Mr. Moneybags going to break down and hire an artist? He’s not going to get away with another ugly game.
12/10/2012 at 18:49 enobayram says:
It’s not about hiring an artist. The complexity of expanding the game world grows exponentially with rising graphical expectations. I, personally, much rather have deeper gameplay/game world than superficial visual graphical quality. If a game entity does not have more intelligence / depth than a lego block, it’s only fitting that it looks like one. I’m repulsed by the image of a super-realistic-looking game character running mindlessly against a brick wall. (I realize I’ve mixed two arguments here)
12/10/2012 at 19:11 Beelzebud says:
If he’s just doing an FTL style game, which is what it now sounds like, there is no need for such primitive graphics. It doesn’t sound like he plans on doing the universe sandbox style game this started out as.
12/10/2012 at 19:19 ch4os1337 says:
Exactly, plus there are smaller studios who make much better looking games. Look at Hawken, it’s their first game and it looks fantastic.
13/10/2012 at 05:08 dee says:
It isn’t an FTL style game. It’s an Elite style one if anything, and yes, with a procedurally generated universe, simple graphics are justifiable.
And why compare it to Hawken? Hawken is a small-scale game built with an existing engine. Making it look pretty is trivial with an artist. This is a ground-up engine and Notch wants to make it a playable game as soon as possible. In that context, I was frankly impressed that it looks even as good as it does now.
15/10/2012 at 16:38 Machinations says:
“Making it look pretty is trivial with an artist.”
If it’s trivial, why does everything Notch makes look like trash? Even after making gazillions of dollars on false promises and a re-made Inifiminer, Scrolls looks like something cooked up in the basement by two teenagers.
13/10/2012 at 10:30 ChaseGunman says:
Very much agree. I’d rather go for simpler, more abstract graphics paired with depth of play. For me a lack of graphical detail lets me project my imagination more fully into the game, rather than ‘breaking the immersion’ (agh, I hate that phrase). So I’ve got nothing against craptastic graphics.
15/10/2012 at 16:39 Machinations says:
I play Dorf Fortress and Crawl without tilesets, so I am not graphics whore. That said, those games have deep systems, unlike anything I have seen Notch put out.
12/10/2012 at 19:03 Vandelay says:
I like the lighting effects going on here, but the texturing is awful. From what we see here, they could easily improve this, but we still have no idea what the rest of the game will be like, so too early to say.
12/10/2012 at 19:05 jorygriffis says:
How are these textures awful?
12/10/2012 at 19:12 Beelzebud says:
Because they’re very blurry and low-res. It looks like something from an N64 game.
12/10/2012 at 19:15 x1501 says:
Perhaps because [in their current state] they look simplistic, blurry, and unreasonably low-res?
EDIT: The fact that Beelzebud beat me to it using these exact same adjectives speaks volumes.
12/10/2012 at 19:36 jorygriffis says:
I don’t think the textures are blurry. I think the video is blurry, which admittedly does look a bit crap.
The textures are low-res, as an aesthetic. For what they are, in this test video, I think they’re working really well so far, though I hope eventually they liven up the palette a bit. I understand people not liking this look, though.
12/10/2012 at 19:04 jorygriffis says:
He has an artist, and a pretty good one. Most people don’t think Minecraft is ugly. I don’t. I think this game’s visual clarity is already a step in the right direction.
12/10/2012 at 21:58 EPICTHEFAIL says:
Well, that`s mostly because anyone who is able to play it for more than 2 hours without getting a headache accomplishes so by downloading a texture pack. That game is utterly hideous, both graphically an aesthetically, except in a few rare cases.
12/10/2012 at 22:38 Snakejuice says:
I actually prefer the original minecraft textures or packs that stay pretty true to the original textures. There was one cartoon looking pack that I liked but other then that I just think those “realistic” HD texture packs don’t fit well at all with the overall blocky style of the game.
13/10/2012 at 10:36 Xardas Kane says:
I also prefer the original textures to almost all texture packs and haven’t gone blind. How’s about not over-exaggerating junior, times were games had even worse graphics, and yet nobody has ever gone blind because of that.
15/10/2012 at 16:43 Machinations says:
He had an excuse before; the game was being made with very little money.
Now Notch has tons of cash, so pushing out garbage is no longer excusable.
I expect the shine to finally wear off Notch this year for those fans who seem to think he walks on water.
12/10/2012 at 19:08 jrodman says:
it does say ‘test art’. I imagine the goal here is to flesh out what the spaceship environment should be like, roughly.
Just guessing.
I don’t feel like simple-FPS style matches the game style very well, but it isn’t my game.
13/10/2012 at 12:57 MellowKrogoth says:
I like Notch’s artstyle in Minecraft and in his small games, and this looks pretty good. He has taste.
You wanna see the result when someone tried to do a Minecraft-style game but gets the colors, textures and about every artistic aspect completely wrong? Look here: https://sites.google.com/site/3079game/
(The author has innovative ideas and deserves respect for that, but he doesn’t know how to make a lo-fi game look good.)
18/10/2012 at 11:51 solidsquid says:
Pretty sure this isn’t the final art design, just temporary stuff to fill the gap until the project is moved to Mojang proper for final development and art direction (Scrolls, for example, has a pretty awesome art style, and is the current Mojang-proper project as opposed to Notch side project). It’s like a platformer using blocks of colour until the gameplay elements are working, no point in spending ages on artwork until you know if the actual code is going somewhere and is working, otherwise the artwork ends up sitting to the side for ages and might end up not being suitable
12/10/2012 at 18:31 Havok says:
Notch will never release this as anything playable. He’ll promise a lot and then hand it over to someone who can actually do something worthwhile with it.
Notch is a one hit wonder.
13/10/2012 at 10:37 Xardas Kane says:
And you came to that conclusion based on what facts exactly? Or just general immature hatred?
13/10/2012 at 12:59 MellowKrogoth says:
If he’s able to start a game embryo and then find someone who’s able to complete the game, that’s actually two very valuable talents.
And either way we’ll get a game at the end, so what’s not to like.
12/10/2012 at 18:38 ResonanceCascade says:
I don’t get it.
12/10/2012 at 18:39 Cytrom says:
This would have looked impressive in 1994.
You may now call me a gfx whore and tell me this is just alpha / beta / gamma whatever footage.. but then whats the point of showing this unimpressive crap to the public anyways?
13/10/2012 at 06:08 BrendanJB says:
These comments are the absolute pits. A considerable dip in median brain capacity.
13/10/2012 at 08:13 Cytrom says:
Games that don’t look like absolute ass and were put together in more than 3 days are too mainstream for ya huh?
15/10/2012 at 16:44 Machinations says:
Notch is used to throwing up trash and people tossing money at him immediately, based on promises.
12/10/2012 at 18:41 Kid_A says:
He lost me when he tried to sell it as being like Firefly. Not because I hate Firefly – the exact opposite, in fact. But the idea that somehow this ugly, blocky mess can evoke anything like the Serenity and her crew is ridiculous. Minecraft is a massive, glorious idea ineptly put together and then handed off to Jeb and co. I shudder to think what this, supposedly even more massive idea will end up shambling out the door as.
13/10/2012 at 14:46 Prime says:
He lost you? Sounds like he never had you to begin with, what with that comment coming pre-loaded with all your disdain for his treatment of Minecraft.
15/10/2012 at 16:46 Machinations says:
If you’re a Minecraft fan and don’t see how Notch abandoned the game, his last updates just being the incorporation of existing mods, I don’t know what to say,
He made his money off the suckers and is moving on, like any hype wizard / con artist.
12/10/2012 at 18:44 squidlarkin says:
Why does he keep shooting that planet? He’s only going to make it mad.
12/10/2012 at 18:50 Hmm-Hmm. says:
Eh. Seems a bit too early in for such footage.
12/10/2012 at 18:52 Beelzebud says:
It seems like he played FTL and changed the entire concept of the game. Remember, it started off as being this massive universe sandbox you could explore.
12/10/2012 at 19:06 StevoIRL says:
Notch in idea stealing shocker
12/10/2012 at 19:36 rustybroomhandle says:
Er no, don’t spread lies. The idea was always that you’d be able to walk around the inside of your ship and micro-manage the details inside it – yes while exploring the universe. Another thing he said early on is that he did not want faster-than-light travel in it.
So anyway, instead of random shit, just write “I hate Notch”. It’s easier to digest.
12/10/2012 at 19:44 Beelzebud says:
I’m going by what he’s said about it. It started off as a sandbox game, and it now more like FTL in structure. And for the record I have nothing against Notch. I paid for Minecraft. Take your overly-defensive nonsense to someone else.
18/10/2012 at 13:22 solidsquid says:
I think he was just name dropping a game he likes which has similar aspects to this. In this case I think it’s FTL’s ship repair stuff, so your ship can get damaged by environmental features or other players and you have to run around repairing stuff as well as managing weapon systems, engines and shields
12/10/2012 at 18:56 dalooney says:
I can’t decide whether to go for a stream of invective or hype-induced slobber, so I’ve decide not to comment.
12/10/2012 at 19:11 FRITZY says:
Oh man, these comments are almost as bad as YouTube’s.
Is Notch an artist? No. Did Notch make a test ship with a very few poly faces? Yes. Does his emulated computer work? Yes. The screens even cast colored light dynamically, which is cool. This is early engine shit guys. There is no point in frustrating an artist with engine tests. I like how he’s done the sprint, gun-bob.
This is a video of gluing all of the systems he’s working on together, not showing you what the ships will look like. I also doubt that Notch is going to throw a 20 person art-production team at it like a AAA title either.
For as little time as he’s spent on this, it’s coming along quite well. Notch’s job is not making graphics assets.
12/10/2012 at 19:42 Wulf says:
I think it’s that, as has been pointed out, Hawken released early footage which looked amazing and with a smaller team. They could at least have had a 3D modeller throw something half decent together. The point is is that the released game is probably going to look just like that, which is a tiny bit cynical.
And I loved Minecraft, but this reeks of being incredibly cynical and riding off of past successes. I mean, he has ideas in his head of even going down the subscription route with this. If he wants to do anything remotely like that, he has to do something to sell the idea. But it seems like he’s riding a bit on the fame and success of Minecraft.
And I say this as a Notch fan. I think he needs to kick his bad habits, pull his socks up, and actually show people why they should be interested in this game. Not a really, really basic tech demo that he hopes people will be paying subscriptions to toy with one day.
12/10/2012 at 20:07 Crimsoneer says:
So you’re suggesting he should STFU and not show anything until later in the development process?
This sort of behaviour is EXACTLY why NDAs exist, and it’s a bit sad. Now developpers refuse to show anything until they’ve at least hit alpha, for fear of alienating people.
12/10/2012 at 20:14 dE says:
Quite the stretch there, NDAs exist for a number of reasons and community backlash is usually pretty far down the list.
13/10/2012 at 05:32 The Random One says:
Yah. NDA’s mostly exist because 1) marketers want to control how new info about a game is released to the people and 2) in the case of very early builds, so that other companies don’t find out about features a game (or any piece of software) have that they think might become a differential.
Particularly, I don’t care for releasing information ahead of schedule. I care about good games, after I can buy them.
13/10/2012 at 13:04 MellowKrogoth says:
So going by what you say, Hawken has what? A half-person team? A quarter person? Because Notch is the only one working on this game right now, as he was alone on Minecraft for a long time.
But all that arguing is pointless, as Noch just likes retro graphics and is gonna use the artstyle he likes. I’m just gonna laugh at you and play the game as you lament, since I can adapt to any coherent graphic style. Crysis, Metro 2033? Check. Pioneer? check. Dwarf Fortress with ASCII? check.
15/10/2012 at 16:50 Machinations says:
If Notch could squeeze out anything with even one TENTH the quality of Dorf Fortress, I would eat my hat.
And really, with the money they have now, its pretty lame to put out this kind of video. I guess they know they have a legion of diehard fan-children ready to both toss them money based on a vague notion of a game in the future, and to excuse their lack of professionalism.
See, once you’ve made a million or two, people are going to hold you to a higher standard.
Also, FWIW Terraria is 10 times the game, and 10 times the fun Minecraft was. I expect Starbound (which Notch seems to be hmm, I don’t know, copying?) to be a GOTY candidate.
18/10/2012 at 13:30 solidsquid says:
Don’t agree with you about the video or Minecraft, I think it’s cool that we’re getting to see the dev process and I’m a fan of Minecraft, but I have to admit that Terraria just had more to it and I did find it more fun
Edit: Also, iirc this was in development before Starbound was announced, and Notch got in touch with them after it did. Both seemed perfectly happy that the games weren’t copying each other
18/10/2012 at 13:27 solidsquid says:
Notch has been posting screenshots of the process right from when he first had things rendering, it’s just that now he has it so people can run around and see the dynamic lighting so is posting a video. This is at a much earlier stage than the Hawken pre-alpha footage was (he’s still building the engine) and is only being worked on by Notch afaik (Mojang proper is working on Scrolls still).
Once the engine is up and running and Scrolls is released to free up some of the dev team, this will probably shift to being the project Mojang proper is working on and will receive art assets, game tweaks, music etc, but doing that while the engine is still in development is pointless because the format the assets are provided in and the way the assets are built will probably change before it’s finished
12/10/2012 at 19:14 Ultra-Humanite says:
Nobody is a moderate anymore. Anytime there is an article about Notch, the comments are of one of two types. 1) People who will hate because that’s what they do. 2) The Notch apologists.
12/10/2012 at 19:23 reggiep says:
Which type is yours? Also, I see plenty of moderate comments. For the others, that’s what the block button is for.
12/10/2012 at 19:28 Hoaxfish says:
and people commenting on the split
12/10/2012 at 19:35 Bent Wooden Spoon says:
What about people who’re perpetually disappointed about the forehead-slapping inanity of most discourse on the internet?
12/10/2012 at 19:43 Wulf says:
You mean like the moderate post I made above, which neither hated on nor praised Notch? >_>
12/10/2012 at 19:49 int says:
I am of the third kind. “The what’s-with-the-laser-gun-textured-as-a-red-soldier? kind of person”
12/10/2012 at 19:54 derbefrier says:
eh I bought minecraft while it was in Alpha played it quite a bit but was ultimately disappointed with how little it changed from alpha to full release. He would talk about all these features he wanted to add and either they never made it or what did make it always seemed half assed and incomplete or like in the case of enchanting and NPCs completely worthless really adding nothing to the game. I just don’t have any faith what so ever he is capable of delivering on his ideas anymore. He always seems unfocused and all over the place. This is not a good thing for any business man. If he had a clear vision maybe I would give him another chance but this just looks like its gonna be minecraft all over again. I could be wrong and believe me I hope I am. I don’t hold any personal grudge here. I just don’t trust him anymore. This lack of trust is far from being blind or falling in the haters gonna hate category. Its completely justified from my own experience and expectations of his previous game.
13/10/2012 at 10:53 MortalWombat says:
You paid 5$ for a game and had lots and lots of fun with it as had and have millions of other people… poor guy.
12/10/2012 at 19:26 reggiep says:
I’m still interested in this game despite the puzzling release of this info. Proof of concept footage doesn’t really go over well in a community where most people are used to seeing polished dev diaries and such. So my only critique here is on why they chose to release this worthless info at this time.
12/10/2012 at 19:26 derbefrier says:
Hasnt this guys 15 minutes long since passed by now?
12/10/2012 at 19:37 Deadly Habit says:
I’ll reserve judgement for when there is something hands on and playable. Notch has a habit of announcing features and ideas that don’t end up in the final product leading to disappointment by those expecting a bit too much.
It’s a case of too much hype and talk with failure to deliver.
12/10/2012 at 19:49 SpartanERK says:
I have no idea what a 1-person game this ambitious ‘should’ look like at this point, so I have no real comment on this state of development. Notch has made his money, so if he wanted to eccentrically hunt moose in the Scandinavian north for the rest of his life, that’s his prerogative. At least this project has the potential (even if it is slim) to produce something good, or at least an interesting failure.
Like all games I see, I want this to be good. I don’t understand why people are already cheering for a failure. It’s like people would rather someone not try to do something interesting than try and maybe fail, but I guess that’s the internet for you.
13/10/2012 at 00:12 aDemandingPersona says:
I think you got the idea. +1 for you.
13/10/2012 at 06:43 subedii says:
A lot of it isn’t because of the game itself, but because they thoroughly despise Notch for some reason.
Frankly, after hearing a few presentations by him, and reading his comments, I do feel every time people talk about his “ego” they’re seriously misconstruing what he’s trying to say. But then maybe I just haven’t read what’s gotten everyone so *ANGRY!* at him.
From what I’ve seen he just seems like a regular, often humorously self-deprecating guy. He has his opinions on things (like Windows 8), but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him try to force them on anyone or otherwise try and “sic his fanbase” on people (as often as he gets accused of that). I mean I disagree with some of the things he says, but I don’t feel he’s personally offensive, just has a different perspective to me, and usually one I can understand.
Crikey, Derek Smart and his games seem to draw less vitriol these days. And quite frankly, I wouldn’t want to repeat what I think of HIS interactions with anyone.
13/10/2012 at 10:34 SuperNashwanPower says:
For a while back there PC Gamer turned into HELLO magazine for Notch. Every month there was an OH MAI GOD LOOK AT HOW MUCH MUNNEH NOTCH HAS. SRSLY HE’S SO RICH type article, which to be fair to the guy wasnt his fault. Nonetheless, I think I developed a small irrational dislike of the man in the same way as I did with the Beckhams / Simon Cowell / Jordan and their blanket media coverage. Maybe there’s an element of envy in there, but still. Just show me the games :)
13/10/2012 at 10:24 AlwaysRight says:
+1 I don’t understand all the negativity towards Notch.
Although I don’t understand being negative in a comments section at all, I’ve never posted a negative comment on here because if I don’t like something I just leave it alone.
Edit: Actually I tell a lie, I posted a negative comment about The Elder Scrolls Online MMO.
12/10/2012 at 19:55 blind_boy_grunt says:
i like the look of this, reminds me of that 7dfps entry psycho logy (http://7dfps.org/?projects=gun-shooter) from the guy who made pineapple smash crew. It is a bit monotone(because i never get to do this: literally) right now but perhaps that will change.
12/10/2012 at 20:02 dE says:
Funny, those last seconds gave me a retro vibe. Getting stuck in geometry, something I haven’t experienced in a while. Including the wild wiggling, jumping and shooting in a desperate effort to break free. Brings back memories.
About the game, I’ll wait and see. Not too thrilled yet, but it could go places.
13/10/2012 at 08:49 LionsPhil says:
I honestly don’t know what this video was trying to achieve, showing gaffes like that. If he’d modified his ship to build stairs to get free or something, I’d go “ah, gameplay element, buildable ship, cool”. But nope. Running around a completely static environment that would be simplistic by System Shock 1′s era’s standards firing lasers at things that do not react at all. If it’s a lighting demo, I’m afraid to point out that the Big AAA Boys have completely dominated that area. Show me the neat gameplay ideas you have.
And what the heck does he have against Saturn? >:(
12/10/2012 at 20:39 buzzmong says:
Really? No one else thinks that the currently graphical “style” looks very much like System Shock 2?
Either way, essentially a video of pre-alpha. Nothing to see there really.
12/10/2012 at 21:24 ResonanceCascade says:
It definitely reminds me of the System Shock games. Which makes me at least a little interested. But the descriptions I’ve read in no way gel with this footage, which has kind of left me scratching my head.
I know proper advertisements haven’t started yet and all, of course, so I guess that’ll change.
12/10/2012 at 20:50 Zlarp says:
There’s a comment on here who understood what this means, only one, that needs to change.
Guys, this is multiplayer Noctis with guns!
For those in the dark: http://www.anywherebb.com or http://0×44.com (yes, even the Notch game’s title is a reference as far as I can see)
Edit: Noctis IV, for those who don’t know it: Space game, procedurally generated and enormous sandbox galaxy you could explore, you walk around in your spaceship and interact with it by using your computer, you can land on procedurally generate planets, write records, chart the galaxy (your notes get added to the ever growing database online that gets updated sporadically by hand) and even a programmable on-board computer people actually write software for.
Only Notch’s thing has guns and multiplayer. I hope the planets will look as good as the Noctis ones, too.
12/10/2012 at 21:07 robovinnie says:
Did anyone else unconsciously add in the pew pew noises in their head every time the laser gun shot after what Jim wrote? Pew! Pew pew pew!
12/10/2012 at 21:28 GeneralVonDoom says:
This isn’t the only space sim in development there is another called Scrumbleship, it is just like Minecraft, but allows you to build your own spaceship from scratch.
http://www.scrumbleship.com/
Id certainly like to see in the future which one is better, and I will most likely get both, I am a big fan of space themed games, ever since I first saw Star Wars, when I was young.
13/10/2012 at 01:07 GeneralCheese says:
Another similiar game is Ensign-1. Actually playable to a certain extent at the moment.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93024151&searchtext=
12/10/2012 at 22:02 Jim9137 says:
Duke Notch’em 3D.
12/10/2012 at 22:54 Stackler says:
I’ll never get why people rave about “footage” like this. It shows absolutely.. well. Nothing.
12/10/2012 at 23:14 ExK4 says:
An acceptable pronunciation is “one hundred and c”.
12/10/2012 at 23:29 tomeoftom says:
This thread has me crestfallen. I really thought the RPS crowd were better than this.
A: He’s a single programmer that just created a programmable 16-bit CPU emulator with displays and holograms, in a 3D engine he wrote from scratch and which has full dynamic lighting and a thus-far rudimentary physics engine. That is a very, very high level of coding ability.
B: This is pre-alpha footage.
C: We should have gotten over whining about simple graphics years and years ago. To demand complex graphics from a small personal project is the highest of stupidity, beyond mere lack of good taste. Besides, in this case he’s blatantly going for a minimalist, bare-bones aesthetic and personally I think it looks great already.
D: Regarding Noctis, I haven’t looked into it much but it’s not exactly that patentable an idea. I’ve dreamed of a game that has this exact feature set for years – the bleak space survivalism, the simulationist approach to spaceship porn, the deep coding/hacking metagame, the multiplayer crewsmanship.
E: No, really, it’s unbelievable that you’re complaining about the graphics. Jesus fucking Christ. Design sense trumps shinies and polygons in every single instance. It’s like someone bagging out Claude Monet for being “blurry”, or Miles Davis for playing “out of time”. Learn to pick up on a vibe.
13/10/2012 at 00:16 aDemandingPersona says:
I’m slowly giving up on humanity.
13/10/2012 at 00:43 spectone says:
They do grow up eventually. Well most of them :(
13/10/2012 at 01:28 PopeJamal says:
Considering the resources at his disposal, I’m totally unimpressed. He made more than $33 million from ONE GAME. I think he could afford to put forth a little more effort.
13/10/2012 at 15:03 tomeoftom says:
Games aren’t made by pumping money into a vat and letting it ferment. It’s just him – one man – programming this so far, as it was for Minecraft for a great deal of its life. Ergo, progress is going to be slow but it also means that his design sensibilities and character shine through 100% of the game.
Edit: On top of that, if he wants to keep making highly personal games like he has been for decades, then that’s entirely his prerogative. He’s not a member of the public service. He’s a lifelong coder of videogames that happened to strike diamond with one of the creations he toiled to make, and who’s now facing a ridiculous amount of entitlement amongst the people who’ve played his games.
13/10/2012 at 15:31 x1501 says:
I’m sorry, but what the hell are you all talking about? One-man development “teams” are only necessary or prudent when one simply can’t afford to pour any money into development and has no other choice but to do all the work by oneself. Notch, on the other hand, is not only a multimillionaire, but he also happens to have a fully functional development studio at his disposal. It would make infinitely more sense to delegate all the technical elements to more qualified people (you know, ones who happen to know C++) and concentrate on what actually matters—key elements of design—than to keep it a one-man show only to spend 99% of the development time on reinventing the wheel on some of the most commonplace and mundane engine elements like basic lighting, collision detection, and texturing. Making 0x10c a single person project makes about as much business or logical sense as Activision cutting down their CoD development team to a single man. It’s completely ridiculous.
Regarding the edit: If he wanted to view it as a personal hobby interest, he wouldn’t be advertising it all over the Internet and talking nonsense about running galaxy simulation supercomputers and charging the users monthly fees. His stated ambitions go far beyond the scope of a simple weekend hobby project.
13/10/2012 at 18:00 tomeoftom says:
He’s rich now, so he’s going to make the most of it by making a hobby project for a minority demographic, for fun. Why does this mean he can’t eventually charge for it, that he can’t do interviews on the project, or that he can’t post a dev blog on the internet?
To try and go to the root, where’s the intrinsic offence this has caused you? You do understand that if a one-man simulationist entropic-apocalyptic space MMO doesn’t excite you, you can choose to play any other of the incredible games out there, right? You do realise that?
Sure, it doesn’t make sense that he doesn’t get Mojang on it, but he can do whatever the fuck he wants.
13/10/2012 at 18:18 x1501 says:
True. Just as I can think and say what I want about his seeming lack of business acumen or his pompous, overblown announcements that tend to drive people into the state of frenzied excitement for no apparent reason.
13/10/2012 at 19:01 tomeoftom says:
Yeah, but what you do is much less fun.
13/10/2012 at 03:54 ffordesoon says:
Exactly this.
Also, anyone who says Minecraft looks like shit is factually wrong. It’s Crysis that looks like shit. Minecraft looks just dandy. Why? Because Crysis is so overly detailed that it’s hard to track what the hell’s going on in it. You always know exactly what’s going on in Minecraft. Any given screenshot of Minecraft can be “read” instantly by anyone who’s played the game. Same with this. Try applying the readability test to a screenshot of Crysis, and you’ll see what I mean. This game and Minecraft have no visual noise. Crysis is nothing but visual noise.
I have nothing against pretty graphics, but blocky, lo-fi graphics that are easily readable trump unreadable graphics even if they’re Pixar-quality.
13/10/2012 at 05:16 BargainOnly_HalfMySoul says:
you shouldn’t say “PIXAR quality” because by definition pixar quality means READABLE. Give me any pixar screenshot and I’ll tell you what scene it is and what character it is.
13/10/2012 at 11:51 ffordesoon says:
Heh. Fair point.
13/10/2012 at 09:25 SuperNashwanPower says:
@ ffordesoon
Well, thats where subjectivity comes in. I liked that Crysis was so detailed, because it meant I had to be extra careful. The already quite challenging ‘human’ AI (apart from when it randomly decided to face a wall) would blend in with the trees due to their camo. When you suddenly realised you were surrounded, a quick blast on speed mode, or stealthing up and taking one at a time, or dropping a C4 pack and running away before detonating, was one of the high points of the game. Being able to clearly see all targets all the time would take away that element of challenge, and for me, not be as fun.
13/10/2012 at 12:06 ffordesoon says:
In fairness to you, it’s been a while since I played Crysis. So.
13/10/2012 at 11:51 Klaus says:
“anyone who says Minecraft looks like shit is factually wrong”
Brilliant.
Unfortunately, there are people (myself) who have thresholds of what they’re willing to tolerate. Minecraft hurts my eyes, and even if it didn’t, I find the game ugly. It doesn’t matter if I can process what’s going on if I don’t even want to look at it.
13/10/2012 at 12:14 ffordesoon says:
I was being hyperbolic. Obviously, you’re free to think whatever you want about Minecraft’s graphics.
That said, you’re still wrong as hell. ;)
17/10/2012 at 06:20 Net_Bastard says:
Factually wrong? You can do so much better than the textures Notch made in the same texture res. Compare the default textures to GoodMorningCraft or DokuCraft Mini. Hell, I’ve seen texture packs with an even lower resolution than the default and they still looked better than MC. Also, Crysis has a lot of visual noise? When I played Crysis, I could play it just fine. How could you say that it was confusing unless you played it in 800×600 resolution? I never got lost in Crysis. I could always identify enemies. Yet in Minecraft I got lost multiple times because everything looks the fucking same.
13/10/2012 at 06:41 Zlarp says:
Patentable? Now I’m giving up on humanity. I was happy I was getting an updated version of Noctis and people take it as criticism because of supposed plagiarism, seesh :(
13/10/2012 at 08:23 Cytrom says:
I fail to see how any of that makes a good GAME regardless how impresive you find it from a coding viewpoint… I’m sure no one will enlighten me though cause its easier to call people stupid who don’t like what you like.
13/10/2012 at 15:11 tomeoftom says:
“I fail to see how any of that makes a good GAME regardless how impresive you find it from a coding viewpoint… I’m sure no one will enlighten me though cause its easier to call people stupid who don’t like what you like.”
I wasn’t arguing that it’s a good game, because it is, as I said, pre-alpha. As someone said below, it’s a foetus. That means he is working on it, and that it is still 90% idea. It’s a video demo on an in-progress engine atop which he will then create a game. I hope that’s been enlightening. Conflating a tech demo with a completed game and then saying that the game’s terrible is, you have to admit, a pretty stupid thing to do.
13/10/2012 at 13:17 MellowKrogoth says:
@tomeoftom 100% agreed. And you forgot to mention that it’s utterly amazing that a millionaire manages to keep that indie spirit and keeps experimenting by himself like this. He could just hire people and tell them “slaves, execute my amazing ideas”.
13/10/2012 at 16:58 Tim Ward says:
“I really thought the RPS crowd were better than this.”
Well, now you know better.
15/10/2012 at 17:11 Machinations says:
“Design sense trumps shinies and polygons in every single instance”
Agreed. So maybe Notch could show us some of that design sense? As of now, again, we have grandiose promises and intentions, and some of us cynics see it as a way to part suckers from their money.
13/10/2012 at 00:42 spectone says:
The computer system reminds me of (Federation of Free Traders) done right. FOFT had a programmable computer.
13/10/2012 at 01:51 geldonyetich says:
The computer looks a lot like an emulated Commodore 64, right down to the glitched error screen… it’s probably only a cosmetic inspiration, unless Notch gots a go-ahead from the current holders of that property.
13/10/2012 at 09:29 SuperNashwanPower says:
10 PRINT “BOTTOM”
20 GOTO 10
RUN
13/10/2012 at 05:14 BargainOnly_HalfMySoul says:
Did he make this game in minecraft? The graphics look a LOT better. It’s a little too real. It kind of makes me dizzy.
13/10/2012 at 09:22 SuperNashwanPower says:
I have upgraded my rig in anticipation
13/10/2012 at 09:15 crinkles esq. says:
I guess I don’t really know why this should feature as a news article here. I have nothing against Notch — I hope he makes a fine game — but this is not exciting, or illuminating (okay, it does illuminate some things pew pew); it’s just a run-of-the-mill art test of a game fetus.
13/10/2012 at 11:10 GeneralCheese says:
At how many months does a game fetus have rights?
13/10/2012 at 11:25 MortalWombat says:
A games life begins at conception. I only support abortion in case of legitimate developer rape.
13/10/2012 at 11:07 MortalWombat says:
I am utterly puzzled by the reactions to his twitter feed:
I am puzzled about why a video like this spawns 5 newsposts on reputable sites… how is this newsworthy?
I am even more puzzled about why so many people even here take the right to attack a person who they don’t even remotely know on such a personal level over something that’s a mothereffin’ videogame(!) – remember, they used to be about fun?!
Quite frankly it would probably scare the living shit our of me if I was in his position, yet he still posts even very early updates which some of us find interesting (!!).
Gosh, some of you sound like 60 year old cynics who’ve given up on life long ago…
13/10/2012 at 14:53 Prime says:
Notch now equates to George Lucas or Gabe Newell. That may explain why opinion is so loud and intense, and why any scrap of information now gets obsessive, spam-like coverage.
13/10/2012 at 15:12 MikoSquiz says:
..why isn’t it called Spacecraft?
13/10/2012 at 16:24 MythArcana says:
So…Wolfenstein3D meets Dark Forces then?
15/10/2012 at 10:06 MadMatty says:
Judging by the red clothed Nazi at the start, the outer space location, and the state of the computer equipment, the game is apparently focussed around Microsoft headquarters.