Rock, Paper, Shotgun

So then. I suspect the needle of Minecraft cuteness has swung way too far to the “d’aww” end of the meter with the introduction of tameable, breedable ocelots (which you can see emitting clouds of love-hearts in the video below.) This is a game with zombies and suicide-explosion beasts in! I demand more sinister threat. And I believe that it is only sensible, because horrors lurking outside our castles only make the cute, homely stuff cuter and more homely. Right, minerfolk?
Read the rest of this entry »

Would you call Minecraft in the Crysis engine Mynecraft or Minecryft? I prefer the second, because the first could be a typo, whereas the only legitimate reason for coming up with the second is if there’s a Crysis mod that adds Minecraft to it. Wait, there is! And it’s called… what, ‘Craftable‘? Seriously?
Read the rest of this entry »

Mojang’s block-building and survival game is somehow making do with a mere twenty million users, they revealed recently. (20,127,16. No, wait, 20,127,17. I mean 20,127,18. I mean 20,127,19. Oh, you get the picture). 20 million? Pathetic. Chump change. I don’t know how they manage to stay afloat – I mean, all those Facebook game companies talk about having 180 million users or something like that, so that’s what Mojang should be aiming for. And yes, I’m completely sure those Facebook figures don’t actually mean “people who installed the game to their account, looked once then never came back because it was so boring” or “people who load it once a month because they clicked on the icon by mistake” or “people who played for about a week, until they realised it was a basically a scam that wanted them to to spend real money just to keep playing for longer than 17 seconds.” Yessir, those 180 million GenericVille users are real, daily, paying users, each and every one.
Read the rest of this entry »

Expect plenty more of these kinds of updates leading up to next week’s web-wide SOPA protests: it’s an enormously important issue for the future of the internet and everyone who uses it, so we’re giving it our all.

Also declaring themselves strongly against the online culture-trashing folly today are Minecraft-makers Mojang, who intend to make a right old song and dance about SOPA next week, NVIDIA, Trine chaps Frozenbyte, Torchlight devs Runic and retromancers Good Old Games. Positions, statements and assorted protests below.
Read the rest of this entry »

This could be the year that Mojang stops meaning Minecraft and nothing but Minecraft. In an interview with Edge, CEO Carl Manneh says that there are two games in development that will be announced and possibly even be released as early as the first half of 2012. Minecraft creator Notch is working on one of these titles, having stepped back from lead development of his blocky baby. By my calculations – and keep in mind I haven’t checked in some time – it’s the first half of 2012 right now so that’s very exciting indeed. There is mention of a third title in the works, although that seems to be a more distant promise. Despite being released last year, Minecraft isn’t done either, far from it in fact. Update 1.1 landed yesterday and while I could tell you what it adds,there’s a funny video to do that for me.

Read the rest of this entry »

Another cuboid/voxel/block post! The blue birds of Twitter inform me that Mojang have hired Wollay, the chap working on Cube World. Notch claims that: “Our current plan is to plug his brain directly to a keyboard and sell whatever comes out.” Quests and other RPG features perhaps? There’s no word from Wollay himself yet (edit: he is ‘so excited’!) but Notch assures that development on Cube World will continue and it will remain an independent game. This potential centralisation of talent vaguely reminds me of Valve casting their sights on Turtle Rock and Nuclear Monkey. Let’s hope for good results and that the keyboard-brain interface doesn’t cause infections.

The latest Ludum Dare gamejam hit over the weekend, which means the internet is now awash with tiny experimental games created in just 48 hours. There are many we should nose curiously at, but a handy starting point is the effort from Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, who finished his game with hours to spare. He’s moved on from active Minecraft development himself, but clearly he hasn’t moved on from the design values of his zeitgeisty building and survival hit.

Minicraft is his LD48 entry: a game about chopping down trees, mining rock and stabbing zombies. YOU MAY BE SOMEWHAT FAMILIAR WITH THESE CONCEPTS. But Minicraft is not Minecraft, despite the clear self-referencing.
Read the rest of this entry »

You know how Minecraft is a bit like the world’s biggest and most elaborate Lego set? Except here you start with more green and brown blocks than even Simon Lego himself owns. Well, monolithic megacorp, Mojang, are discussing a deal with the Danish blockmasters to release official Minecraft Lego. They are only next door to the Swedish devs, after all. The news comes via Mojang bod Daniel Kaplan’s Twitter feed, who reports that they’ve gotten past the first stage of Lego’s peculiar means of developing specific themed packs. Via LEGO CUUSOO, someone’s idea for a Lego set appears in a Kickstarter-style site, except here all people are pledging is their support for the idea. Get to 10,000 votes and the idea gets looked at by Lego. And now Kaplan reports they are now chatting with Mojang about the prospect.

Read the rest of this entry »

How do you take a break from a project that seems like it will never be finished? It’s a tough question that we newshounds ask ourselves every day and it appears Notch has been having similar thoughts. Now that Minecraft has been officially released, its creator is taking a step back, leaving co-developer Jens Bergensten to take the reins. As for Notch, he’ll be resting, helping out with Minecraft and starting work on a new project. Released or not, Minecraft isn’t finished, so read on for a quick look at the current state of play and then read further to find out about the loveliest Minecraft story I’ve seen all year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s an indie bundle with a difference – it doesn’t contain any games. Instead, the Indie Music Bundle it’s a collection of soundtracks from some of your favourite (assumption #1) indie games and some you have probably never heard of (assumption #2). As is swiftly becoming obligatory, the ten albums are available at a price of your choosing, although this is for one day only, being a Black Friday sale. The minimum price is $1 and if you pay at least $10 you’ll receive seven bonus items.

Of the ones that I know, the VVVVVV soundtrack is simply wonderful, and both Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, are quite enjoyable. The latter is in the $10 bonus items. Even if you opt to be stingy, for a dollar you’re sure to find something that you love (assumption #3). Everything is DRM-free and delivered as 320kbps MP3s. Take a look.