Jens "Jeb" Bergensten recently wrapped up his "Ask Me Anything" session! He talks about his feelings on the current enchanting system (and possible changes to it), his favorite addition to the game, his pre-Mojang history, and so much more. You can read all of his answers by clicking this link, be sure to check it out! Want a sample of the sorts of questions he addressed?
Quote fromVillagers are still barely done. I also want to look at the experience / enchanting system. And I really want to add to the farming stuff... It's hard to find time for these things, though, because we are working on bigger things "outside" of the game at the moment.
I don't plan to add a new dimension at the moment. It's just to performance heavy on servers, and the current dimensions need more attention before we start adding new ones.
I'd remove all the lighting bugs without decreasing game performance
I don't want to add new ores just because I can. I want new ores to serve a new purpose.
Not sure about the status of expansions at the moment. I think an expansion needs to be something of a total conversion.
You can see Jeb's entire AMA session by clicking this link. Do you still have questions for Mojang? You can still ask them directly - Mojang has their AMA schedule freely available; just click here to see their upcoming schedule, so you can ask your favorite Mojang developer anything you like! We have already heard from Daniel Kaplan (aka Kappische) and Jens "Jeb" Bergensten - coming up on Monday, April 9th is Nathan "Dinnerbone" Adams, formerly of the Bukkit team. If you want to ask him anything, be sure to mark your calendars!
Notch Focuses on Space - A New Game
Anyone following Notch may have noticed his most recent project, a game focusing on space, computer engineering and other sci-fi themes. His project - currently named "0x10c" - brings to mind a sort of space-survival theme, with a focus on ship maintenance, landing on planets, programming a real in-game computer, and more. In Notch's own words:
Quote fromIn a parallel universe where the space race never ended, space travel was gaining popularity amongst corporations and rich individuals.
In 1988, a brand new deep sleep cell was released, compatible with all popular 16 bit computers. Unfortunately, it used big endian, whereas the DCPU-16 specifications called for little endian. This led to a severe bug in the included drivers, causing a requested sleep of 0x0000 0000 0000 0001 years to last for 0x0001 0000 0000 0000 years.
It's now the year 281 474 976 712 644 AD, and the first lost people are starting to wake up to a universe on the brink of extinction, with all remote galaxies forever lost to red shift, star formation long since ended, and massive black holes dominating the galaxy.
The game isn't yet available for testing, although he wishes to approach it much as he did Minecraft in its early days; players will be able to play-test it in Alpha (and throughout development), with a fairly low price to begin with. Without a doubt, the star of the show is his in-game computer, a real, programmable machine that can be programmed, updated and tweaked much like a real-life one:
Each ship has a generator capable of producing a fixed wattage, and everything you connect to it drains wattage. A cloaking field, for example, might require almost all the power from the generator, forcing you to turn off all computers and dim all lights in order to successfully cloak.
The computer in the game is a fully functioning emulated 16 bit CPU that can be used to control your entire ship, or just to play games on while waiting for a large mining operation to finish.
You can follow his progress on the game right here. I know we will be watching for it.
User-Made Mod Review: "Move Plus"
YouTuber "TheGamersCave" brings us a look at the mod "Move Plus", which allows things like double-jumping, wall jumps and even parkour-specific controls in normal terrain. Anyone looking for a mod to make their game a little more acrobatic, this mod is definitely worth a look - be sure to check out TheGamersCave's review, and let him know what you think!
Fireside Chat with Notch
Recently, the GDC Vault had a chance to sit down for a candid talk with Markus "Notch" Persson on his many thoughts on Minecraft. They cover a wide range of topics, including why he chose to simulate some things in the game accurately and not others, his predictions for the future, "girl" options, and much much more. Check out this link to see the full discussion - it is nearly an hour long, and he doesn't hold back on the juicy details!
Minecraft Companion App, FTW
Having a massive, comprehensive wiki on Minecraft is usually the first stop for anyone looking for recipes, redstone tips and all things Minecraft. However, what about those who want a mobile option for in-game information? Minecraft Explorer Pro might be for you - this iPhone App offers detailed info on in-game items, recipes, and even a "Skin Studio" to browse, create and alter skins for your game. This app is definitely a welcome addition to any hardcore Minecrafter's toolkit, and is super-cheap besides, weighing in at 99 cents USD. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed!
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Posted Apr 5, 2012I believe Joe was talking about the mod review by TheGamersCave, which was in fact chock full of foul language. I'm an adult with no kids, so I wasn't necessarily offended or worried by it... but I did find it extremely puerile. To be blunt, it sounded like a young kid trying to be cool, which isn't really all that cool. Not everything has to be f'ing this and f'ing that. And we can do without the masturbation jokes. Not anywhere near an "adult conversation." Or at least not a mature one.
So I think Joe was completely justified in his complaint--that video was definitely not kid-friendly.
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Posted Apr 5, 2012-
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Posted Apr 5, 2012Where was it said that Minecraft was at the finale? Minecraft is ongoing and eternal.
Don't know what sad world you live on that has a Minecraft that isn't forever evolving.
One of the artists that worked on Terraria moved on to a space game.
I don't believe the others who worked on it have said what their next game is.
And there was going to be space content in Terraria before they deep sixed it.
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Posted Apr 5, 2012User run dedicated servers like Minecraft, and strong modding capabilities really seem like the better way to build a lasting game.
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Posted Apr 6, 2012You should be careful with your perceptions if you want to sound you know what you are talking about. Modding does not involve rewriting the main code of a game. It merely changes the smaller statistics on the extensions that are available for anyone to peruse and modify(hence, mod). Reverse engineering something that is not yours and is copyrighted is against the law. If modding required that, then modding would be illegal.
Notch's new game is most likely to be released in its Alpha and Beta stages for gamer support during its development. I would imagine that at least during the Alpha stage there shouldn't be a monthly fee to help encourage said gamer support. That is adequate time to get a feel for the basis of the game and have a better perception of how it is to be played and whether it will be worth some monies per month that aren't a certainty to happen.
Making up your mind now about such matters reeks of ignorance and closed-mindedness. You may want to get that checked out.
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Posted Apr 7, 2012I saw the other video that was linked first... and there was a single f-bomb. After I wrote the post I saw the mod review (something I tend to skip as I can evaluate a mod on my own without the video most of the time) if only to see what the complaint was about. I only made it about a quarter of the way through the video before I hit the big "X" and closed the window because I couldn't stand listening to that kind of language and immaturity.
I apologize for my previous remarks. It was an awful video and something that is not worthy of being posted on the front page of this website. If that reflects the standards that Curse has (none at all) and what they think of the people and Minecraft fans which use this site (also no feeling at all apparently), perhaps it is time for me to simply move on and stop bothering to even pay attention to what is being said here. Certainly I will pay less attention to the "News and Announcements" page any more, or at the very least insist that Curse or the moderators who work with this forum apologize for even posting that video and hopefully correct that so it is simply removed from the page entirely.
I agree, an occasional slip of the tongue is one thing, but this is unacceptable.
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Posted Apr 7, 2012I don't want to get this discussion side tracked, but reverse engineering is not illegal, particularly with something that is copyrighted. Reverse engineering something that is patented may be illegal... if you then use the patented idea without permission but then again you have the patent you can compare the idea against. There have been attempts by legislative bodies to make reverse engineering illegal, but they would also need to throw just about anybody who holds the title of engineer or even a software developer in prison if they were serous about enforcing any such laws. Engineers study the works of others and usually think "I can do that, but I think I can do that better". The extent that some companies go to do reverse engineering of various kinds of products would amaze you, and I am simply telling you it happens on a routine basis in almost every engineering field.
And I should point out that I do know a thing or two about modding. Don't get me started at that (or at least check out my sig if you don't believe me). It isn't just about changing small statistics, even though "plug in additions" is part of modding. Mods that replace major sections of software in a wholesale fashion like Optifine or that replace the data format like the 65k high world cubic chunk mod go quite far into the guts of the code and make substantive changes at very basic level of this game. Yes, some people who make "mods" do merely introduce a new block or even just offer new recipes for stuff that is quite common. But that is not the only thing that can be called a "mod".
If Mojang does not offer independent "local" servers, I promise that they will be developed somewhere by somebody... particularly with this game 0x10^c. If they need to "reverse engineer" the protocols to get that done, it will be done because I've seen it done with other games. The question isn't if Mojang can stop it, but if it will be visible to the world for them to keep track of what is happening and perhaps win over some of the players on those private servers, or if those servers will be forced underground as it were to work in the shadows and get involved with groups that would undermine Mojang.
Notch has generally been quite open with his programming and is willing to let the world peek at what he is doing. On top of that the mod community has a chance to even help out quite a bit with the early development work of this new game. For example, I know of at least a dozen different compilers and about three or four operating systems that are under development, not to mention about a dozen emulators of this new DCPU-16 computer that have all been started this past week. If Notch can leverage that kind of community support, he will be able to blow away companies like Electronic Arts or even Sony and produce a game that will be as big if not bigger than Minecraft. THAT is a modding community which can either be his largest ally or worst enemy. I'm just saying that the modding community could turn against him if he decides to be a *****. I don't think that Notch is a ***** though, so my mind is at ease at the moment.