minecraft posts

Minecraft's next update to include in-game mapping

by John Callaham Apr 27th 2011 @ 9:00PM

Minecraft has had a very busy few weeks, releasing a major new update that added weather, stats and achievements to the hit sandbox game title. Oh, and the game reached its 2 million unit sale a few days ago. Now word comes that the game's main developer, Markus "Notch" Perrson, is working on the next update for Minecraft.

While the 1.6 update will contain bug fixes there will be a new feature; in-game mapping of your game world. "Notch" says, "It will be centered on the location where you craft it, and it will fill in as you explore the land. If you go outside the edges of the map, it will stop updating, so each map is of a specific area. (like real maps!)" You can zoom in and out of the map and if you make changed to the world the map will reflect that change. The map feature doesn't yet work in multiplayer but "Notch" stares, " ... that's my next task. The code I write to support that will also be possible to reuse in the future for things like books and notes written by players, and possibly even custom paintings/hand drawn signs." There's no word on when the 1.6 update on Minecraft will be released.

Filed under: Sandbox

Minecraft mod plans detailed

by John Callaham Apr 26th 2011 @ 10:00AM

With the hit sandbox game Minecraft now safely past the two million sales mark, its creator Markus "Notch" Perrson is posting up more plans to update the game on his blog site. The focus this time is to finally offer proper mod tools for the game.

The current plan is to offer access to the mod tools for free (a plan to have the mod tool access cost money was quickly changed due to player feedback) with mod makers agreeing not to sell their mods unless they get a separate licensing deal with Minecraft's creators. Those creators reserve the right to use your mod idea and add it to Minecraft.

One othr hint from "Notch": "There's one final piece of information that I'd love to share, but I'm not allowed to. I'll just say I'm very excited about it :D"

Filed under: Mods, Sandbox

Minecraft breaks the 2 million unit sales barrier

by John Callaham Apr 23rd 2011 @ 6:10PM

The sandbox indie game Minecraft broke the 1 million sales barrier last January after being first released back in 2009 in alpha form. Reaching the 1 million sales mark for any PC exclusive indie game is a huge achievement no matter how long it took. Today, the game reached another major sales milestone. Just a few minutes ago it broke the 2 million sales mark, according to the game's stats page.

That means the game sold an additional 1 million copies in just over three months, an incredible amount for any game, no matter what genre it is or what platform it is released for. Once more there seems to be no let up in the game's current sales pace. If the game continues to sell at its current pace, Minecraft will reach the 3 million sales mark sometime this summer.

Filed under: Sandbox

Minecraft demo released by PC Gamer magazine

by John Callaham Apr 20th 2011 @ 10:45AM

If you have been wondering what the fuss is all about with Minecraft but didn't want to spend any money to do so, PC Gamer magazine has now released a free demo of the hit indie sandbox game. The demo, which also is included in the DVD-ROM disk of the latest PC Gamer print magazine, has a special cow that for some reason have a PC Gamer logo on their sides.

The demo lets players check out and build as much as they want in the pixalated world for 90 minutes. After that the game locks players from editing anything. However you can create an infinite amount of 90-minute worlds with the demo.

Filed under: Downloads, Demos, Sandbox

Minecraft 1.5 beta update released

by John Callaham Apr 19th 2011 @ 4:00PM

If you can tear yourself away from playing Portal 2, you might be interested to know that developer Mojang has now released the 1.5 beta update for the hit indie sandbox game Minecraft via automatic download. This is a pretty major update as it adds the long awaited and much requested game achievements and statistics to the game. It also adds in-game weather such as rain, thunder and snow that can affect the environments.

In a few days Minecraft should have yet another big day. If its sales continue at their current pace it should reach the 2 million unit sales mark before the end of this week.

Filed under: Sandbox

Big Download's News Bits & Bytes - April 13

by John Callaham Apr 13th 2011 @ 11:55PM

Just a few more days until Portal 2 puts us under its spell. We can't wait to go co-op portalling. Wait ... that doesn't sound good.

Steam has automatic updates for Defense Grid: The Awakening (with free Portal 2 themed levels) and Star Ruler.
The closed beta for APB Reloaded has finally launched a couple of European servers.
Two more official StarCraft II action figures are due for release just before Christmas 2011.
Minecraft creator Marcus "Notch" Perrson has paid $2,000 for the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle.
Speaking of Minecraft, it should reach the 1.9 million unit sales mark sometime early tomorrow.

Filed under: Downloads

Minecraft 1.5 beta patch delayed until next week

by John Callaham Apr 13th 2011 @ 8:00PM

Minecraft was supposed to have a major new update this week that would have added things like weather effects along with the long awaited in-game achievements and stats features. However players of the hit indie sanbox game will have to wait a little longer.

According to a post on his blog site, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Perrson states, "There's been significant feature creep ... so we don't have time to get it out this week. But next week!" One of the new features that will make it into the patch is one we like a lot; Notch writes " ... lightning hitting a pig will turn it into a zombie pigman."

Filed under: Sandbox

Minecraft 1.5 beta video shows off new weather effects

by John Callaham Apr 10th 2011 @ 1:00PM

This past week, it was announced that the hit sandbox game Minecraft would remove the "beta" designation" on November 11. But before that happens, the game will continue to have updates that add new content and features.

The 1.5 beta update will include the long awaited in-game stats and achievements but it will also include interactive weather effects, specifically rain and snow. The above video shows off how the game's weather features will look like. Rain will help grow in-game crops also stop fires. The 1.5 beta patch is scheduled to be released via the game's auto updater sometime next week.

Filed under: Sandbox, Video

Minecraft to remove the "beta" designation on 11/11/11

by John Callaham Apr 7th 2011 @ 6:45PM

For a game that's been available to purchase and download for nearly two years, it's hard to think of Minecraft as still a work in progress. Yet the hit indie sandbox game is technically still in beta. But that will change on November 11, 2011.

On his official blog site, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Perrson announced today that the game will remove the "beta" tag on 11/11/11. As he states in his blog, "The plan is to be open with this and try to get people to cheer us on as much as possible, but to be open with the fact that the game won't change much at the actual release day. (It's more a progress up until that point)"

Meanwhile the game itself will be getting a new content update, 1.5, sometime in the next week. The big addition is adding snow and rain effects to the game that will actually affect the game's enviroment.

Filed under: Sandbox

Minecraft's sales total (so far) $33 million

by John Callaham Apr 6th 2011 @ 8:20PM

Minecraft's sales success has been well known before but now we have some hard numbers to back up those claims. Gamasutra reports that the indie sandbox game has generated over $33 million so far for its creator Marcus "Notch" Persson and his small team at Mojang. The game itself has so over 1.8 million copies via download and still sells about 10,000 copies a day. It will likely break the 2 million sales point sometime in late April.

So what do you do with all of that cash? In a post on the Reddit web site Perrson admits. "It all ends up in an account somewhere, and I try not to look at it. I get a normal salary these days for day to day stuff, but there's a big pile somewhere."

Filed under: Indie, Sandbox

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