Minecraft maker's newest game blends cliffs, horses and Dogecoin

Markus "Notch" Persson is mainly known as the man behind Minecraft, but he's quickly developing a reputation for eccentric games that cover everything from speed typing to existential drama. If there's any doubt, you just have to look at his latest title, Cliffhorse. Yes, it's as absurd as the title suggests -- you play a horse pushing a giant ball around cliffs, and there isn't more to it than that. However, that barely-there design (which took all of two hours to build) is really the point. Persson describes the Windows-only game as a jab at developers who abuse early access programs by charging money for "minimum effort" releases, where most of the content theoretically comes later. And yes, he's aware of the irony given that he charged for Minecraft well before it was finished.

In case the silliness of the project wasn't patently clear, Notch is only accepting voluntary Dogecoin donations as payment; you can download Cliffhorse completely for free, if you like. It's just as well that there's no real profit model, since there's also "no guarantee of future updates." You may not like Persson's parody enough to send him virtual currency. Still, the launch may be helpful if it gets some developers to put in a bit more work before they ask gamers to pay up.