Notch responds to Guncraft: 'I'm a huge fan of clones'

Before PAX started up in Seattle last week, even before the booths were assembled in the convention center, we heard about Exato Games' plan to attract Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson's attention to its own Guncraft. "Notch, come have a beer with us," John Getty said through Joystiq last week. So how did that go?

At least on Saturday morning, when Joystiq sat down to chat with Notch, that beer hadn't yet been shared. "I saw some video going on, and it looked like Minecraft with guns," Notch told us, "which seems like a fairly interesting game if you don't make it fantasy." But he hadn't stopped by the booth, and it didn't sound much like he planned on doing so.

Notch that there was no drama between the two developers, however. "I'm a huge fan of clones," he said. "I think clones is how games evolve, I'm a huge proponent of patterns." At the same time, however, Notch says he's "been through hell and back" enough to know how trademarks work, and he's a fan of protecting those as well. "I think trademarks are great, because you can go this is our product, this is your product and it can all be seen by consumers."

That's Notch's real response to Guncraft's attempts to get his attention. "A lot of people will come up and say, 'Oh, so Guncraft is actually your new thing?' They're kind of maybe sort of kind of maybe implying that we're connected somehow, and we're not," Notch said to us. "It's just a clone. If they want to make a clone, that's awesome, as long as it's clear we're not related in any way."