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Rise and Shiny recap: Neverdaunt:8Bit
I have a buddy who creates all types of music, and recently he decided to experiment with 8-bit. We've talked about it, and at first I think he was worried about how I would feel about it. After all, I've been playing in heavy rock bands since I was around 13 years old, so my disdain for most things electronica or artificial is pretty well-known. For the record, I do not hate all sounds that are created by a computer -- I just haven't found much that I like. So, as I watched 8-bit become a slightly hipper and hipper form of music, my tolerance has had time to adjust. True 8-bit art and design is about reduction, if you ask me -- it's about breaking down everything into single blocks of color or sound, and then rearranging those bits in an attempt to recreate something beautiful. When done well, 8-bit can be fun and exciting. Neverdaunt:8Bit is done well, for sure. While it is still only in "early" testing, it shows a ton of promise -- even if it is only made up of a few basic blocks of noise and color.
Minecraft dev's profits spawn new, six-person studio
When he's not flying to Valve to speak about his world-building game, Minecraft, one-man development team Marcus Persson has been spending his days lately scouting for a new office and a couple more employees. Profits from his yet-to-be-finished crafting game have already netted enough to start a development studio and hire a handful of employees. On the latest Indie Games Podcast, Persson said he's looking for "about six" employees in total, and he's got four so far. He's also already got plans for a second game -- a title to be developed alongside Minecraft that he repeatedly points out is "going to be fairly different" from his first solo outing. Unlike Minecraft, however, Persson won't be heading up development of the second game, but one of the other folks he's working with. As for when Minecraft will be completed? He "doesn't dare" guess. Hopefully five other people will help speed up the process!
The Daily Grind: If you designed a quest, what would it be like?
Every once in a while, I like to turn the tables on the longstanding love/hate relationship players have with devs -- you know, "We totally love and appreciate you until you screw up, and then we'll eat your bones for dinner!" That sort of thing. From the outside looking in, it's often easy (and quite tempting) to play armchair-developer, to tell the world on forums and blogs just how it would be done if someone had the superior wisdom to put you in charge. You know what? I believe in you. And I'm not even being sarcastic here -- I truly believe that there's a huge well of boundless creativity amongst gamers that's itching to come out (I mean, heck, look at what everyone's doing with the tools that Minecraft gives you). Not to mention that most devs and CMs are gamers first and foremost themselves. So today I'm using the powers vested in me by the state of Massively to empower you to create one quest. If you could create an immersive, interesting, interactive, memorable quest for your MMO of choice, what would it be like? How would you make it stand out from all of the others? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's The Daily Grind!
Anti-Aliased: How I mine for craft
This column was bound to come sometime. We've had legions of people asking us, "Why don't you cover Minecraft? It's totally an MMO!" The email barrage was so constant that I had nightmarish fits in my sleep, where I was drowning in oddly block-shaped emails pouring out of my ceiling. Now, after I've finally played Minecraft, my nightmarish fits have turned into scenes in which I'm being attacked by giant block-shaped spiders, but that's neither here nor there. I can see why people have fallen in love with this game, and they have every reason to. Minecraft may not be an MMO by our standards, but it is an example of gaming done right. It's the purest form of everything we love about gaming, and it's a game that could teach MMO makers a lot about design, should they care to listen.
Working 16-bit computer built inside Minecraft
Sure, lots of players are building memories and geek tributes in the incredibly popular indie sandbox game Minecraft, but here's something actually functional: a working 16-bit ALU (arithmetic logic unit) designed entirely in the game. The "wires" are made from Redstone, a unit in the game that can carry a fiery charge. So to calculate numbers, creator "theinternetftw" just lights torches representing binary numbers on one end, and then waits to see which torches (representing binary digits) light up on the other; giving him the mathematical answer he's looking for. Crazy? Yes. Nerdy? Very. Awesome? Indeed. All the hard work must have been worth it -- theinternetftw has been posting about the project on Reddit and reportedly got a job offer out of it. But he's not done yet: He wants to add some memory to the computer and even make it "Hack" compatible, which means it would compile and run actual code (albeit very, very slowly). Said Minecraft creator Markus Persson via Twitter last night, "I saw the ALU, and I wet myself! Seriously, I got a hose and wet myself. With pee."
Minecraft earned $350,000 in a single day
As it turns out, the server troubles experienced by Minecraft last week -- which led to an impromptu free-to-play weekend -- might have served as a perfect marketing technique for the indie world-building title. When combined with exposure from Penny Arcade, this free weekend apparently served to make its players hungry for a legit version of the game. According to a Minecraft sales-tracking site, the game was purchased 25,936 times within the 24-hour period after it came back online last Wednesday, netting its creator, Markus Persson, somewhere in the neighborhood of $350,000. The game's sales dropped off a bit since the servers' revival, but have remained significantly higher than before the free-to-play weekend. That's a whole, whole lot of money -- but nothing compared to the paychecks the game's players have lost due to sinking entire lifetimes into their DIY projects. We just want to redo our palace's marble floors, finish the diamond tower and dam up this lake, and then we're done. We mean it this time!
Friday Livestream: Player's Choice edition [Updated]
This week we decided to do something different with the Friday Livestream. Frankly, I couldn't make a decision on what game I wanted to play in front of everyone today. I have so many games on my hard drive, and so little time to play them all! So, I did what any good confused editor does -- defer the decision to the community! I gave you four games to vote on: The Lord of the Rings Online, EverQuest II, Aion, and Minecraft. The call went out over the Massively.com Twitter feed, and you guys didn't disappoint! The votes have been tallied, and the game has been chosen... but which one made the cut? Find out by checking out our livestream after the break, or just click the link above to be taken straight to the video! Come and join us for another great edition of the Friday Livestream! [Update: The livestream is over, but you can check out our recording of the event right after the break! The chosen game was Lord of the Rings Online! Grats to the LotRO community for so many votes for your game!]
Your mine is the scene of the crime in fan's Minecraft trailer
With its primitive graphics and tough-to-explain premise, Minecraft doesn't do the best job of selling itself. Luckily, fan and YouTuber Vareide is there to step in after the break with his Inception-inspired trailer. And if that doesn't pan out? There's always R&B. [Thanks, Pat]
BioShock Infinite's Columbia city gets Minecrafted
A team of crafters led by one "DrKamina" has pieced together BioShock Infinite's floating city, Columbia, in the suddenly popular indie creation game Minecraft. The 3D model incorporates design elements adapted form screenshots and concept art, video and, of course, sheer imagination. The group's vision of Columbia is housed on DrKamina's "City of Rapture" server, which is also home to adorable recreations of BioShock's underwater utopia and Half-Life 2's City 17 and Black Mesa. Visitors be warned: Kamina and company run a tight server, as evidenced by the prominent graveyard for the banned. RIP Snifflles, Errorz and Deerman -- we hardly knew ye!
Minecraft server issues cause impromptu free-to-play weekend
If the latest Penny Arcade strip filled you with an interest/mortal fear of Markus Persson's indie sandbox title Minecraft, you'll be pleased to learn that the game is free to check out today (and possibly even a bit longer). On the game's official site, Persson reported, "Minecraft got way too popular for this humble server," leading him to temporarily shut down a few of the game's online services. Luckily for us spendthrifts, Persson decided to institute "a 'free-to-play weekend', or however long this will take to fix." You'll have to purchase the game and register a new account once things get back up and running, but this seems like a pretty great chance to see what the game's all about without paying for it up front. That is, if you couldn't suss out from the title that it mostly focuses on mining, and then crafting.
