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Minecraft creator gauging interest in Vegas convention for game's launch
Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson wants to measure your interest in attending a Las Vegas MinecraftCon. Persson has posted a poll on his blog to do so and, as of this writing, the "No, definitely not!" crowd makes up 45 percent of respondents, with 23 percent answering in the affirmative. Persson posits on his blog that the MinecraftCon could be held in Vegas for the game's launch of November 11. He'd push out the "final release" live on stage, and there would be costume contests, speed building contests and Q&A sessions. He says the con would "probably" cost $90 per person, excluding hotel room and travel costs. If you're interested in adding your voice to the idea, head on over to The Word of Notch and vote.
Maps are coming to Minecraft in Beta Update 1.6
You guys, you've got to see our latest Minecraft masterpiece! Using only the bricks included in the core game and two months of intensive, virtual labor, we've managed to completely recreate all of Red Dwarf! You can come check it out right by that mountain. Or, wait. No, sorry, it's that mountain. With the trees on it. Right? You're saying it's not there either? Oh, no. No, not again. It seems that due to Minecraft's lack of cartographical support, we've misplaced yet another magnum opus. We are, as you might expect, crushed. If only we had held off on construction until the arrival of Beta Update 1.6 -- a patch which, alongside a few bug fixes, will allow players to craft and fill out interactive maps. Instead of becoming part of the UI, the map is an item which players will have to tote around in order to fill out. That seems like a small price to pay to ensure that none of our superstructures vanish into the ether.
Notch reveals plan for Minecraft mods
The blocky world of Minecraft already seems custom-crafted for modders, but creator Notch recently revealed plans to make the game even more tinker-friendly. Here's the skinny: Mod teams will be able to get a free license and access to the game's source code. They can't sell their mods, but they might have the option to license them (for a fee) to Notch & Co. if they're especially solid. Such mods will be accessible to anyone who has purchased the game. Though we're still waiting on details that explain precisely how mods will be implemented, it seems safe to say our M.C. Kids total conversion is horrifyingly close to fruition. [Thanks, Stephen]
Fan-made Halo UNSC frigates dock at Minecraft station
At this point in Minecraft's life, we expect every gigantic space ship from every sci-fi property has been recreated. Imagine our surprise then when we looked through our records and found no documented UNSC frigates from Halo. That changes now. Seen above is the work of Minecraft forum user Garified, who constructed not one but two UNSC frigates in the game -- one large-scale and one a bit smaller -- modeled after Halo: Reach's UNSC Savannah. We think you'll agree: kudos are most certainly in order.
StarFox and Minecraft characters recreated in Munny form
This dashing Fox of the Stars above is none more than a custom-painted Trikky figure put together by artist Jared "nikejerk" Cain. Pretty swanky -- the gun is cool, but that headset is the real star. It's the perfect accessory to never giving up and trusting your instincts. While you're at the source link, be sure to check out the Bub customized Minecraft-style, with artist 8bit using what look like little paper squares to recreate those pixels.
Minecraft hits the motherlode, reaches two million purchases
Slowly but surely, Mojang's indie blockbuster Minecraft is working its way into the collective consciousness of every human being on the planet. According to the game's official site, over two million people have purchased the game -- that's about 28 percent of Minecraft's seven million-odd registered users. The title first hit one million paid downloads back in January, meaning to complete its mission for world domination, it only has to keep up this pace of one million purchases every three months for another ... 1,700 years? Oh, man. They better keep those free content updates coming.
Meatcraft's Minecraft theme makes it okay for adults to play with blocks
An art project by Jeffrey Kam and Cody McCabe reconstructs Minecraft's ... construction in real life. "Meatcraft" is a collection of 1,500 cardboard blocks made using the textures from Minecraft. Visitors to the exhibit (shown at San Jose State University last month) were encouraged to build structures with the themed blocks on two crafting tables inside a fully Minecraft-ized room. There were even tiny little pixelated pickaxes and other tools. "We noticed several types of visitors in the gallery that very closely mirrored the different types of Minecraft players," the artists said on the project's site. "There are players who like to mine, some who like to build structures, and even some who simply stand around and watch the awesome things people do in game. In the gallery, those who were familiar with Minecraft began digging for ore, specifically the very rare diamond (we only had 4)." If you happen to run some kind of art space, and you'd like to turn it into a play space, you can contact the artists and set up Meatcraft in your own gallery.
PC Gamer releases 90-minute Minecraft demo
If you've been hesitant to drop your dough on the entry fee to Mojang's blockbuster ... block-buster, Minecraft, but you're unsatisfied with the super simplified, free-to-play Minecraft Classic, PC Gamer's willing to give you your first hit at no charge. The site recently uploaded a demo that will allow you to create a world and shape it as you see fit, locking you out after 90 minutes of playtime. You can keep creating worlds ad infinitum, provided you don't mind the time restraint, though 90 minutes isn't enough time to get much of anything done in Minecraft's cuboid world. Seriously, we've blown an hour and a half on building a mere treehouse. Which we keep in the backyard of our mansion, which took a team of eight contractors two-and-a-half months to complete.
Minecraft beta 1.5 released, our day gets even busier
We were worried that we wouldn't be able to find the time to dip our toes into today's beefy new release catalog -- now those worries have been abated, as we're one hundred percent certain we won't have the time. See, in addition to Portal Kombat, today also brings us the launch of Minecraft beta 1.5, an update which adds weather effects, statistics, achievements and some new minecart track pieces to the rapidly expanding title. We'll try to get a few spare hours to scope out all the new arrivals, but between all the fatalities and ro-bro-mancing, it's going to be a stretch. Is there any chance we can expand today, so that it lasts, like, 28 hours? Using black holes, maybe? We're not sure, but we're totally going to need to consult some science-folks.
Minecraft's weather, stats and achievements previewed on video
Minecraft's Update 1.5 looks to be one of the beefiest additions to the game to date, adding weather effects, a statistics page and a whole mess of achievements to the cuboid, world-building indie gem. Check out the video posted after the jump to see these new features in action!
Minecraft will officially launch on 11/11/11
Step aside, Skyrim, another endless world of magical adventure is set to steal your spotlight. That's right, Minecraft will finally be released later this year on November 11. Of course, the official release seems a little less momentous considering there are nearly two million people enjoying the game already. Minecraft maestro Markus "Notch" Persson notes that the "full version" of the game won't differ significantly from its current beta. In fact, it would seem that the most important distinction will simply be the removal of the "beta" label. Persson adds that the development team will continue to update the game with new features after the official release. Also, for what it's worth, Persson notes that he's "excited" for Skyrim too.
Minecraft beta update 1.5 to include weather effects
Since everyone knows that Minecraft's raked in a cool $33 million to date, Notch has taken it upon himself to, in true rock star fashion, make it rain. In a series of Tweets this morning, Notch revealed that Minecraft beta update 1.5 will add precipitation to the game, which could possibly have gameplay implications like watering crops, putting out fires, filling small holes and moistening wolves. By the way, "Moistening Wolves" is totally the name of our new, indie noise-rock band. Notch included an image of the weather effects at the border of two in-game biomes, showing off some sort of fantasy world where distinct rain and snow systems are allowed to hang out and be buddies. We called up our local meteorologist to see if this was a phenomenon that could occur in real life, and he literally exploded.
Minecraft has earned over $33 million, Notch reveals
Let that soak in: $33 million. All those dollars, slightly eroded by Paypal fees and taxes, come from around 800,000 alpha version adopters, who picked up the game at €9.95 ($14.26), and over one million beta version sales at €14.95 ($21.43). Currently, the Minecraft stats page lists 1,813,527 customers, pegging revenue at slightly above €23 million ($33 million). The figures come from a Reddit thread, where Minecraft creator Markus Persson (AKA Notch) shared the figures -- a level of success he admitted he's somewhat uncomfortable with. "I've always had a tendency to feel like I'm just not quite keeping up with demands, even before starting work on Minecraft. It's not gotten better by having a runaway hit like this." The latest update for the game, version 1.4, launched last week, adding a host of new features to the game. A documentary is also in the works.
April Fools: Minecraft update adds megatransaction store
And so it begins. Today is the annual celebration fraught with clever (and not-so-clever) gags -- the day of fools and fooling, as it were -- and Minecraft dev Mojang is clearly taking the event very seriously. Beyond adding actual stuff in the game's beta update 1.4, the developer has launched the new (totally fake) "Minecraft Store," which features a collection of in-game items for purchase. If the outrageous prices weren't enough of a tip-off -- $494 for the "Response from Support" item? -- the screaming Velociraptor from Mojang's match-three classic, BeDino Quest, which runs across the screen when you attempt to check out, should serve as enough of a heads-up. Unfortunately, a few sad sacks may still end up clicking away in an effort to snap up a $155 "Secret Griefer Identity" or what have you -- and to those folks, we wish you luck with the rest of today.
Minecraft beta 1.4 goes live, adds wolves, cookies and a new logo
Mojang's world-designing blockbuster Minecraft received a rather eccentric mix of new additions today with the launch of beta 1.4. As promised, wolves can now be encountered and tamed in your homespun world -- however, a less-advertised part of the update is the addition of cookies. What do these cookies do? We're not entirely sure, but we'd recommend keeping them away from your pet wolves. Those little bastards will eat the cookies right out of your hand. Other changes include the ability to reset your spawn point by sleeping in a bed, a fresh new logo (pictured above), and a few infrastructure tweaks to prepare for the arrival of achievements. Check out the full list of updates after the jump!
Defend your home with a motion-activated Minecraft Creeper
Tired of alarm companies failing you, and of man's best friend running away? So was Chris, creator of the motion-activated "Attack Creeper." Pulled from the wild world of Minecraft, the real-life version of the game's Creeper is far less terrifying. He won't, for instance, murder you in a clandestine mine. Combining a "cheap RC car," a PIR sensor, several cardboard boxes, and a melange of other electronic bits (not to mention a good amount of ingenuity), Chris' Creeper not only defends his house, but also terrorizes his neighbors. As seen above, Chris likes to place the Creeper in very appropriate locations. Head past the break to see a video of the monster in action.
Extra Lives running charity Minecraft marathon for Japan
To raise money for Japan relief (through the International Medical Corps), Extra Lives has started a Minecraft marathon, which is running through sometime Sunday. Go donate now to assuage the guilt you feel about spending this entire weekend playing Minecraft for your own benefit! If you want to play Minecraft and help the cause, donors of $20 or more will get a chance to play on the Extra Lives server, for "about three hours" per $20. Try not to destroy all the other players' stuff. This is a nice Minecraft game.
See what's being crafted for Minecraft documentary donors
2 Player Productions' Minecraft: The Story of Mojang has raised $160,269 through Kickstarter so far, so it's safe to say that production on the documentary will continue. However, you still have through March 26 to throw additional funds into 2PP's war chest to help get the film made -- and 2PP has some pretty convincing reasons for you to do so. The studio sent us concept art of the bonus items being produced by Fangamer, to be distributed to fans who contribute to the Kickstarter fund at different levels. For example, the "Box Pig" bank above is yours if you put in $500 or more -- and you get the wind-up Creeper, the DVD set, the signed print, and more. You can see the full breakdown of support levels online, and you can see all the concepts for bonuses in our gallery. We're trying to decide between just a DVD and a pickaxe wall plaque.%Gallery-119394%
Molyneux: 'Minecraft's the best thing I've played in the last ten years'
Is Markus Persson's blocky world-builder pretty much your favorite thing on the earth, right up there with blue cotton candy and baby laughter? You're among some pretty prestigious company -- in a recent interview with IGN, gaming industry titan Peter Molyneux sung the praises of Minecraft, even going so far as to say, "I think Minecraft's the best thing I've played in the last ten years." Molyneux added that he appreciated the solo efforts of Persson, saying, "he did everything on his own, and I think how brilliant and inspirational that is, to not need the full force of publishers and marketing people." That's not all -- we hear Persson developed the entire game while astride the back of a gallant steed while holding an eagle in each hand. Now that's inspirational.
Next for Minecraft: Pet wolves
Big news for Minecraft-ers looking to perfect the Game of Thrones simulations they've been tinkering with: A demo video reveals that pet wolves are currently being developed for the world-building sim. Okay, so maybe they're not necessarily as "dire" as the canines that attached themselves to the Stark family in George R.R. Martin's series, but at least they're really, really adorable. See for yourself in the video just after the break.
