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Oxeye Game Studio and Wolfire Games join Humble Bundle Mojam
As if the basic premise of Mojang's 60 hour Humble Bundle charity programming marathon weren't enough of an incentive for you to hand over as many of your hard earned dollars as you want, the Minecraft developer is now being joined by Oxeye Game Studio and Wolfire Games, who will be creating their own 60-hour indie experiences.Wolfire's game will be based off the same crowdsourced premise as Mojang's, which is an RTS shoot 'em up steeped in an ancient Egypt/steampunk setting. Oxeye Games, on the other hand, will be combining the second-place and second-to-last-place options from the genre poll by constructing "a dungeon crawler beat 'em up set in a post-apocalyptic World War II."All three teams are live streaming their progress at the official Humble Bundle site, and there's still about 20 hours left to go make your donation and claim your games before the event comes to a close.
Humble Bundle Mojam happens this weekend: vote on a game, see it made in 60 hours for charity
The Humble Bundle organization has done a fairly impressive job of raising money for charities with its name-your-price game bundles (also benefiting game developers, of course), but it's doing something a little different this weekend. It's enlisted the help of Minecraft creator Mojang for the Humble Bundle Mojam, a 60-hour coding jam (streamed live) that will see a game made from scratch and eventually sold, with all of the proceeds going to charity. They're also opening up the type of game to a vote, with folks able to choose from a number of different themes and genres, but the real kicker is that they're going to take the highest and lowest votes -- meaning you could see Real Time Strategy Beat 'em Up with a Steampunk / Ancient Egypt theme if the current voting holds up. Hit the source link below if you'd like to try to sway that in a different direction.Update: The voting is now closed and the stream is live at humblebundle.com (or after the break, if you prefer). The game they're tackling is a real-time strategy shoot 'em up with a steampunk ancient Egypt theme, and the donations are pouring in (totaling around $90,000 after eight hours).
Mojang making a Humble Indie Bundle game live this weekend
People love buying unfinished Mojang games -- so how about a game that hasn't even started yet? That's the premise of the Humble Bundle Mojam, the new Humble Indie Bundle going up tomorrow at 10AM CET (which is 4AM EST!) You'll find it on humblebundle.com when it's live.Minecraft creator Mojang is planning on making a game live over the course of 60 hours --streamed live on the Humble Bundle site -- and everyone who donates will get the resulting game. So what's this game going to be? That's at the mercy of the fans. Mojang is letting people vote on the genre and theme, and both the highest and lowest-scored of each will become the game. So the team could be at work on a "Peter Molyneux Racing Game in a Fantasy World War II setting."Incentives will also be offered for certain amounts. For example, in the video above, Notch promises to let Jakob Porser shave his beard for a million dollars. "With my fists," Porser added. There'll probably be some real ones too.
Notch reels in Psychonauts 2 talk
Ever since Double Fine snagged publishing rights for Psychonauts back in 2011, we've all hoped the studio would work on a sequel. Actually, no past tense about it -- we still hope Double Fine cranks out a sequel. And when Markus Persson (Notch) of Minecraft fame expressed interest in funding a sequel, we thought it was a dream come true.Then Double Fine went ahead and set records on Kickstarter as the developer sought funding for a new adventure game. Suddenly, Psychonauts 2 was on the backburner. But Notch hasn't forgotten about it, much as we haven't, and published a missive today with some more information. Spoiler alert: it's a much more difficult undertaking than we initially thought."The budget for doing a Psychonauts 2 is three times higher than my initial impression," Notch wrote on his blog. "I have NO idea if this is actually going to happen." He went on to say that he is still interested in doing it (and still believes it would be a profitable venture), but posits that Double Fine could simply go through Kickstarter again to fund the sequel, considering how crazy successful the company's first campaign currently is. Today it was revealed the Double Fine adventure game would launch on PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android devices."All I know is that IF the numbers work out and IF they still want to do it and IF they don't decide to self fund a sequel by doing more crowd funding (which is honestly what I would've done if I were them), I would be most interested in doing this type of investment." We hope it all works out, but be patient, fellow interested parties: if it happens, it's not going to be for a good long while.
Minecraft's latest snapshot introduces ocelots (look at his little spots!)
We've never seen an ocelot! Well, not one made out of cubes. The latest mob to hit Minecraft spawns in jungle biomes and can be tamed (or bred!) using raw fish, as seen in this video demonstration. The snapshot also changes skeleton AI and updates language files, but we know who the real star is.
MMO Family: Four ways to improve kid-friendly MMOs
Right now, there's a small war going on in our house. It's winter, we're all cooped up inside, and we're interested in different games. What's particularly interesting is that my kids will tolerate most of the games I play and join in, except for one: Star Wars: The Old Republic. They aren't remotely interested in it, and any time I fire it up, they push back by demanding their favorite game, which is Minecraft. It got me thinking about why kids would prefer a 16-bit, block-shaped world to a glitzy, voiced-over, multi-million dollar title. Adult gamers love to hash out why they love one game over another, but what makes games appealing from a kid's perspective? Furthermore, we often see differences in kid-friendly MMOs and their features compared to games for grown ups, but can those features be improved?
Notch asks community for permission to track player data in Minecraft
Mojang's Notch is a smart guy, not only in game design terms but also when it comes to managing his company's 20 million or so Minecraft players. The designer has posted a poll on his personal blog to discover whether his cuboid constituents would feel comfortable with the company collecting various types of anonymous data from its players.Currently, Mojang only tracks when a player logs into the game. Notch's proposal is to also track "non-private data" like gameplay-session length, your PC's OS type, whether you're playing in single or multiplayer mode and whether you're playing via the client or the web applet. The collected information would then be shared with the community, "as usual.""Naturally, the data sent will be fully anonymous," said Notch. "So it wouldn't contain any session information or your user name, and it wouldn't send any sensitive information that you might not want to share." To be perfectly honest, we're fairly surprised this kind of data wasn't already being collected. If you're part of the Minecraft nation, you can let your voice be heard by voting for or against anonymous data collection here.
Minecraft LEGO set passes review, will become official product
Last month, Mojang submitted a Minecraft project on LEGO Cuusoo, a site that gives amateur LEGO artisans a shot at creating an official set of bricks. Said project managed to accrue the required 10,000 supporters in a matter of days and has since been under review by the fine people at LEGO. Until now, as the LEGO Cuusoo blog has revealed that the Minecraft project has passed the LEGO review, meaning it will become an official LEGO product.While the set isn't quite ready for primetime, LEGO Cuusoo notes that LEGO is "developing a concept that celebrates the best aspects of building with the LEGO system and in Minecraft." The site asks for patience, adding that "these things take time."Indeed, we don't envy the task of translating the vibrant world of Minecraft into a set of sparsely detailed square blocks.
Hyrulecraft: Ocarina of Time reproduced in Minecraft
We don't know if you guys are aware of this or not, but people really love Zelda games. Some people, in fact, love Zelda games so much that they've spent nine months completely rebuilding a Zelda game inside of a totally unrelated and entirely different game.The Hyrulecraft project, which is currently in the middle of live public alpha testing, is a to-scale recreation of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time inside of Minecraft. As you can tell from the above trailer, Hyrulecraft an impressive display of devotion to the franchise, but the team responsible has far more ambitious plans. Ultimately, they want to make Hyrulecraft "a unique Minecraft MMO experience including quests, NPCs, dungeons, free build zones, guilds, and more," according to their website.If cuboid reproductions of Nintendo 64 games really are your bag, baby, then hit the source link for information about how you can scope out the public alpha test and download the map for yourself.
Minecraft on XBLA working toward constant updates
Xbox Live Arcade is an excellent platform that's delivered some of our favorite games over the years, but the approval process for XBLA titles (and their subsequent updates) isn't quite as expedient as other platforms. For ever-changing games like Minecraft, where updates are as vital as they are frequent, this can create potentially destructive brand fragmentation where two distinctly difference experiences exist on two different platforms. Microsoft is aware of the issue, however, and as such will be streamlining the update process for 4J Studio's port of Mojang's runaway hit. "Microsoft knows that to do a similar thing that's on PC where they constantly update it, that's a very difficult thing to do on Xbox because you have to go through the full tests," said chief technology officer Paddy Burns during an interview with Edge. "But they are quite keen to move towards that - they do see it as the future, so I think we might be the first to do constant updates."Realistically, Burns never expects updates for the XBLA port to come as frequently or as easily as on the PC, but he does believe that "every two months" is within the realm of possibility. Upon release, XBLA's version of Minecraft will be based on the Beta 1.6.6 version of the game, which released just before last year's E3. Burns hopes to reach parity with retail version 1.0 as quickly as possible.
Minecraft guild creates massive world to help educate children
Yes, I know that Minecraft isn't technically an MMO, but with multiplayer servers, you can have up to 999 players connected simultaneously in the same space, which is ironically more than many MMOs. But I digress! Massively Minecraft (no relation) is a community of Minecraft players dedicated to the education of children on a massive scale through the popular indie sandbox. Created by virtual world vet Jokaydia, Massively Minecraft is "a Guild based learning community for kids aged 4-16 who are interested in developing digital media skills, exploring their creativity and developing online social skills." Of course, in an environment like that, there's an application process to get onto the multiplayer server's whitelist, so safety is a priority. You can learn more about how the Massively Minecraft community operates by visiting its website. [Thanks Tateru for the tip!]
The MMO Report: Shut up, that's why edition
Why does The MMO Report cover Minecraft? "Shut up, that's why," says Casey with a smile. In addition to chronicling Minecraft's newest FarmVille-esque update, the Beard meanders through the Dark Millennium Online cancellation rumors, The Secret World's Illuminati trailer, and TERA's upcoming May release date ("your cue to start claiming it's better than WoW, internet"). Finally, Casey touches on the patch delays suffered by Star Wars: The Old Republic, excusing the tardiness by suggesting the promised dates are more like guidelines, and besides, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes." All this and a quick dip into Uncle Casey's Mailbag can be found in the full HD video behind the cut.
Minecraft Pocket Edition building worlds in 700K pockets
We don't know if you guys knew this or not, but Minecraft is, like, super popular. Not only has the desktop version of the game reached 20 million registered users, but Minecraft Pocket Edition for iOS and Android has broken the 700,000 sold barrier, according to Mojang's Daniel Kaplan. Between iOS and Android versions, Mojang is selling around 5,000 copies per day, which is a pretty amazing feat considering the game costs $6.99 and has no crafting or survival elements. Well, not yet, anyway. [photolinc via Shutterstock]
Minecraft hits 20 million registered users
Mojang mastermind Notch has tweeted that Minecraft has reached the 20 million user milestone, and that if each user weighed 154 pounds, that Minecraft's total player base would equal 25 percent of the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza. It's an interesting statistic, if somewhat of a stretch, only because it got us thinking about other ways to arbitrarily compartmentalize that sort of information. For example: Assuming that every Minecraft player contains the human average of 1.3 gallons of blood, Minecraft's player base equates to 39.9 regulation olympic-sized swimming pools full of vital fluids. Math is neat, isn't it?
Mojang working on three new games, two of which will be announced before Q3
Mojang seems to know that, like sharks, developers must continue to move forward at all times, lest they succumb to an early grave. The company's cuboid-smashing smash-hit Minecraft might be enough to allow Notch and crew a break, but rather than rest on their laurels the team at Mojang continues to plow ahead by working concurrently on three unannounced titles. One title is, of course, being spearheaded by Notch himself. As Minecraft's shimmering golden crown has been passed to Jens Bergensten, Notch is now free to focus on his new project that, according to Mojang CEO Carl Manneh, is still a complete mystery: "What it is today, I don't think he knows himself," Manneh told Edge. "We certainly don't. It's probably going to be a lot of testing and playing around to see what works." As for the developer's two other projects, Manneh says that Mojang is currently under non-disclosure agreements with other companies that prevent the developer from being as transparent as it would normally prefer. However, both games will be announced (and potentially even released) during the first half of 2012. Our gut instincts tell us that at least one of these new titles will be a Kinect-enabled rhythm/shmup thrift-store clerk simulator.
Minecraft 1.1 update adds languages, eggs and regenerative sheep
While Minecraft Pocket Edition players are still waiting for their very first update, the gravy train of newness for Minecraft classic players continues to plow mercilessly into the future. Version 1.1, which should already be live by the time you're reading this, includes bug fixes, new language options and eggs that allow you to grow pigs (and presumably other creatures). In addition, sheep now have the ability to regrow their wool by eating grass, greatly decreasing the amount of sheep you'll need to grow in those eggs. Man, that's a sentence I never thought I'd have to write again. You can see everything in action in the video above, produced by H.A.T. Films.
Minecraft Pocket Edition update tentatively scheduled for Feb. 8
In early December, Mojang's Daniel Kaplan announced via the Mojang blog that the developer was working on an update to Minecraft Pocket Edition in order to address player concerns that the experience was too different from its desktop counterparts, specifically the distinct lack of any survival or crafting elements. While the crafting system will require UI redesigns, Kaplan says that the first update, currently scheduled to go live on February 8, will make backend changes to "support the survival aspects of the game." It doesn't sound like any survival elements will actually be implemented this time around, but rather that this update will serve as the "foundation" for survival elements that will be added in later. The update also includes "neat looking animals and new blocks," as well as doors and fences, so now might be a good time to start building the farm you'll be furiously defending once the survival elements are patched in. [Thanks, Austin!]
Minicraft 2 in the works and needs a better name, Notch reveals
Notch, proprietor of Minecraft, has rode a massive wave of success over the last year. As part of the Ludum Dare 22 competition earlier this month, Notch created an even more pixelated version of his indie darling, called Minicraft. It took him under 48 hours to create on his own, and today via his Twitter account he revealed that a sequel is currently in the works. We don't have any information right now, but we imagine we'll be able to play it in, oh, four days?
Notch creates 'Minicraft' in less than 48 hours, you can play it now
Lest you missed the live stream, Notch has finished his creation for the Ludum Dare 22 competition. Created in less than 48 hours, Minicraft strikes a familiar, albeit pixelated chord. Kill monsters, collect resources, build stuff. You can check out the browser game for yourself right here.
Mojang's next work-in-progress, Cobalt, now available
You already kinda sorta knew about Cobalt, Mojang's first game launch as a publisher, but did you know that it'd be totally out today in Alpha form? Oh, yeah, okay, you already kinda knew that too. Well now it's official and has a price (€9.95/$13), but beyond that, we've also got a whole mess of info about today's launch. For one, the game will only be available on Windows PC initially, with OS X and Linux support arriving in "Beta." Moreover, there is no "single-player" version of Cobalt, only multiplayer and co-op modes -- according to Mojang, "hot seat" multiplayer is available on the PC and it's "theoretically limited by the number of USB controllers you manage to forcefully plug in to your poor computer." We're gonna go ahead and suggest no more than four, just to be safe. The game's Alpha also comes with a level editor, which Mojang hopes players will use to "create everything from single maps to whole campaigns from scratch." That isn't to say that the dev team at Oxeye Game Studio are sitting on their hands and waiting for the user-generated content to populate their game, however -- the announcement promises that the team "will continue adding their own maps and game modes to the game as well as continue work on the main campaign." Like with Minecraft before it, purchasing Cobalt in Alpha (or "pre-ordering" the final build, if you will) nets you access to all future builds of the game, barring the possibility of console or mobile ports. While there is no timeframe for the completed game's launch, the devs set a handful of milestones for themselves, such as the main campaign not showing up until after the game goes "Gold" (read: finished). In the meantime, we'll be sure to let you know when people start creating incredible homages to things they love within Cobalt, as with Minecraft before it.
