Author Topic: Minecraft - An Incredible Indie Game (Read 62324 times)

y0himba · « **Reply #25 on:** November 07, 2010, 08:57 AM »

Aaahhhhhhh...Sunday morning. My 9 and 12 year olds shouting back and forth from their computers trying to mine for diamonds and build iron pickaxes.

Deozaan · « **Reply #26 on:** November 10, 2010, 04:00 PM »

New Minecraft Update:

General fixes:
* players and mobs in lava or fire no longer spam sound effects
* getting hit with a higher damage while recovering from a smaller one now works as intended
* lava flows further in the Nether
* zombie pigs eventually forgives
* added support for custom skin packs
* fixed duplicate buttons when resizing screens
* zombie pigs and ghasts no longer get hurt by fire or lava
* fixed volume sliders now saving properly

Multiplayer fixes:
* hellworld=true no longer overwrites old save chunks. Player positions will still break if you switch it on a running server, though
* boats are now visible to other players
* minecarts move nicer
* fishing kinda sorta works, but needs more work
* sheep and cows look like sheep and cows now
* buckets work now
* fixed stairs being really difficult to destroy
* increased the timeout before “Took too long to log in”
* made it possible to ride carts and boats
* added (after lots of work) the ability to steer server-side boats
* added “no-animals” setting. if true, animals will immediately vanish
* added support for more animation settings. Currently it’s just the “riding” animation, but the same system will be used for sneaking
-http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1534664976/minecraft-alpha-v1-2-2-minecraft-server-0-2-4

More info about custom texture packs on the post (linked above).

I also came across this funny faux Minecraft LARP.

But I guess it's not really funny unless you've played the game.

f0dder · « **Reply #27 on:** November 10, 2010, 05:13 PM »

* zombie pigs eventually forgives

Yay!

* zombie pigs and ghasts no longer get hurt by fire or lava

Hm, perhaps OK for ghasts, but zombiepigs really ought to... baconize... from fire/lava.

Do nether-portals still appear more or less at random when you exit back to the real world?

Ah, the LARP video was cute - but stupid sod, he has a diamond sword but not a bow against the creepers?

Eóin · « **Reply #28 on:** November 10, 2010, 05:17 PM »

Unless you like assisted suicide ... or tricking friends into doing it and watching them freak out and panic as they try every method available to survive... only to fail
-wreckedcarzz (November 06, 2010, 03:46 PM)

How do you get monsters (mobs) in multiplayer? Do you have to run a custom server or something?

Deozaan · « **Reply #29 on:** November 10, 2010, 09:18 PM »

How do you get monsters (mobs) in multiplayer? Do you have to run a custom server or something?
-Eóin (November 10, 2010, 05:17 PM)

Monsters don't really work in multiplayer since there is no health or damage implemented yet.

* zombie pigs and ghasts no longer get hurt by fire or lava
Hm, perhaps OK for ghasts, but zombiepigs really ought to... baconize... from fire/lava.

Do nether-portals still appear more or less at random when you exit back to the real world?
-f0dder (November 10, 2010, 05:13 PM)

Yeah, ghasts randomly getting burned by magmafalls made the Nether even more creepy due to their screams they emit when harmed. And since when are pigs immune to fire?

This was in the changelog for 1.21.1 (Nov 5):

* Attempted to fix the portal dupe bug where you could exit through a different (new) one than the one you entered through.
-http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1486843146/minecraft-alpha-1-2-1-minecraft-server-0-2-3

So it should be mostly fixed, but I think he's still working on it.

f0dder · « **Reply #30 on:** November 11, 2010, 02:57 AM »

This was in the changelog for 1.21.1 (Nov 5):

* Attempted to fix the portal dupe bug where you could exit through a different (new) one than the one you entered through.
-http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1486843146/minecraft-alpha-1-2-1-minecraft-server-0-2-3

So it should be mostly fixed, but I think he's still working on it.
-Deozaan (November 10, 2010, 09:18 PM)

Hope so - because nether portals acted VERY strange when I played with them, resulting in 5+ portals appearing on my map after going back and forth a couple of times O_o.

I guess the game didn't "link" portals, but creates/uses based on world coordinates, and there is/was some fsckup in this.

Deozaan · « **Reply #31 on:** November 25, 2010, 08:45 PM »

Just posting to say that the multiplayer server has been updated and now health works. So now monsters in multiplayer are possible (and enabled by default, mind you).

There are bugs. It's not perfect.

Protip: Make sure you don't have your difficulty set to Peaceful (in multiplayer) or else monsters will be invisible, but they can still hurt/kill you.

Deozaan · « **Reply #32 on:** December 11, 2010, 02:41 PM »

Minecraft will be entering Beta phase on December 20th, at which point the price will increase to 15 Euros (from 10). If you've been interested all this time but still haven't purchased, now is the time!

Oh, and this is important:

We will also change the license to remove the line that promises all future versions of the game for free. Please note that this change only affects people who buy the game after December 20, so if you got the game for during alpha, you will still get all future updates for free, despite this change. A promise is a promise.
Buying the game during beta will include all updates up until release, of course, and bug patches will be free.
-http://notch.tumblr.com/post/2175441966/minecraft-beta-december-20-2010

So it's really important to buy now if you think you'd be interested, otherwise you may have to pay for expansions.

Notch clarified on Twitter:

Anyway, buying during beta = get everything up to and including release version for free. Expansions might cost.
-http://twitter.com/notch/status/13682437074718720

Eóin · « **Reply #33 on:** December 11, 2010, 03:03 PM »

A promise is a promise

Now that's integrity!

Deozaan · « **Reply #34 on:** December 15, 2010, 09:56 AM »

So one of the features added (somewhat) recently was the ability to use custom graphics packs. I've just been using a customized Painterly Pack (slightly modified in an image editor for personal taste).

But this one takes the cake for creativity:

The only catch is that it uses higher resolution textures than Minecraft natively supports, so you have to patch MC to enable the "HD" textures.

ScribbleCraft Texture Pack

And speaking of the Painterly Pack, they've just released a Christmas Themed texture pack.

Deozaan · « **Reply #35 on:** December 16, 2010, 05:45 AM »

The Minecraft website has been updated today. It looks much better and even features a new introductory video.

I've updated the first post to include this video:

lanux128 · « **Reply #36 on:** January 02, 2011, 03:30 AM »

Minecraft was recently voted in as PC Gamer UK's Game Of The Year..

• http://www.pcgamer.c...ks-game-of-the-year/

Deozaan · « **Reply #37 on:** January 15, 2011, 03:39 AM »

This was in the changelog for 1.21.1 (Nov 5):

* Attempted to fix the portal dupe bug where you could exit through a different (new) one than the one you entered through.
-http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1486843146/minecraft-alpha-1-2-1-minecraft-server-0-2-3

So it should be mostly fixed, but I think he's still working on it.
-Deozaan (November 10, 2010, 09:18 PM)
Hope so - because nether portals acted VERY strange when I played with them, resulting in 5+ portals appearing on my map after going back and forth a couple of times O_o.

I guess the game didn't "link" portals, but creates/uses based on world coordinates, and there is/was some fsckup in this.
-f0dder (November 11, 2010, 02:57 AM)

I just found this very enlightening on post on Portal Mechanics at the Minecraft Forum website.

I've noticed a lot of complaints, both here and on the GetSatisfaction site, about portals and how travel using them is a bit bugged at the moment. So in this thread I'm going to complile my knowledge about how portals work, and also list some of the common issues people encounter when using portals, and describe how to fix them and why the fix works.
-http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1020&t=132422

I strongly suggest you read this if you want portals to work the way you would expect them to.

I pretty much only play SMP these days--since health was implemented--and there is still no Nether in multiplayer yet.

Deozaan · « **Reply #38 on:** January 15, 2011, 09:37 PM »

I forgot to mention something pretty incredible: Minecraft recently surpassed the One Million purchases mark.

That's really amazing for an independent game made by a couple people without a marketing team or publisher.

Crunchgear has an article up about it

On Wednesday, it was announced that a game called Minecraft had hit a million sales. This probably isn’t the first time that you, a denizen of the internet, have heard that word. But unless you’re in the habit of following up on every indie game mention you happen to see, there’s a good chance this particular title might have slipped under your radar.

[...]

Why it matters

Sounds interesting, you say, but why should I care that a few guys have put together a cool little indie game? The reason you should care is because a team of four or five people using free libraries and cross-platform tools have just made a mockery of the last five years of franchise-oriented, $50 million budget, yearly-release, AAA game development. And it’s not just a fluke. The Humble Indie Bundle, World of Goo, Braid, and a number of other extremely low-budget titles have electrified the gaming community, while games with millions in marketing budget like APB and Kane & Lynch fall flat on their face critically and commercially. Gamer discontent with these barren blockbusters is palpable, and Minecraft is the new poster boy for it.
-http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/01/15/a-brief-explanation-of-why-minecraft-matters/

It's true. I bought Minecraft in December of 2009 for 10 Euros (about $15 USD at the time) when it was essentially a giant LEGO Land (now the free Classic mode) because it seemed kinda fun at the time. I never imagined it would turn out to be what it is. And even though I probably spent $200-$300 (if not more...) on video games last year by far the game I played the most and enjoyed the most was my $15 purchase from 2009.

Deozaan · « **Reply #39 on:** February 16, 2011, 02:20 AM »

XKCD does Minecraft:

f0dder · « **Reply #40 on:** February 16, 2011, 02:26 AM »

XKCD does Minecraft:
-Deozaan (February 16, 2011, 02:20 AM)

And opiates. Minecraft and opiates. Sounds like a match made in heaven ^_^

Edvard · « **Reply #41 on:** February 16, 2011, 06:21 PM »

Slightly NSFW:
http://www.escapistm...ation/2680-Minecraft

Deozaan · « **Reply #42 on:** February 16, 2011, 11:52 PM »

Slightly NSFW:
http://www.escapistm...ation/2680-Minecraft
-Edvard (February 16, 2011, 06:21 PM)

It's actually one of his more positive reviews. He actually likes the game!

f0dder · « **Reply #43 on:** February 17, 2011, 04:23 AM »

Ah, I love Yathzee.

Hadn't seen the minecraft review until now, and yeah - it's obvious he likes the game. The review was hilarious and true, and it made me laugh out more than a loud a couple of times. Yes, MC is the kind of game where you look at the wallclock after playing for a few minutes, and realize 9 hours have went past

Deozaan · « **Reply #44 on:** February 17, 2011, 11:49 AM »

Don't forget to read his Extra Punctuation article where he talks even more about his love for Minecraft, and what could make it even better.

Josh · « **Reply #45 on:** March 18, 2011, 12:22 PM »

Thought you all would enjoy this.

f0dder · « **Reply #46 on:** March 18, 2011, 01:45 PM »

Hah, pretty sweet video, Josh

Deozaan · « **Reply #47 on:** March 18, 2011, 02:58 PM »

Yeah, that's great!

Josh · « **Reply #48 on:** March 27, 2011, 09:22 AM »

f0dder · « **Reply #49 on:** March 27, 2011, 02:26 PM »

Haha, Josh - f'ing awesome!

In other news, I've just set up a small private MC server for me and a couple of friends... seeya!