Minecraft

I just found this cool new java game (as in you can play it in your browser). It's being developed by a one man team, and yet in the few weeks since I found it, I have gotten more enjoyment from it than many games created by large corporations.

The premise of the game is simple. The world is made of cubes. You break these cubes and you collect them. You can then replace those cubes wherever you like. The most simple thing would be to dig a hole. Then use the dirt you collected while digging to build a stair way back out. And of course there isn't just dirt. There is also trees to get wood. There is stone, coal, iron ore, gold ore, diamonds, lava, water, obsidian, sand, gravel, cobblestone, cloth, and others I can't remember now and maybe even a few I haven't discovered yet.

But it is not just that simple hole in the ground. No way. There is so much more it's unbelievable from a one man indie team (plus a really good musician) who's been developing for less than a year.

The real fun begins once you crack open the game's crafting system. You start out with a 2x2 crafting space in your inventory. You put blocks you've collected into the space in special patterns, and you get items in exchange. So you put in a cube you cut out of a tree and you get four planks. Put one of those four planks in each of the crafting slots, and you get a crafting table.

The crafting table unlocks a 3x3 crafting space. Put in some wood, you get sticks. Put in some sticks and stones, and fashion yourself a pickax. Mine for some iron. Craft a furnace to smelt the iron. Use the iron to craft some train tracks. There is just so much to make! Look at all these crafting recipes. More are added all the time!

And that was the crafting part. A minor piece of the game compared to all the great things you could build. Castles, bridges, entire cities, mines, farms, all manner of buildings.

Also quite recently electricity was added to the game. We received wires, switches, and inverters. Everything you need to construct digital logic gates. From NOTs to NOR Latches to clocks.

I must say, this is the best $12 I have ever spent. Compare that to a movie, or Onslaught (biggest waste of money ever). I've already gotten around fifty hours of entertainment. And not just sitting there "oh that's a pretty good way to pass the time" entertainment. I mean real entertainment. It is actually engaging and fun.

Oh and did I mention the level generator creates playing fields that are over eight times the surface of the earth? Yeah... I'm a sandbox fan. This is a big, cat-free, sandbox.


http://www.minecraft.net/