58 replies to this topic

[Toan]

I'll preface this with an apology. I'm so sorry, guys. I'm sorry, because you may find yourself getting addicted.

Where to begin?



Minecraft is an indie game being developed by one guy, whose name is Markus Persson - otherwise known as Notch. The game is... well to quote an article which put it rather well:

Minecraft drops the player into a vast, pristine, and hostile world in which they must build tools and find resources in order to survive. The focus is on gameplay, and graphics are deliberately crude. Both single player and multiplayer versions exist. In the multiplayer version, players are free to either collaborate or compete.

Imagine a world that's about as malleable as a world made of Legos, and you have Minecraft. You can build whatever you want, and people take that to the limit.

Now, I had heard of this game for months on reddit, but when I heard that Notch had to shut down the Minecraft website because sheer popularity from the Penny Arcade comics about the game DDoS'd the website, I had to take a look. Because of those comics and the avalanche effect that has on the internet, Notch has now sold over 200,000 copies of Minecraft at 10€ a pop (about $13.50 USD). And he's ONE GUY who did this entirely in JAVA. And the game isn't even out of Alpha yet (if you don't know what that means, think Beta testing, and take that a step earlier).

Anyway, I encourage you guys to give it a shot and see what you think. It's pretty fun making whatever you want and exploring what the randomly generated worlds have to offer - no two worlds are alike. I think you can try it out without buying it (when it boots, make up a bogus ID and when it fails, click "play offline". I hope that works). If not, I have to admit it's worth the money - from that point, every update is free forever and you can play it on any computer you want, and you have the option of multiplayer. (Plus, buy it sooner than later - when it hits Beta, he's kicking the price up to 20€!) If this thread and idea really takes off here on LA, I plan on asking Khuffie to set up a server for Minecraft (which looks terribly simple to do) and we can all play on the same world, making and building together.

Enough of my babbling. In the spoiler are a few pictures and videos. Make sure to check them out to see what the game is like. Then, y'know, try it and post.

Spoiler

For even more pictures that are totally more impressive: http://forums.gametr...-thread/1114326

Edited by Toan, 27 September 2010 - 10:40 PM.

[Nevermind]

I am buying this game asap because it looks like it is made of crack cocaine. Every block like one more hit.

Edited by Lazurukeel, 23 September 2010 - 01:35 AM.

[Steel Samurai]

I can attest to the awesomeness of this game.

[Twinrova]

Lmfao the "pooping hole" in that one screen has had me loling for a good five minutes already.

[Jasi]

I am horribly horribly addicted.

This is an (old) picture of my current abode in Minecraft.

Spoiler

I am building it to look more and more like Fallingwater (I know it doesn't so much in this picture.

Oh, and one of my rooms has a waterfall going through it.

Spoiler

Edited by Jasi, 23 September 2010 - 02:47 PM.

[Kasa Murasaki]

Thought I would add on to the Minecraft promotion bandwagon. Here are just a few shots of what I've built.

The bridge leading to the entrance to my still in-progress castle. Mossy Cobblestone! Exceedingly rare!

Spoiler

An early minecart track. I've actually gotten rid of it and rerouted it already, this was taken earlier today.

Spoiler

A glass tunnel that goes underground through part of the caverns under my castle.

Spoiler

My room, complete with a few paintings and chests, along with a nice wall window towards the bridge.

Spoiler

In short, I've been playing quite a bit of Minecraft as well.

[Sir Deimos]

This... looks great... I only have a laptop, but I imagine, given the crudeness of the graphics, that I should have no problems running it on a laptop, yes?

[Jasi]

Well actually it even lags on my computer a little bit, and I have a new Macbook Pro. I think it's processor-intensive because of how highly customizable your world is, so it takes a lot of memory. Maybe? I don't actually know much about computers, but that's my guess.

[Kasa Murasaki]

Well actually it even lags on my computer a little bit, and I have a new Macbook Pro. I think it's processor-intensive because of how highly customizable your world is, so it takes a lot of memory. Maybe? I don't actually know much about computers, but that's my guess.

Also has to do with the render distance as well as the level of detail. I've got mine set to lowest settings most of the time so it runs faster. It still stutters a bit.

Also, while I'm replying, I thought I'd post a few more screenshots, at the risk of making this a Minecraft picture topic.

A massive tree that you can climb into and upwards through.

Spoiler

From the top of the tree. A fall from this height will result in expletives, followed by death.
You can see most of my house from here, along with some man-made waterfalls.

Spoiler

The tree from part of my house... which is more of a castle now that I think about it.

Spoiler

A chandelier inside part of my castle.

Spoiler

I won't keep posting pictures, I just wanted to show off a bit more since everything's changed quite a bit since my last few pics.

Edited by Kasa Murasaki, 27 September 2010 - 05:01 PM.

[SL the Pyro]

Oh wow, I didn't think there were people on LA who played Minecraft. I've been getting into it only recently with my KWRPG buddies, and I do indeed enjoy it. Here's a map of what our community has done so far (spoiler'd because it's huge):

Spoiler

 map.png   1.49MB   25 downloads

(Screenshots coming when I can get back on my server, apparently the site went down just after I decided to take some pictures...)

Edited by SL the Pyro, 27 September 2010 - 06:35 PM.

[Kasa Murasaki]

Whoa, that's crazy! How'd you make the map image?

Edited by Kasa Murasaki, 27 September 2010 - 06:52 PM.

[SL the Pyro]

Our server host had some external programs to work with it... but I'm afraid I don't know which ones.

Edited by SL the Pyro, 27 September 2010 - 07:02 PM.

[Toan]

Whoa.

[Chikara Nadir]

This... looks great... I only have a laptop, but I imagine, given the crudeness of the graphics, that I should have no problems running it on a laptop, yes?

I have a three year old Macbook with 1gb of RAM, and although it uses up all of my available memory, it's never crashed. At most I run MSN and my internet browser at the same time as playing, and even then I get some crazy lag. XD

But the game itself pretty much runs just fine, unless there are twenty sheep/cows/chickens/pigs randomly trying to assault my house. I'm all about building and exploring, so I've put the graphics to the lowest setting (which still looks great), minimized fog (not sure why anyone would want their world to be fairly grey anyway...), and I've put it on Peaceful, which is the wimp's way of saying "I don't want to get attacked by 'splody monsters, instead I'm going to live in a happy land of pickaxes and sheep."

I do miss out on a little - I really can't find thread that spiders would drop, so I'm limited on being able to build a bow or fishing rod, but then I also don't have anything kill me and automatically empty out my inventory, unless I accidentally fall into a pit of lava when mining for obsidian.

Question about that tree - how the heck did you make it grow that tall? Is there some way to make saplings sprout from existing trees?

[Steel Samurai]

Whoa.

holy SHIT.

[Jasi]

Well actually it even lags on my computer a little bit, and I have a new Macbook Pro. I think it's processor-intensive because of how highly customizable your world is, so it takes a lot of memory. Maybe? I don't actually know much about computers, but that's my guess.

Also has to do with the render distance as well as the level of detail. I've got mine set to lowest settings most of the time so it runs faster. It still stutters a bit.

Also, while I'm replying, I thought I'd post a few more screenshots, at the risk of making this a Minecraft picture topic.

I'm okay with this being a Minecraft picture topic, haha. I love showing my place off as well as seeing everyone else's cool ideas

Whoa.

holy SHIT.

AHAHAHAHAHAHA THIS RULES

Edited by Jasi, 28 September 2010 - 09:30 AM.

[Kasa Murasaki]

Question about that tree - how the heck did you make it grow that tall? Is there some way to make saplings sprout from existing trees?

Actually it started as a fairly large tree anyways, then I carved my way to the top and put a few dirt patches in the middle of some leaves, then planted saplings there. After those saplings grew, I repeated the process, and so on. I want to get it wider than it is now, trying to figure out the best way to do that.

Also the Enterprise is

[SL the Pyro]

I saw that enterprise vid and it looks amazing. I almost want to help with it myself.

As for the trees, yeah, you need to plant dirt on top of them and put a sapling in it. Why you can't just put a sapling in the existing tree logs I do not know.

EDIT: Finally got back on my server to take some pictures of my current home on the KWRPG community server. Spoiler'd for filesize:

Spoiler

My house as viewed from outside. As you can see, it's dug into a mountain.


Entering the house, you arrive at the workshop. Fairly basic, just a workbench and furnace beside a large chest. It gets neater as you head upstairs though.


The living room is a floor above the workshop, and I think looks pretty neat. Complete with chairs and a sofa, bookshelves and a jukebox. (After I took this picture, I decided to put a chest beside the jukebox to store records.)


The bedroom is a floor above that. Yes, I know the bed is nothing but a pair of cloth blocks, but I don't have anything better at the moment.


Outside of the bedroom is a pure-glass balcony that offers a nice view of the current town.


Back down at the entrance of my house, there is an entrance to a mine I'm working on beside it. I've found a lot of coal and iron in here so far.


Going deeper inside, you can see that I'm a stiff for aesthetics.

Now I'll bet you're looking at these and wondering, "What are these improved graphics!?" The answer is a downloadable graphics mod for Minecraft called the "Painterly Pack." You can find it here if you're interested.

Edited by SL the Pyro, 28 September 2010 - 03:12 PM.

[Toan]

Oh my god. This is so beautiful. And one of my favorite songs ever, too.

[Kasa Murasaki]

I've seen that video, it's epic. I really need to figure out a massive project like that and build it.

When I say "need," well...

Anyways, here's another vid that's on reddit now. Pretty ridiculous, I was proud that I got a conditional two-switch door working.

[Chikara Nadir]

I've seen that video, it's epic. I really need to figure out a massive project like that and build it.

When I say "need," well...

Anyways, here's another vid that's on reddit now. Pretty ridiculous, I was proud that I got a conditional two-switch door working.

I love how one of the top rated comments on Youtube is "5:54 - Are you listening, Piggy?"

[Kasa Murasaki]

Here are a few older pics I took of stuff I made in Minecraft Classic online before I got the Alpha version.


An underwater glass pyramid.


Using sponges to shape the water.


An underground library, with tree.


Pokemans (I didn't make those)


Massive glass staircase [to heaven].


Twin lava and water towers. These were fun. Gonna remake these in Alpha at some point.


Some "M.D." initials created by the shadows of blocks on a glass platform attached to the top of the two lava and ice towers.

Coolness.

[JRPomazon]

This game is pretty intense, I can't tell you how terrifying it was that first time the sun went down and the zombies came up.

Edited by JRPomazon, 08 October 2010 - 02:49 PM.

[Chikara Nadir]

But when the Creepers come out into the real world...that's when you'll truly fear.

[Kasa Murasaki]

This... just... wow. Kindof inspiring in a way that's different from the Enterprise or the computer videos.

Really shows the beauty of such a simple-looking game.

[SL the Pyro]

The new Minecraft update in a nutshell, presented in a way a Zelda forum can appreciate.

[Ikiosho]

Whoa.

HOLY

Oh my god. This is so beautiful. And one of my favorite songs ever, too.

FUCK,

This... just... wow. Kindof inspiring in a way that's different from the Enterprise or the computer videos.

Really shows the beauty of such a simple-looking game.

GUYS.

I've tried the free version and spent hours just messing around... but this... is almost too much.

[Kasa Murasaki]

Just wait until you get the full version.


WARNING: Keep messing around with Classic and you'll end up getting the full version. It happened to me.

Edited by Kasa Murasaki, 15 November 2010 - 07:29 PM.

[Sir Turtlelot]

Ikiosho and Rexan got me hooked on this game, it's freaking awesome. I'm pretty sure that I'll end up getting the full version.

[Rexan]

Ikiosho and Rexan got me hooked on this game, it's freaking awesome. I'm pretty sure that I'll end up getting the full version.

I got the full version

The monsters make scary noises though D: