Minecraft

[MrRobin]

Any of you lot heard about this success story? Or played the game?

This is just 1 guy, on his own, who has developed this ‘sandbox’ type game where you just build stuff (think Lego). It doesn’t have high end graphics (quite the opposite), or music, or a storyline. There has been no official marketing, there’s no big corporate publisher involved, there are no high street retailers stocking it, yet it’s just passed 1 million sales, i.e. generated circa €10M. In 1 year.

Inspiring stuff!

[MarillionFan]

Any of you lot heard about this success story? Or played the game?

This is just 1 guy, on his own, who has developed this ‘sandbox’ type game where you just build stuff (think Lego). It doesn’t have high end graphics (quite the opposite), or music, or a storyline. There has been no official marketing, there’s no big corporate publisher involved, there are no high street retailers stocking it, yet it’s just passed 1 million sales, i.e. generated circa €10M. In 1 year.

Inspiring stuff!

Link?

[Bunk]

I've heard of it, watched a video of it a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't really see the attraction but I'm pretty sure I'm missing something. Where does the money come from? Advertising, paying for the game, subscription?

[lightng]

My brother showed it to me when he was over at the weekend. Very blocky graphics and poor documentation but a lot of people rave over it. Its written in java and the original developer now employs a team - a great success story.

Have a look on youtube for things that have been built with it. Someone made a to scale model of the starship enterprise and someone else a working train station with junctions etc. Some people have too much time on their hands.

[MrRobin]

Link here: Minecraft

The money comes from sales, delivered as a download. There's no subscription. It costs €15 (was €10 until recently)

I think the appeal is expressionism. That is evident from the number of videos on YouTube. You can do what you want... you can build the biggest house, a replica starship Enterprise, a giant phallus, you can build a monster trap, you can blow up half the scenery, you can build a CPU's ALU, anything you can think of. Again, think Lego... what's the appeal of Lego? You can just do what you want with it.

[d000hg]

My brother showed it to me when he was over at the weekend. Very blocky graphics and poor documentation but a lot of people rave over it. Its written in java and the original developer now employs a team - a great success story.

Have a look on youtube for things that have been built with it. Someone made a to scale model of the starship enterprise and someone else a working train station with junctions etc. Some people have too much time on their hands.

Also functioning computers - Google "minecraft computer" or for example look at this:

Wonder if Minecraft will be, or has been, the subject of a Monday Link?

[ThomasSoerensen]

I got it about a month ago.

But it is too time consuming and I have too little need to express my lack of creativity so I have not used it much lately.

[thunderlizard]

looks nice. So it's sort of a snazzier version of 3D Construction Kit?

[ThomasSoerensen]

looks nice. So it's sort of a snazzier version of 3D Construction Kit?

yes, but you can by selecting the difficulty level add monsters who try to kill you during the night if you have not protected yourself.

[MrRobin]

looks nice. So it's sort of a snazzier version of 3D Construction Kit?

Yeah, kinda! But there's more interaction with the environment you build, and you have to first collect the materials you want to build with (by mining, digging, smelting, crafting)

I've played it a bit a while ago and did the obvious stuff i.e. built a big castle, a tall skyscraper, the deepest mineshaft etc etc. The ability to build circuitry did excite my inner geekiness but I didn't get round to it. I got bored of the game itself but still follow its progress in the business world.