#Boundless game skill points code

Listen closely and you might hear the faint ting of an alarm bell here, signaling the possibility that Mojang-with its endless thirst for innovation and its rather promiscuous approach to consumer input-could end up losing sight of the game’s core identity, possibly even undermining its appeal. I’m looking forward to seeing what players will think about it, and what they will do with it.” “I’ve been playing this new version and it is amazing, but it also really changes how the game feels.

“What we are doing here is actually doubling the world size by making mountains much taller and caves much deeper,” says Bergensten. Today, as ever, Mojang continues to introduce its own updates at a rat-a-tat pace, including the new, hugely ambitious Caves & Cliffs. Essentially, it encouraged them to help out and contribute to the creativity.” The simplicity made it easy for players to mix blocks and create something that looks good on a larger scale. And we were also seeing it had some nice side effects. “But after a while it became its own aesthetic.

#Boundless game skill points code

How did Persson and Bergensten arrive at this decision? “Originally, the simple design came about due to practical reasons-cubes were the easiest forms to code and texture,” Bergensten says. The element that pulls all this together is Minecraft’s design, which made a mockery of the hyper-realism found in games like L.A. The Build the Earth project is recreating landmarks like Venice’s Salute church, brick by brick. It’s mind-boggling how people can be so dedicated.” “There was a team that built the entire Game of Thrones world. Already, sections of major cities-London and New York among them-have been completed, while teams in locations as far afield as Australia and the UAE busy themselves with similar projects. Today, there are tens of thousands of enthusiasts around the world engaged in a project called Build the Earth, which aims to construct a Minecraft version of the entire planet. “There have been times,” Bergensten says, “when modders have added really cool features.”īut the outside involvement gets more ambitious than this. This fact points to another defining characteristic of Minecraft, a collaborative spirit that is so ingrained developers openly embrace unsanctioned modifications (or “mods”) made by gamers, which can be as simple as creating tools or as elaborate as establishing a Mystical World, populated by a host of strange creatures. We’ve kept the snapshots that we release almost every week.”īy “snapshots,” Bergensten is referring to test versions sent out to players, who then get to weigh in on the pros and cons of the updates, identify bugs, and possibly suggest improvements of their own. Of course, the team got much larger and there are so many endpoints now, but we have tried to keep that playful mentality when creating new features. “In that first year, Markus and I would have an idea on Monday, then have it released by Friday, followed by bug fixing over the weekend. “I wouldn’t say the frequency of updates was intentional-it’s just the way it happened,” says Bergensten, who is now chief creative officer at Mojang. In the following years, you could barely blink without missing the addition of jungle temples, spectral arrows, polar bears, wandering traders, or marauding mobs of zombies. It was then that the impulse to tinker with the game’s format kicked up a gear. “We sometimes joke that if we knew in the beginning that it would take off like it has,” Bergensten says with a smile, “we would be even richer than we are.”Īt around the time of the Microsoft acquisition, Persson quit Mojang, leaving Bergensten to take the reins on Minecraft. Since then, it has become the world’s most popular video game, shifting a total of 200 million copies (as of last year), and attracting 126 million players a month.

The following year, Microsoft acquired Minecraft and its developer Mojang for $2.5 billion. Yet, in 2013, Time magazine put Persson and Bergensten on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Minecraft designer Jens Bergensten thinks of the game as a “literal sandbox.” (JENNIFER GRAYLOCK/GETTY IMAGES)