Minecraft

[Sly Reflex]

Have you played Minecraft before? If it's a yes, you already know what it's about, probably best to click off the thread. If no, pull up a chair.

Minecraft isn't for everyone. It's a very directionless game where outside the simple premise of building a house for yourself, you are free to do what you want.

In the day time the game plays out as a building sim where you spend time harvesting blocks of various materials. You start off by punching them, but soon enough you are able to knock together a means which will allow you to make tools. Tools allow specific materials to be harvested faster, axes allow wood to be gathered faster, shovels allow dirt or gravels to be smashed u[p faster and so on. On top of that, each tool you make takes a durability hit each time you use it, although as you progress you can make better and better tools for harvesting materials that you couldn't previously. Of course, the more materials you have the more things you can make, and the more things you can make the more materials you can get. It's a vicious circle or harvesting and producing.

At night you have one of three choices. You either hole up in the house or shack you managed to find or throw up before the sun went down and sleep the night off in a comfy bed, you curse yourself for over reaching yourself in building a house or you make equip yourself with the armours and weapons you made during the day time to try and endure the night. If you ended up doing the latter two options, you just entered the survival horror part of the game. They might be blocky sprites, but when you hear their howling or attack call it will make you panic. If you survive the night, it's back to the day time cycle.

There are a lot of things to do, even outside of building massive houses and castles for you to live in. The beauty of this game is that you can play for one day cycle which is about 20 minutes from what I worked out, or you could play for hours upon hours. If I was to do some game algebra it would be Animal Crossing + Keftlings + Survival Horror + First Person Perspective + LEGO = Minecraft. It's something you should at least try the demo of and see whether you like it if you have not tried it already. You can have a good piss about before the demo ends and get an idea of what you are getting into.

I personally didn't try the online part of the game, but I did grab about 40 minutes in splitscreen and it works really nice. The only think I do not like about it is that the menus have not really been optimised properly for a controller. The crafting part is fine, but just moving stuff about your inventory is a bit of a pain in the arse, I'm not sure how they could have handled it better, but I'm sure they could have done it somehow. It's made even more annoying by the fact that the hints and reminders are constantly pushing the inventory box to one side, it could have seriously done without that.

[dekard49]

I've messed about with this on the PC - is anyone buying this on the 360? I would be interested in building with a bunch of cool dudes, but it doesn't hold too much interest for me otherwise...

[Sly Reflex]

You'd be surprised, I have about 10 people on my friend list who are ranked in the leaderboards now.

[wholehole]

I've tried Minecraft previously, but I have trouble staying interested in this kind of game for extended periods of time.

I prefer Terraria for it's 2D viewpoint, but both games suffer from the fact there's no proper objectives laid out for you. That's a bonus to some and they're the ones who will get the most out of this.

1600 MARPs is a bit steep in anyone's book though...

[halfagogo]

I've tried Minecraft previously, but I have trouble staying interested in this kind of game for extended periods of time.

This^^^

have it on the phone and its good for dropping in & out but it gets old fast, and i have to say after all the updates, now you actually have to work for your equipment & blocks, it gets older quicker. - i dont want to fanny about making stuff & farming blocks/materials, i want to built the biggest most awesome sky castle in the universe! NOW!

I prefer Terraria for it's 2D viewpoint...

id love this on the 360.

1600 MARPs is a bit steep in anyone's book though...

its ridiculously steep.

[dekard49]

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/10/3012376/minecraft-xbox-360-edition-is-the-fastest-selling-game-on-xbox-live

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is the fastest selling game on Xbox Live Arcade

By Brian Crecente on May 10, 2012 04:35 pm 2COMMENTS

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition set new one-day sales records on Xbox Live Arcade today, selling enough copies to pay for development and start making money for the developers in an hour, according to Microsoft and developer Markus "Notch" Persson.

While Microsoft declined to give out specific numbers, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb wrote on his site that there are more than 400,000 people currently playing the game. The previous one-day sales record was held by Trials Evolution, which hit Xbox Live Arcade in April.

If you're interested in learning more about the game's transition from PC and MAC to Xbox 360 check out our review.

Hello, 1600 MSP future releases!

[Sly Reflex]

Gah, wtf happened to my post? I just posted the exact same thing when it went up on twitter.

I was playing earlier with friend online and it runs flawlessly. He was telling me that they are running competitions to design the character models as they are just standard ones that get chosen for you when you play now. He seemed pretty clued up about it all, he's played a fair share on PC and he was telling me that pretty much everything that is on the PC now is possible in the XBLA version, but the reason they barebonesed the XBLA is because they need player feedback to change stuff for the consolecentric nature of the way you play rather than shoehorn all the PC ways in that could potentially make it not fun.

I did have a loo to see where he was pulling this from but I couldn't find anything. If he gives me a source I'll post it up later.

EDIT: This post timed out. Stupid forum.

[retroed]

I've tried Minecraft previously, but I have trouble staying interested in this kind of game for extended periods of time.

This^^^

This also, and yet I still went ahead and bought it. I'm terrible at keeping attention with games that don't really have a point or ending.

[dekard49]

I've tried Minecraft previously, but I have trouble staying interested in this kind of game for extended periods of time.

This^^^

This also, and yet I still went ahead and bought it. I'm terrible at keeping attention with games that don't really have a point or ending.

What are you craftin'?

[retroed]

I haven't played much other than the tutorial. Not sure what I'll make first. A sodding big house, probably.

[dekard49]

Bought. Come and help me build the floating library of Dekadia. You know you want to!

[Sly Reflex]

XBLIG darling Adam Sawkins creator of FortressCraft is a bit annoyed.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-10-fortresscraft-dev-calls-police-after-suffering-ddos-attack-on-minecraft-xbla-launch-day

FortressCraft developer Adam Sawkins has called the police after suffering a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on his game's website the day voxel rival Minecraft launched on Xbox Live Arcade.

FortressCraft.com was crippled yesterday after the XBLA port of Minecraft launched to critical and commercial acclaim. Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson tweeted to say the 360 version, developed by the Dundee-based 4J Studios, was profitable after just an hour on sale.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Sawkins refused to name check Minecraft fans, but, reading between the lines, it's clear who he believes is responsible. "F**k you and your 'community', @Notch," he tweeted.

"We know *who* it was, but sadly we didn't get a note in the post saying WHY," Sawkins told Eurogamer. "We've sailed over our cap for the month so far, and are going through the process of talking to the police about it.

"Under British law, yes [the police can act on the attack]. Hacking is a fairly serious crime over here, and it's not a personal site, it's a business site. Loss of earnings, all that crap. I personally wouldn't have bothered, but the guy who does my website is FLAMING over it!"

Sawkins' FortressCraft is the most successful Xbox Live Indie Game ever. Earlier this year it notched up its 750,000th sale, and it's on track to hit one million sales in the next 10 months. But his success has been dogged by accusations that FortressCraft is merely a Minecraft clone - a claim he rejected in a recent interview with Eurogamer.

Perhaps predictably, Sawkins isn't in favour of Minecraft on Xbox 360, and over the past 24 hours has faced heated discussion on Twitter with those who have taken issue with his verdict. He expanded on those tweets with Eurogamer.

"The poor (relative) quality and alleged success of Minecraft 360 has confused me," he said. "4J had no budget restrictions, unfettered access to Microsoft, and a solid, world-class game as a template, and still managed to ship a game with a tiny world, no working skins, and no dedicated servers - and even that was a port of a 14 month old snapshot of the MC source base."

He continued: "[Minecraft has] a bunch less simultaneous players than FortressCraft has. And that's just muggins here doing that! I guess it's the old thing though, deliver minimally, promise a lot, and hope people forget; Kinect support went for a wander, and their track record for patching Android and iOS is.... uh... less than stellar."

Sawkins said the true impact of Minecraft's launch on FortressCraft won't be known for a few days, when data updates. But he expects sales will be "quieter".

"I haven't actually gotten any sales figures, but I can safely say that I've lost eight Twitter followers so far. I suspect sales will be quieter for a week, then people will get bored of the novelty of (a very old version of) Minecraft, and hopefully wander back.

"If nothing else, I've bumped 'finishing split screen' up my priority list."

In the meantime, FortressCraft.com remains offline.

Let's be honest Adam, you did rip Minecraft off, and you made a lot of money off it. You made hay when the sun shone , but now the real deal has come across to XBLA it's becoming overcast on your little cash in. Just be pleased you made some money, not everyone on XBLIG's can even claim to making as much money or gaining as much recognition as you have.

[shaolin_monkey]

Well, my jaw dropped when I saw the price, but the kids begged and pleaded, plus I did have with it on the PC, so I got it.

Impressions - draw distance is shit, and can be a bit jerky. Good multiplayer fun though - my daughter and I had a great gaming/bonding session on it last night. I've also been in a couple of people's worlds, which was cool. Accidentally flooded a carved cavern in one, and managed to blow up another's house when chased by a creeper. Oops. Probably just as well there's no mortars in this game.

[Sly Reflex]

Spent the night talking to TGK while playing this. I mined all the way down to the bottom and set up a field to grow some crops. Next I'm going to take all that lovely stone and build a farmhouse and maybe set up some more fields. I considered setting up some fences to pen in some animals but I don't know if that shit will work, as the animals seem to spawn at random.

It's weird, because the game feels like work, but it's enjoyable work. It's really rewarding to see what you have done in game too.

As a footnote, I seriously hate fucking Creepers. They can drink from my balls.

[spatular]

this game is awesome. been in party chat with people playing it quite a lot and the stories have been high quality not sure i'll buy it though, it doesn't really appeal.

[Craymen Edge]

I hadn't really intended to get it, as what I'd heard about the PC version made it sound like a bit too much work, especially the amount of looking stuff up on wikis for crafting.

I tried the 360 trial on Saturday and it really hooked me in. Having the crafting recipes all there in the interface is a better idea.

I bought the full game straight after the trial ended and messed around for the rest of the night.

I didn't bother saving my world; I just chopped a lot of wood until i had a garden full of floating bushes, built a little subterranean lair, then after a few nights went out and played with the monsters til i died. I haven't started a new world yet, but i see it as something i'll mess around with when i've got nothing much else to do.

[Sly Reflex]

This is a copy and paste job from another forum where Minecraft is really buzzing.

The first seed I did put me in a snow world, I had to trek for miles to even see a tree. Started again because there was bugger all there.

Spent last night making a massive 15x15 two floored house out of cobblestone last night, I even put a over hanging wooden roof on it, which caused me to fall off a few times. As an after thought I put another door on the 1st floor with an escape, which worked out well as I was wandering back to the house one night after collecting resources and a fucking creeper went right in the front door I stupidly left open. I actually went to bed one night and got woken up by a zombie, I'm not sure if that was down to me leaving the door open by mistake or whether it was too dark in my house, so I put a central pillar up and put torches all around it. I also put spires on the roof and covered them in torches so that I coud see my gaff for far away on a night.

The mine I dug straight down to that I was getting all the cobblestone from flooded with a fuck load of lava as I was trying to expand it. I was going to clear a whole room just above the bedrock but I fear doing that now as the way that lava popped through trapped me in such a way that I couldn't be riskier digging out blocks to escape. I was literally trapped in about 3 squares. I was thinking of trying to contain it somehow and maybe find a way of mining it.

I'm just playing on easy. I think it would be boring if I just played on peaceful I would probably be bored out of my mind without the monsters. Yeah, they are a pain in the arse but they add another layer to the game beyond the harvest and build.

I've started building tiny outposts out and about with tables, chests, lamps and signs directing me back to a house.

Whenever I get high up it looks like I can see some coastline, but I'm not sure if that's the game showing me some seascape or whether the draw distance is showing me a mirage.

Something which I have just started doing is separating chests for specific items. I spent a bit of time in Deansters world and noticed that he had chests and areas specifically for different stuff. I'm glad I saw that because otherwise I'd have still been packing stuff in loads of crates all in the same place. I've sorted everything into food/materials/furnace stuff. Made life a bit easier.

I've also fallen into a little habit of building big stone men holding torches whenever I'm miles away from home and I find something I don't have time to dig up. Got to the point where I can throw these men down in less than a minute now.

I'm also really dry on iron, I literally cant find any of that shit. I have plenty of that red shit that can be used for switches, but no bloody iron. Only managed to make a few buckets...

Craymen, whenever you cut down a tree, make sure you get all of the wood. Most trees you can just harvest all of them from the bottom, but some of them you will need to get up into the canopy and harvest all the branches too, so that the tree will completely die off and you can replace it with sapling. Easiest way to get on a canopy is carry some gravel with you. Jump up and place it underneath you until you are able to walk about in the canopy, then once you have gotten all the wood, just dig the gravel from the bottom. If you are lucky you might get a few bits of flint this way.

[TopGunKnacker]

i always replace the trees i chop down too, by getting a sapling from the leaves and planting it where the tree was. keeps the area looking nice, and wood nearby to harvest again!

[dekard49]

Pro tip, I like! I was playing Minecraft split screen with my sister, and we were having to make overnight excursions to get to the trees by the time we were half finished with our house!

[Sly Reflex]

This fucker is getting built!