The Beggining of Minecraft

YouTube.com

"I made a Minecraft treehouse" by colmmcsky is licensed under

“I made a Minecraft treehouse” by colmmcsky is licensed under

By: Christopher Yang, Journalist

2009 – “Cave Game” – Good Beginnings:

Minecraft first started as “Cave Game”, created in May 2009, made by a figure known as Notch. The game had only one inhabitant, you! Your surrounding area would consist of a flat plain of grass blocks. The user interface was extremely simple. There were no game modes, and there existed only two blocks, cobblestone and grass. You could also build and destroy (no “mining”, you gave yourself blocks through console commands). It was very different from the “Minecraft” we see today. However, the main reason why Notch made “Cave Game” was to demonstrate the ability of computers to generate “caves”.

2010-2013 – “Updated” – A New Experience:

Good news! Notch has added “depth” to the world and created three new blocks, grass, planks, and stone. People also felt lonely in the first version so Notch gave the ability to make “clones” that wandered aimlessly and moved randomly (just remember to play nice…) . You could build structures now and the borders of the map were no longer a void but an invisible wall with a bedrock bottom (bedrock isn’t yet considered a “block”). This was also when Notch decided to change the name from “Cave Game” to “Minecraft”.

(PS: For some reason though, there were tree saps that couldn’t grow.)

Minecraft Classic Now Available For Free In Web Browsers

2014 – “Minecraft – Classic” – An Updating Adventure:

Now when you wanted to place down blocks, you saw a sort of outline of where it would go. Water and lava were also created, but not to worry, Notch made sure that lava somehow had the qualities of water (it looked blue and translucent when submerged). Notch also made a game mode of sorts. “Hell” he called it, and “Hell” it truly was. Onto the topic of the land, the floating square that you used to lived on was now transformed into an island. More blocks got added in classic (iron ore, coal, gold, sand, and gravel) and all 8 blocks generated randomly in true harmony and they also existed in your tool bar.

(PS: Remember to make dams for the water and lava, or you’ll find it very difficult to clean up…)

2015 – “Minecraft” – Into The Spotlight:

With the purchase of Minecraft from Microsoft (2.5 billion Francs), Minecraft soared in popularity as an ordinary household could download and play the game. Microsoft started off tweaking with what Notch had made and releasing many updates (and they actually solved the infinity flowing water and lava problem). However, when Microsoft bought Notch’s creation, they started charging new players with a fee of $26.95. People are starting to stream the game and mods for the game are rising popularity, in fact, before Microsoft bought the game, Notch considered creating a sky dimension with floating islands. Unfortunately, players never got to see such a feature. And for the streaming community, the “Yogscast” – a streaming channel – was the center of attention in the community. And with these series of events over an evolution of over 5 years, “Cave Game”, turned into the household game today.

Special Features:

Before Microsoft bought Minecraft from Notch for 2.5 billion in 2014 (at a later date in the year), Notch installed content “secretly” or openly to the player base. Possibly the best updates came during the 6 week spree when Notch did “Secret Fridays”, giving players new content to find and explore (secretly). Unfortunately, we don’t have these “Friday’s” anymore, but Notch did a one-time “Secret Saturday” where people got fishing rods, boats, and much more. Notch also made an update to include the enchantment system and the potion brewing system. He even made the games first and last boss, the Ender Dragon. These features still exist today, but what made these special was the fact that one man (Notch) had programmed and released all of this content in a game that was simply meant to showcase how a computer could make a 3-D cave.

Related Stories: