Minecraft jungle biome teased, “green jungle is green”
Jungles are coming to Minecraft. Lead designer, Jeb has thrown up a teaser shot on Twitter with the words “green jungle is green.” And green it is indeed, with some lovely tall canopies and vine-choked bark. “Jon (@jonkagstrom) wants to add jungle animals later, but they will not be included in today’s snapshot,” Jeb adds, filling us with hope for Minecraft monkeys.
You’ll find the full quick below. As our Tom Francis said when he first saw the picture, “that’ll burn soooo quick.”
Minecraft reaches 20 million registered users, 4.6 million sales
Most developers announce mind-blowing sales milestones with bone-dry press releases full of quotes that run the gamut from “We’re pretty great” to “Yeah, what that guy said.” Mojang is not one of those developers. In celebration of the latest jewel in Minecraft’s blocky crown, Notch tweeted the following:
“At 4 liters per day, it would take a million years to drink 20 million liquidized humans. Just saying.”
As of writing, the exact numbers have ballooned to 20,146,41 registered users and 4,670,64 sales. In other words, that’s a whole, whole lot of replica Death Stars. Probably enough that – given the same number of man hours in real-life – we could have constructed a real Death Star. Alderaan, you owe Mojang big time.
Mojang working on three unannounced games
The success of Minecraft is just the beginning for developers, Mojang. They recently published their first third party game, Cobalt, and say that they have plans for three new releases, two of which could arrive in the first half of this year.
Speaking to Edge, Mojang CEO Carl Manneh says that these new games “will have a big impact on Mojang over the next year,” though he can’t reveal much about them just yet. “We have NDAs with companies,” he says. “We want to be very transparent about everything we do, but in this case we can’t.”
Minecraft patch 1.1 adds better bows, apples, monster eggs and sheepier sheep
The Minecraft 1.1 patch has arrived! The video from Hat films above covers the new features nicely quite nicely, and they’ve been listed over on theMojang blog as well. 1.1 additions include better bows, a mysterious “Golden Apple recipe,” different coloured eggs that can be used to spawn mobs and multiple language translations.
Sheep are sheepier than ever, too, with the addition of a new behaviour that lets them gobble grass to grow more wool for you to punch. You’ll find the list of enhancements from the Mojang blog posted below.
Notch: “No sane person can be for SOPA”
A growing chorus of developers, publishers and even congressmen are voicing their opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act currently working its way through US Congress. Notch, creator of Minecraft, is one of those people.
Under existing legislation, the creators of copyright-infringing material can be sued by the copyright owners. SOPA would extend this liability to any site that carries the copyright-infringing material as well. If someone posts a film on Youtube, the film company that owns the film could sue Youtube for carrying it. If someone then links to the film on a forum, that would expose the forum provider to court injunctions from the copyright holders as well.
ISPs and search engine companies can gain immunity from prosecution by blocking sites accused of carrying pirated material, and as it’s unlikely that Google or Youtube would go to court to defend content creators they’re barely associated with, this would likely result in huge amounts of material being taken down based on the mere accusation of an infringement. This would have devastating implications for Minecraft’s thriving fan community, the e-sports streaming community, and any forum that posts screenshots or videos. Beyond gaming, it’s a scary bill for sites like YouTube and Reddit, too. You can read the bill in full here Read on for Notch’s take on the act.
Minecraft village made real with 3D printer
If you’re really fond of something you’ve built in Minecraft and want to find a way to preserve it forever, here’s one way to do it. Minecraft fan and Flickr user, post-apocalyptic research institute, has uploaded a series of photos showing a model of their Minecraft village created using a 3D printer. According to the description on the Flickr account, the 3D model of the village was exported into a CAD program for colouring before being printed using a Zprinter 650 machine. It’s a pretty expensive process, but the results are quite lovely. Take a look.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – PC Gamer’s game of the year
We didn’t see this coming. Stupid, I know. But when we got our hands on an early build of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I was certain it would be the game of 2011. Skyrim would be great, but it would just be Oblivion with a bit more snow. So now that it’s here, why does it feel like so much more than that?
Battlefield 3 – PC Gamer UK’s online game of the year
Launch bugs and connection problems can’t dent Battlefield 3’s sense of ambition. Call of Duty might have bagged the ‘modern warfare’ label, but Battlefield 3 shows us what a modern online shooter can really be. Developers DICE have tapped into the potential of modern PCs to create online battles on a massive scale, and with technology that makes its competitors look years out of date.
Notch makes Minicraft in 48 hours for Ludum Dare
The latest Ludum dare competition challenged developers to create a game in 48 hours based on the theme “Alone.” Minecraft creatory Markus ‘Notch’ Persson has turned in his entry already. It’s called Minicraft, a top down, 2D take on Minecraft. You have to roam the world, punching trees, blocks and zombies in your way as you try to find the only other sentient being in the world, the Air Wizard, so you can kill him.
Ultimate Christmas Giveaway: Win a Minecraft poster signed by Notch
Apologies: we’re facing some technical trouble. If the link above isn’t working for you, please click here
Welcome to the PC Gamer Ultimate Christmas Giveaway! This is the biggest competition we’ve ever done: packed with peripherals, games, and exclusive items signed by some very important people. Why are we doing this? Because it’s Christmas! And we love you.
The Ultimate Christmas giveaway will run until Christmas Eve. Every day we’ll be posting about a new prize that’s up for grabs, and you’ll have 24 hours after the time of publishing to enter. Sadly, we’re only able to open this competition to UK residents.
Our old Minecraft server was a wonderful place, full of amazing constructions. Sadly it was also laggy and unstable, so we were recently forced to hit the big red ‘reset’ button and start over again. Before we did though we created these enormous posters rendering our old spawn area to commemorate it. Better yet, we sent them to Mojang, where Notch and the guys all signed them, just for you. Now here’s your chance to win one!
Check inside for details:
Mojang releases Cobalt alpha, you can buy it
Honoring its unexpected promise, Mojang has made Cobalt—it’s first third-party published game—available for sale today. Head to www.playcobalt.com to take a look. Like Minecraft, the side-scrolling, 2D, multiplayer platformer has been released as an alpha that’ll be updated over time. If you have a Minecraft account, you can use it to buy and access Cobalt.
Epic’s new game Fortnite looks like Team Fortress 2, is inspired by Minecraft
Epic announced a new game over the weekend called Fortnite. It’ll have a Team Fortress 2-esque art style and, according to Epic, is directly inspired by Notch’s indie block builder, Minecraft.
Fortnite appears to revolve around building forts to hold off waves of creatures that attack during the night, or rather ‘nite’. Whether the action takes place over two weeks is yet to be seen, but it looks as though there will be some creative building involved. In a tweet spotted by Eurogamer, Lead Designer Lee Perry says: “Minecraft was an inspiration for sure.”
Minecraft Lego! MINECRAFT LEGO!
Shut the shops down, people, Christmas is solved. Mojang have successfully pitched the idea for Lego Minecraft on Lego Cuusoo, a site that lets visitors vote on their favourite Lego prototypes. The sets aren’t in full production yet, but the idea has been so popular that the Cuusoo site has been struggling to deal with the traffic since Mojang man Daniel Kaplan tweeted about the project.
Notch steps down as Minecraft lead designer, plans to start new projects
Notch has mentioned on his blog that he’ll be handing over the Minecraft design reigns to Jens Bergensten, the Mojang developer who has been working alongside Notch on Minecraft for the last year. “He will have the final say in all design decisions, so he will kinda sorta become my boss,” says Notch. “I’ve promised him to not pull rank. ;)”
Team Fortress 2 gives Notch his own hat
When he’s not tweeting, Minecraft developer Markus “Notch” Persson loves to indulge in a little Team Fortress 2, according to his tumblr blog. He was recently invited to take part in the third TF2 Mixup, with famous Team Fortress 2 personalities such as Valve’s Robin Walker and YouTuber Freddie Wong blasting each other to bits.
Notch was enjoying the game, earning the Primeval Warrior medal, when suddenly he was awarded with his very own hat. It resembles Notch’s own visage, if it were made in Minecraft and then copied onto a cardboard box, and – so far – he’s the only owner. “I am never quitting TF2 again, and you should all go buy it right away,” said Notch. “How much is it, you ask? It’s FREE! YES!”
