Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox video game originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson, maintained by Mojang AB, and part of Microsoft Studios. It is heavily inspired by Infiniminer. From its creation, Minecraft was developed almost exclusively by Notch until Jens "Jeb" Bergensten started working with him, and has since become head of its development. It features music by Daniel "C418" Rosenfeld and paintings by Kristoffer Zetterstrand. Initially released as what is now known as Minecraft Classic on May 17, 2009, the game was released as Minecraft 1.0 on November 18, 2011. Since its release, Minecraft has expanded to mobile devices and consoles. On November 6, 2014, Minecraft and all of Mojang's assets were acquired by Microsoft.

Minecraft focuses on allowing the player to explore, interact with, and modify a dynamically-generated map made of one-cubic-meter-sized blocks. In addition to blocks, the environment features plants, mobs, and items. Some activities in the game include mining for ore, fighting hostile mobs, and crafting new blocks and tools by gathering various resources found in the game. The game's open-ended model allows players to create structures, creations and artwork on various multiplayer servers or their own single player maps. Other features include redstone circuits for logic computations and remote actions, minecarts and tracks, and a mysterious underworld called the Nether. Ultimately, the completely optional goal of the game is to travel to a dimension called the End, and defeat the Ender Dragon.

Purchase and availability


Java Edition can be purchased from the Minecraft website. Gift codes can be bought for others, for the same price as buying the game for oneself.

Pocket Edition can be purchased in the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, Amazon App Store, Windows Phone Store, Windows 10 Store, Oculus Store, Apple TV App Store and Fire TV App Store for Android, iOS, Fire OS, Windows Phone, Windows 10, Gear VR, Apple TV, and Fire TV respectively.

Console Edition can be purchased in the Xbox 360 Marketplace, the Xbox One Markertplace, the PlayStation 3 Store, the PlayStation 4 Store, the PlayStation Vita Store, and the |pcrid|88724414053|pmt|e|pkw|minecraft%20wii%20u%20edition&pid=SEM_Title%20Terms%20-%20Title%20Terms%20E-&mwkid=%5Bdistribution%5D%5Buniq_id%5D_dc Nintendo eShop.

Player
The player is the person that the user controls in the world. When the user starts a game, the player is put in a world, generated by a random or specified seed, with an empty inventory. If the bonus chest option is enabled, a chest filled with basic items generates near the player. The player has a health bar with 10 hearts, and can be damaged by falls, suffocation, drowning, fire, lava, lightning, cacti, falling into the Void, and being hit by hostile mobs. Damage to health can be mitigated by armor, and health can be restored by eating food, or if difficulty is set to Peaceful, health will regenerate on its own. Hunger is also a factor if the difficulty is not set to Peaceful, depleting over time and even faster while sprinting. Food will replenish the hunger level; however, eating rotten flesh and raw chicken has a chance of giving the player a hunger effect. Depending on the difficulty level, a low hunger level will deplete a players health.

A player can change their skin on the profile page of Minecraft.net or in the launcher.

Blocks
Blocks are the objects that make up the Minecraft world. There are different types of blocks; natural blocks such as grass, stone, and ores are randomly generated within the world. There are also blocks that players can craft, such as a crafting table and a furnace. Resources can be extracted from blocks by hand or by using tools. Some of these resources are simply blocks in the player's inventory that can be placed elsewhere, while others are used as material to create other blocks or tools. Others yield no practical use whatsoever. Some blocks cannot be broken through normal survival means; these being Bedrock, End Portal Frames, and Command Blocks.

Mining


As the game's name would suggest, mining is one of the main aspects of Minecraft. Mining is done to extract ore and other materials from below the surface of the map. These ores include coal, iron, gold, redstone, diamond, lapis lazuli, and emerald. These are crucial in making several useful items. Mining can involve digging a hole from the surface or going down through a cave. Abandoned mineshafts create extra areas to look for resources.

Crafting and smelting


Crafting allows players to create new tools and blocks using items from their inventory. Subsequent versions often contain crafting recipes for new blocks and items. To craft, a player can use the 2×2 grid in the inventory or the 3×3 grid provided by a crafting table. Smelting requires a furnace in addition to fuel, and processes blocks such as iron ore into a more useful form (e.g. iron ingot).

Brewing and enchanting


Brewing creates potions from various ingredients and water using a brewing stand. They are stored in a glass bottle and then consumed by the player or thrown at other mobs to generate a certain effect based on the ingredients used to create the potion. Enchanting is also used to upgrade armor, tools, or weapons with a enchanting table. More powerful enchantments can be accessed by gaining experience and placing bookshelves around the enchanting table.

Mobs


Mobs (short for Mobiles) are the animals and other creatures that inhabit the map. These include zombies that attack by melee and summon other zombies; skeletons that have a bow and arrow, spiders that jump large distances and can climb walls, and creepers that explode when near the player. Rare mobs include spider jockeys, which is a skeleton riding a spider, chicken jockeys, which is a baby zombie riding a chicken, endermen, which are tall, black creatures with purple eyes and turn aggressive when the player looks at them, and slimes, which spawn deep within the map and in swamplands. The Nether features ghasts; flying mobs that spit exploding fire balls and attack without provocation, and zombie pigmen; modified pigmen with a golden sword that are neutral, blazes; which shoot fireballs and fly, and magma cubes, which are similar to slimes but jump a bit higher). In the End, the Ender Dragon exists. Withers can be built in all dimensions.

To aid the player there are several passive mobs: pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, rabbits and squid, and three tamable mob types, wolves, ocelots, and horses. Wolves will attack enemy mobs if the player engages or is attacked by them. Cats, or tamed ocelots will keep creepers at bay and can't take fall damage. Passive mobs other than wolves yield resources when killed, such as beef, porkchops, chicken, wool, leather, and ink sacs. If killed when on fire, the meat drops are changed to steaks, cooked porkchops and cooked chicken.

There is currently only one NPC mob: villagers, which spawn and move about within their village.

The Nether


The Nether is a dimension in Minecraft, accessible from the Overworld by a Nether Portal. It was described by Notch as "a brand new hell world". It consists mainly of Netherrack and generates lakes of lava. It is populated by Zombie Pigmen, Blazes, Ghasts, Wither Skeletons, and Magma Cubes.

The End


The End is another dimension of the game where the player battles the Ender Dragon. The End is accessible by entering an End Portal in a Stronghold. The End is composed of End Stone and is inhabited by Endermen. It also contains Obsidian Pillars and Ender Crystals that heal the Ender Dragon.

Multiplayer


Minecraft multiplayer servers have developed to include their own rules and customs, guided by their administrators and moderators. The term griefer, meaning a player who causes grief, is a typical term on the internet, but has taken up its own definition on Minecraft servers: a person who destroys or defiles other users' creations on servers.

Griefers are the reason many server administrators make rules, but this has been taken a step further with modifications to the Minecraft server and even plugin-based replacement servers such as Bukkit. Because of these plugin-based servers, new user-created features have shown up in Minecraft. This includes features like money, vehicles, protection, RPG elements and more. These features normally do not require modification to a user's client and can be accessed by using chat commands. With the default controls, the chat screen is brought up by pressing.

One popular game on multiplayer servers is Spleef (a play on the word "grief"), a game where the player's aim is to make another player drop through the floor by destroying blocks beneath the opponent's feet. This is typically played in a designated area.

Minecraft Realms
Minecraft Realms is an official subscription-based server hosting service that allows players to create and manage their own private Minecraft servers. Hosted by Mojang, Realms provides an easy and fast way to create servers and allows the owner to manage them from inside the game, without prior knowledge of the concepts for hosting on the Internet. However, Realms are not intended for large public servers, but for groups of friends or as a family server. Private Realms servers are easy to set up and available 24/7.

Java Edition
The original platform for Minecraft, running on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux and started through the launcher. The game was initially released for an "early private singleplayer alpha" on May 16, 2009, followed by a number of development stages (notably Classic, Indev, Infdev, Alpha, Beta) with the game finally being released on November 18, 2011. The Java Edition has seen many significant updates since its official release.

Pocket Edition


Minecraft Pocket Edition is designed for mobile platforms, with gameplay similar to Beta. It features many blocks, a local WiFi multiplayer, and is currently available on Google Play, the iTunes App Store, Windows Store, and the Amazon Appstore.

Minecraft Pocket Edition was released on August 16, 2011 and is designed for mobile platforms, with gameplay similar to Classic. It debuted on Sony's Xperia Play Android phone. The game is being developed by Mojang employees Jens Bergensten, Aron Nieminen and Tommaso Checchi. A version for all supported Android phones was released on October 7, 2011 after the exclusivity agreement between Sony and Mojang expired and the touch screen controls were added. On November 16, a version for iOS was released. On September 13, 2012, a version was released for Amazon FireOS.

Console Edition


Minecraft: Console Edition refers to the edition of Minecraft for consoles. The game has been continuously updated by its developers, 4J Studios.

The console edition was initially released on the Xbox 360 on May 9, 2012 followed by the unveiling on June 7, 2011 at E3 and the release date announcement on March 22nd through PlayXBLA's Twitter account. Console Edition was further released on the PlayStation 3 on December 17, 2013 (announced August 20, 2013), the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation Vita, the Wii U, and the Nintendo Switch.

Windows 10 Edition


Minecraft Windows 10 Edition was released July 29, 2015 and is a port of Minecraft Pocket Edition for Windows 10. The game is written in C++ rather than Java. This version is available in the Windows 10 Store.

Gear VR Edition
Minecraft: Gear VR Edition was released on April 27, 2016 and is a port of Minecraft Pocket Edition for the Samsung Gear VR.

Education Edition
Minecraft: Education Edition is an educational version of Minecraft specifically designed for classroom use. It is developed by Mojang AB and Microsoft Studios and contains features that will make Minecraft easy to use in a classroom setting. The full game was released on November 1, 2016.

Apple TV Edition
Minecraft: Apple TV Edition was released on December 19, 2016 and is a port of Minecraft Pocket Edition for the Apple TV.

Fire TV Edition
Minecraft: Fire TV Edition was released on December 19, 2016 and is a port of Minecraft Pocket Edition for the Amazon Fire TV.

Other
There are a number of other versions of Minecraft. Minecraft 4k is a simple version of Minecraft in the style of other "4k" Java games that Notch has entered in contests. The Pi Edition was a free ported version of the 0.5.0 version of Pocket Edition for the Raspberry Pi. which was intended as an educational tool for novice programmers. It allowed users to manipulate the game code and supported multiple programming languages, however was discontinued in January 2016.

Plugin API
Notch has always planned to add a plugin API, and announced official plans to support one in the game on April 26, 2011. As of yet it has not been implemented. In a post before the release of Minecraft 1.0, Notch said that the plugin API would be coming along with a new launcher.

When Jeb became head of Minecraft's development in December 2011, he stated that the plugin API would be his top priority, as "there is no way in hell I will be able to add as much content as the whole internet can do". He said that they were talking to existing mod developers such as Bukkit, Minecraft Forge, and Minecraft Coder Pack.

Resource packs
The game officially supports changing most of its various textures, sounds, and text through resource packs. These have to contain a certain structure of files and folders, contained in a .zip archive file and placed in the resourcepacks folder of the .minecraft folder. The resource packs, as well as the folder, can be accessed in the options menu. The extent to which the resources are changed is dependent on how many files are contained in the resource pack.

Skins
A skin refers to the texture that is placed onto a player model or mob.

The skin is divided into areas that act as the surface area of the character (for example, the front head area, left leg area, etc.). A skin will only allow solid color; transparency is not allowed on the skin file except on the second layer, which is transparent by default; playing offline, pixels can be left free resulting in "holes" in the skin. The second layer can be used to give the character glasses, hats, or other accessories (even a bigger head).

Unofficial mods
Minecraft can be modified by replacing or adding Java class files to minecraft.jar. This method of making modifications are not supported by Mojang as they can break the game if the mod is outdated, defective, or is conflicting with another mod. Some of these user created modifications have been found to impress Notch or Jeb and the original authors have been attributed under Additional Programming; an implementation of Paul Spooner's Forestry editor script (not actually an internal mod), Hippoplatimus' Piston Mod and Dr. Zhark's Mo' Creatures mod (horses) were added in Infdev (April 13, 2010), Beta 1.7 and 1.6.1 respectively, although the Forester script was later removed in Infdev.

Third-party programs
There as many programs designed for Minecraft. These include 3D map editors and viewers, game modifiers, various informational programs (such as crafting recipes), and server wrappers, and other specialty programs. As with mods, these too are not supported by Mojang.

Minecraft: The Story of Mojang
Minecraft: The Story of Mojang is a 2012 documentary created by 2 Player Productions about the history and development of Mojang AB. It was directed by Paul Owens and produced by Paul Levering, Peter De Bourcier and Burnie Burns, with additional funding given through a Kickstarter campaign. The movie was announced on February 21, 2011, was streamed on Xbox Live on December 22, 2012, and publicly released on other platforms, including The Pirate Bay, the next day.

Minecraft: The Movie
Minecraft: The Movie is an upcoming American-Swedish film based on the video game of the same name. It is being directed by Rob McElhenney and written by Jason Fuchs. It is planned to be released on May 24, 2019.

Minecraft: The Island
Minecraft: The Island is an upcoming novel by American author Maximillian Brooks. It is to be published by Del Rey Books on July 18, 2017.

Minecraft: Story Mode
Minecraft: Story Mode is an episodic point-and-click narrative-driven graphic adventure video game based on the sandbox video game Minecraft, released in October 2015 across multiple platforms with a Windows 10 release on December 16, 2015, a Wii U release on January 21, 2016, a Apple TV release on August 24, 2016, and a Nintendo Switch release on August 22, 2017. The game was developed by Mojang AB, the developer of Minecraft, in collaboration with Telltale Games. Music for the game was composed by Anadel, an atmospheric folk band based in California. The game follows the episodic format that Telltale has used for its previous titles, where player choices and actions have siginificant effects on later story elements.

Minecraft: Story Mode - Season Two
Minecraft: Story Mode - Season Two is an ongoing episodic point-and-click narrative-driven graphic adventure video game based on the sandbox video game Minecraft, released in July 2017 across multiple platforms. The game is being developed by Mojang AB, the developer of Minecraft, in collaboration with Telltale Games. The game is expected to follow the episodic format that Telltale has used for its previous titles, where player choices and actions have siginificant effects on later story elements. As with Minecraft: Story Mode, the game is split into five episodes, with the first episode scheduled to release on July 11, 2017.

Lego Minecraft
In December 2011, Mojang submitted the concept of Minecraft merchandise to Lego for the Lego Cuusoo program, from which it quickly received 10,000 votes by users, prompting Lego to review the concept. On January 24, 2012, Lego Cuusoo announced the concept was approved and they would develop sets based around Minecraft. In February 2012, the first Lego Minecraft set of Micro World was showcased and made available for pre-orders, with a release set for the summer of 2012.

Minecraft Books
The Official Minecraft Books are a series of guidebooks for Minecraft, written for new and inexperienced players while being high-quality enough for collectors. The books are written by Stephanie Milton, Paul Soares Jr. (paulsoaresjr), Jordan Maron (CaptainSparklez), Nick Farwell, Matthew Needler, Phil Southamt, Alex Wiltshire and published by Scholastic. There are currently five books in the series: Minecraft: Essential Handbook, Minecraft: Redstone Handbook, Minecraft: Annual 2014, Minecraft: Combat Handbook, and Minecraft: Construction Handbook They were first released in the UK in late 2013 (beginner, redstone, annual 2014) and early 2014 (combat, construction).

Awards


Since release Minecraft has won numerous awards including:
 * PC Gamer's "Game of the Year"
 * Independent Games Festival's Grand Prize and "Audience Award"
 * Good Game's "Best Downloadable Game of 2010"
 * Rock Paper Shotgun's "Game of the Year"
 * Indie DB's "Indie of the Year", "Most Innovative and Best Singleplayer Indie"
 * Game Developers Choice Awards's "Best Debut Game", "Best Downloadable Game" and "Most Innovative Game Award"

References in popular culture
Many references have been made in culture in response to the popularity of Minecraft, this includes many memes and also references in these video games:


 * In Super Meat Boy, Steve? is an unlockable character. He is known as Mr. Minecraft in this game.
 * In Battlefield Heroes, you could get a Royal Minecraft T-Shirt or a National Minecraft T-Shirt from the 29th to the 31st of July, 2011.
 * In Team Fortress 2, there is a hat called Top Notch that resembles Notch's avatar in a cubic form. Notch is the only person to have this hat.
 * In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Binding of Isaac, an item called the "Notched Pickaxe" can be found and used, referencing the game's creator Notch, and the pickaxes which feature prominently in Minecraft.
 * In ChopLifter HD, there is a hidden island with Steve and chickens in the "Operation Charlie Takedown" mission. When you save him, you unlock an in-game achievement. It should be noted that Steve is called "Blockhead" in this game.
 * In the PlayStation 3 game, PixelJunk Shooter 2, there's a small Creeper in the title screen hidden among other enemies native to Shooter 2.
 * In Borderlands 2, there is a hidden section of the game with blocks in the style of Minecraft's stone and ore blocks, which are breakable. There are also enemy Creepers in this same area.
 * In Torchlight 2, there is an area called "Notch's Mine." In it are Creepers, that can be killed for loot. There are also hidden swords in the game with the same graphics as swords in Minecraft.
 * In season 17 of South Park, the 2nd episode depicted a kid teaching Minecraft to adults.
 * In Patch 1.13 of Awesomenauts, a new skin for the character Clunk was added known as Creeper Clunk. It is unlocked by killing a player using the Creeper Clunk skin.
 * A vehichle card in Dusk of D.A.W.N. is called "Mine Craft". The description at the bottom says "The Mine Craft is truly top-notch". Notch's Twitter picture is hidden on the card.
 * One of the many paths in The Stanley Parable will eventually take the player to a Minecraft world.
 * In Plague Inc, a popular multiplatform game, there is a chance a message in the news will appear about a "Top notch diamond mine in Sweden, attracting Miners and Crafters". this is a reference to the value of diamonds, Notch, and the game itself.
 * In Terraria, there is a wearable creeper costume.
 * In Stealing The Diamond, you need to choose "Sneak In" and use a "Pick". A creeper will show up and explode.
 * In the The Walking Deceased movie trailer, the Minecraft zombie sound can be heard at 0:30.
 * In season 25 of The Simpsons, the 17th episode had a couch gag known as SimCraft, complete with Bartender Moe as a creeper blowing up the house.