Pocket Edition

Minecraft: Pocket Edition is the mobile version of Minecraft developed by Mojang AB. It was initially launched exclusively for the Xperia PLAY on Google Play for US$6.99 on August 16, 2011. It was later released for other Android devices on the 7th of October 2011. Minecraft Pocket Edition for iOS devices was released on Thursday, the 17th of November 2011 on the iOS App Store. On September 13, 2012, the Pocket Edition was made available for purchase on the Amazon Appstore. On April 2, 2014, the Pocket Edition was released for the Amazon Fire TV, with support for the Fire TV's controller. A demo/lite version of the game, which was essentially version 0.2.1 without world save functionality, was available until October 21, 2013. On December 10, 2014, the Windows Phone version was released on the Windows Store. On July 29, 2015, Minecraft Pocket Edition was released on Windows 10 as Minecraft Windows 10 Edition Beta.

Gameplay
The objective of the game remains the same as its more developed PC and Console Edition counterparts, where players can build virtual realities in a sandbox-like environment. Like its counterparts, Pocket Edition also has survival elements present in other versions of the game such as brewing, hunger, and dimensions like the Nether but doesn't include any bosses in Pocket Edition yet. The multiplayer mode is cross-platform compatible between all touch-screen devices capable of running Pocket Edition.

The HUD and other elements are adapted to mobile standards of gameplay. Interactions are made via touchscreen (both the iOS and Android versions of Pocket Edition have the same gameplay ). To comply with the disadvantages of touchscreen gameplay, several features were revised. For instance, the crafting system uses the MATTIS system and items are disposed by long-tapping their icon on the hotbar. For better visibility on mobile screens, blocks being aimed at are highlighted rather than outlined. Unlike mobile's crafting menu, Windows 10 edition's crafting menu is similar to PC and Console crafting menu. The game was released with graphics akin to that of Minecraft Alpha (bright green grass blocks, old cobblestone texture, etc.), but as of Alpha 0.8.0, graphics have become equivalent, and arguably better, than the PC version with light tinting and shading affected by the Sun's position. Differences from the PC edition include:


 * Some mobs have some sort of difference from their PC counterparts. See the Mobs section below.
 * Multiplayer allows for 4 ways of player connection:
 * Through a LAN, allowing for 5 players to be on a single server
 * Through Pocket Realms (as of Alpha 0.7.1) Pocket Realms was closed in Alpha 0.7.6 and now available again in the new Friendly Update that was released.
 * Through a user-created external server (as of version Alpha 0.7.4)
 * Through Xbox live (as of version Alpha 0.15.0)

Diversity
Pocket Edition differs from the PC version in a variety of ways, such as more vibrant graphics, revised terrain and exclusive items. The development team stated that once Pocket Edition is up to date with PC, it will start making its own diverse progress.

Development

 * Planned Features
 * Mentioned Features
 * Removed Features
 * Development Versions

Release
A video of an early prototype was released on Twitter, showing the game on the Xperia PLAY. The alpha version was recently released, and became no longer exclusive to the Xperia PLAY on the 7th of October 2011. The non-exclusive version was going to be released on September 29th for Android but there were several severe bugs that needed to be fixed; the release was delayed until the 7th of October.

A version for iOS devices was confirmed to be released before 2012 in an interview with Mojang and was subsequently released on the 17th of November 2011.

Alpha
After the initial releases for iOS and Android, updates were released in parallel, with the same features being added for both platforms. During the Alpha stage, various aspects of gameplay were introduced into Pocket Edition including: crafting, smelting, more blocks, items, mobs and more game modes to bring it closer to the PC version. As the Minecraft Pocket Edition development team works closely, often blocks released on the computer version are released around the same time for the Pocket Edition.

Snapshots
Starting on November 22, 2013, Mojang began to publicly release testing versions of full updates to Android users who opt into the beta program, in order to get major feedback, especially for bug reporting. This enabled the official updates to be considerably more stable.

Versions from 0.8.0 to 0.12.1 required opting into a Google+ group to receive development builds. Players would then see updates development updates appear as normal updates in the Play Store. On July 17, 2015, the Google+ group was removed due to the amount of spam and advertisements that the group attracted."  On November 3, 2015, the PE Beta team published a dedicated blog which was subsequently used for users to opt into the 0.13.0 beta program and to display changelogs for these development builds.

Success
As of December 2013, Pocket Edition had sold 16.5 million copies, while in the same time, PC had sold 13 million. These calculations came out after the 0.8.0 update.

On January 9, 2015, Jeb announced that Pocket Edition had sold over 30 million copies (at the time, PC had sold over 18 million).

This is considered a huge success, having Pocket Edition be more popular than any edition, though considered to be the least developed.

It is also usually in the top 10 and regularly #1 in the App Store's and Google Play's Paid Apps Section in the Top Charts.

iOS & Others
The iOS and other versions feature a D-pad at the bottom-left corner of the screen, which controls movement. When moving forward, two strafing buttons will appear. The jump button is located on the bottom-right corner, and the sneak is in the center of the D-pad. Sneaking can be achieved by double tapping this button. The location of the jump button and the sneak button can be swapped, in the controls section of the options menu. Note that when moving towards an adjacent block that is one level higher than the player, the player will automatically jump up the block. This can also be disabled in the controls section of the options menu. One can place blocks by tapping the screen in a desired location. Destroying blocks is similar to the PC version's way, but rather than clicking the mouse, the player taps and holds. Split controls can also be used, which allows you to place and break blocks similarly to PC, where a crosshair appears and allows you to place blocks using that. To change to third-person view, go to options > game, and use the slider. To open the inventory screen, tap the triple dotted button on the right of the hot bar. You can touch and hold an item in the hot bar to throw it, and if the hot bar contains a stack of items, it will throw the entire stack. You cannot divide it unless interfacing with a container (chest, furnace).

Xperia PLAY
* Controlled with slide out PlayStation keyboard:

– Open inventory

– Scroll right in hotbar

– Jump (press twice to toggle flying mode in Creative*)

– Scroll left in hotbar

D-Pad: Move

Left Touchpad: Sneak

Right Touchpad: Look/Turn

Select: Open crafting menu (Survival only)

L1: Break Blocks

R1: Place Blocks

Menu: Pause


 * * To fly: Quickly press jump twice in a row. To ascend, hold the up on the other side of the screen button and press up on the directional pad. To descend, hold jump and press down. (Creative only)

Tablet features
All devices have an option to enable Split Touch Controls, which may be more suitable for bigger screens. There is a cross hair and the right half of the screen lets the player rotate the camera.

Other than the screen size difference allowing any number of slots in the hotbar, the tablet version of the game is the same as other versions, hence the ability to play multiplayer cross-platform with other devices.

Windows 10 Edition
Windows 10 Edition has 3 control options:


 * Keyboard: Similar controls to PC, although controls for each key cannot be changed.


 * Touch Screen: Used with Windows 10 PC's touch screen. The controls are exactly like the ones in Pocket Edition.


 * Controller: Used with compatible controllers, with a similar button layout to Console Edition's controls. However, these controls can be customized.

System requirements
Some devices below these specifications have been known to work fine either with or without custom ROM images, kernels, and overclocking of the CPU. However, the CPU "MSM7227" is not supported due to its lack of the floating-point unit.

Helpful Tips

 * Make sure your battery is charged, and/or plugged in (3D gaming drains the battery quickly).
 * Get used to the controls before playing on servers (it is easy to mine the block under a torch by mistake).
 * Tap and hold an item in the hotbar to drop it.
 * Peer-to-peer networking requires TCP/UDP port 19132
 * If you're having trouble with block placement/mining accuracy - turn on split touch controls. This brings up the crosshair from the PC and Console versions to allow more precise placement. Also, you don't have to move your finger around the screen a lot.
 * If you want to move your old PE world to a computer, see these instructions.

Trivia

 * In the demo video, before the game was released, smooth lighting was available. It was taken out due to bugs being produced on a wide range of devices. As of 0.7.0, it is on by default, and since 0.8.0, it cannot be turned off.
 * The terrain.png file found in filesystem of the App is nearly identical to that in the PC version, containing textures for items unimplemented in the Pocket Edition (e.g., Command Block). However in 0.8.0, this file was replaced with terrain-atlas.tga, a neater version of the previous file
 * The barrier wall in old worlds is also cut by the height limit allowing players to go over it.
 * The average placing/destroying block range is 4-6 on the PC version whilst for the iOS/Android is 6-9.
 * Due to the auto-jump feature, if one opens the inventory or pause menu at the same time as jumping or swimming, one can go on auto-pilot and the player would jump, walk and/or swim without any commands. Auto-pilot ends once the pause menu or inventory is closed.