Minecraft: Story Mode

Minecraft: Story Mode is an ongoing 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 PlayStation Vita and Wii U release arriving at a later date. The game is being developed by Mojang AB, the developer of Minecraft, in collaboration with Telltale Games. Music for the game is being 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.

Gameplay
Minecraft: Story Mode is an ongoing episodic point-and-click narrative-driven graphic adventure video game similar to Telltale's previous titles such as Tales from the Borderlands. The player is able to collect items, solve puzzles, and talk to non-player characters though conversation trees to learn about the story and determine what to do next. Like other Telltale Games, decisions that the player makes will have an impact on story elements in future episodes. However, unlike Telltale's previous games that carry more mature or emotional overtones including the death of major characters, Story Mode is known as a family-friendly title, so the decisions are still pivotal and emotional but do not involve mature imagery or themes. Elements of crafting and building, central to Minecraft, are included in the gameplay. The game also mixes new characters with original themes to make an entirely original Minecraft experience.

Plot
The story begins with the narrator talking about the Order of the Stone: Gabriel the Warrior, Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer, Magnus the Rogue, and Soren the Architect. The Order manage to defeat the Ender Dragon and slipped away into legend. In the present, Jesse, Olivia, Axel, and Jesse's pet pig, Reuben, are preparing for the Endercon Building Competition, and they decide on which mob to make. After gathering the supplies, they head to the competition and decide on a team name. A rival team, The Ocelots, vows to win the competition again, calling Jesse's team "The Order of the Losers". Nonetheless, Jesse's team completes their build, drawing attention from judges and other builders. Aiden, a member of the Ocelots, intentionally spills lava on Reuben's costume, setting it on fire with Reuben running off into the woods. Jesse then decides to either let his / her friends stay and protect the build, or go on with him / her and find Reuben.

In the woods, Jesse is able to find Reuben hiding behind some tall grass, but they are attacked by a group of hostile mobs. After finding a dead end, the player decides whether that Reuben should run back to Endercon, or stay with him / her for protection. After hearing Jesse's cries for help, Petra comes to Jesse's aid, and they retreat to a nearby cave. In the cave, Petra shows Jessie a wither skull that she got from the Nether, and tells her that a man is trading her the skull for a diamond. Jesse feels suspicious at first, but reluctantly accepts to assist her. On the way out of the cave, they are stalled on a bridge with hostile mobs charging at both directions. With no way out, they either jump or fight, and return back to Endercon.

Back at Endercon, Jesse congratulates his / her friends on winning the competition (or cheers up his friends if they lose), and is motioned by Petra to move to the "dark alley" for the trade. In the alley, they meet Ivor, who they trade the wither skull with. Petra is scammed with lapis lazuli, and she and Jesse attempt to stop Ivor. At the gate to the hall, the usher will not allow them in unless they have tickets, but they later find out that the usher is afraid of chickens. Coming up with a plan, they use a slime block to break open the chicken farm, causing the usher to become distracted and allowing Jesse and his / her friends to go in the hall.

In the hall, the group find an open door and sneak inside to find Ivor's secret room. Jesse pulls a lever to reveal a chest with two wither skulls, and a pattern on the wall. Lukas tells them that Ivor has intended on creating a Wither to destroy the convention, and they all agree to stop him. Having caught Ivor in his scheme, Ivor successfully retreats Jesse's group back to the main stage by spawning an iron golem. As Gabriel is talking to the crowd, Ivor shows up and pulls a lever, revealing the Wither. The Wither consumes the command block attached to its body, creating the Wither Storm. Jesse's group, Gabriel, and Ivor all retreat to Gabriel's castle, where a nether portal is found. Jesse lights the portal up and some of his / her friends go through, but Jesse aids Petra and Gabriel to fight off the Wither Storm. Just as Jesse attempts to save them, he is knocked back by a tentacle of the Wither Storm into the nether portal with Lukas.

In the Nether, Jesse's group of friends (minus Petra) confront Ivor, where Ivor tells Jesse that the minecart track is the only way out of the Nether. Dodging some ghast fireballs, Jesse's friends safely arrive at another nether portal, which leads them to a cliff-slide hill in the Overworld. They then decide on whether to make a hut or a treehouse and rest to recharge for the trip to the temple. In the morning, Jesse's friends find the temple, when it is revealed that Ivor was one of the members of the Order of the Stone, but was kicked out as he distrusted Gabriel. They them use the amulet to find out where the rest of the Order are, and the player chooses whether to find Magnus with Axel, or find Ellegaard with Olivia.

Voice cast




Jesse and Friends
Patton Oswalt as Jesse (male), a huge fan of everything going on in Minecraft, as well as the main character

Catherine Taber as Jesse (female)

Dee Bradley Baker as Reuben, Jesse's pet pig

Brian Posehn as Axel, who is fiercely loyal to his friends, but can appear to act impulsive.

Ashley Johnson as Petra, who is tough, shrewd, and very protective of her friends.

Martha Plimpton as Olivia, who is assertive and smart, but lacks patience.

Scott Porter as Lukas, a member of the Ocelots who later befriends Jesse and his/ her group.

Order of the Stone members
Dave Fennoy as Gabriel the Warrior, a powerful warrior who appears at EnderCon

Grey Griffin as Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer, who is very smart, but whereabouts are slightly hazy

Corey Feldman as Magnus the Rogue, who is hard to find but is also an impressive griefer who appreciates the "art" of it

John Hodgman as Soren the Architect, who is the hardest to find and whereabouts have not been known for a while

Paul Reubens as Ivor, a former member of the Order who distrusted Gabriel, and has vowed to demolish the world of Minecraft

Other characters
Billy West as the narrator, Siggie, and the fanboy

G.K. Bowes as Maya, Ivy, and the fangirl

Phil LaMarr as Gill

Matthew Mercer as Aiden and Otis

Jason Topolski as Usher, an usher at Endercon who is afraid of chickens.

Erin Yvette as the announcer

Lydia Winters as herself

Owen Hill as himself

Development
The idea for Minecraft: Story Mode came around the end of 2012 when Telltale was engaged in work for Tales from the Borderlands, an episodic series based on the Borderlands series. The idea of developing stories around other established video game franchises led the team to brainstorm the idea for a Minecraft-related game, given that the game was essentially a "blank canvas" for storytelling, according to Job Stauffer, and would create an interesting challenge. Telltale began negotiations with Mojang at GDC 2013, and began work on the title shortly thereafter. Stauffer noted that Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang was not a factor in the game's development, as their interaction with Mojang began well before Microsoft's offers.

Telltale opted to create a new main character of Jesse for Minecraft: Story Mode instead of using the default "Steve" and "Alex" characters from Minecraft, feeling that they did not want to attempt to rewrite how players already saw this character in the game.

Minecraft: Story Mode was formally announced in December 2014 as a collaboration project between Mojang and Telltale Games; the announcement was presented as an interactive adventure game named "Info Quest II". Its first trailer was released during the Minecon convention in early July 2015.

On June 18, 2015 a PS Vita sizzle reel included the Story Mode logo, despite the platform not being listed in materials released at that point. The game was directly confirmed to be coming to the handheld on August 31, 2015.

On August 21, 2015, Stauffer posted on Twitter that a playable demo of Story Mode will be available at PAX Prime.

On August 24, 2015, Winters posted on Twitter that she had completed voiceover work for the game, but didn't specify if she voiced a character or did some narration for the game.

On August 26, 2015, Telltale confirmed that they will release the game for the Wii U, representing the first time a Minecraft game has been released on a Nintendo platform.

On August 28, 2015, it was announced that the player will be able to choose the appearance of the main character, Jesse.

On October 7, 2015, Anadel, an atmospheric folk band based in Napa, California, announced that they had composed the music for the game.

Episodes
The game is separated into five episodes, released in intervals.

System requirements
According to the Steam page, the minimum system requirements for the PC/Mac version of the game are as follows:

Supported languages
According to the Steam page, the following languages are available in the game: