Task 7 – Personal game review

Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox game where the world around you is randomly generated; meaning everyone who plays the game will play in a different environment. It is currently unfinished and in its beta stages, but has already sold 2 million units. It was originally created by one person, Markus Persson, who has now created his own company which is finishing the game. It is a Java based indie game with simple graphics.

I choose this game because I think it is very interesting and unique compared to most games which have been released recently, it is also incredibly addictive. It is a 3D game created out of simple blocks, there isn’t a story or any objectives except to survive and create whatever you want. At night monsters come out and attack you. You can create anything using everything. There are blocks such as, trees, dirt, gravel, sand, water and all sorts of ores

What I like about this game is the fact that one person created it, and with a small amount of time it became a big hit and sold millions of copies, just because of the interesting concept.  This was all without any marketing and no budget. The game has no tutorial as of yet, which means at first it is very hard to understand, and the first thing you must do is build a shelter, before all the zombies, skeletons, and spiders come and attack you. It is recommended to search the internet for guides on how to build things.

If you want to build anything you must first mine for it. To do this you must first gather wood by chopping down trees. You then use the wood to create a crafting panel, which is what you use to create all the objects in the game. From here you can make swords, axes, shovels pickaxes etc. You must also create a furnace which you can use to smelt all the collected ore such as iron, gold, diamond etc. To find all this stuff, you must dig into the ground, find caves, fight enemies and explore.

At first this game seems very simple, but there are so many complex things to make and build. Such as mine carts, which you can use to travel quickly from location to location, you can also use them to build a roller-coaster. There is also red stone, which can be used to power devices, such as mine carts, TNT, traps, doors, lights, dispensers, music notes etc. There is so much to do in this game and it’s not even finished yet.

There is also a multiplayer aspect of it, where you can join other people’s servers and build things with them, or just attack them. With a range of mods people have made, which involve extra creatures, blocks, vehicles etc. It is also possible to get texture packs which completely change the look of the game.

I think this game is great because it’s so creative and something fun to play to pass the time. It also shows how just having fun gameplay can make a great game, with no fancy graphics, story or characters. Here’s a fan made music video which explains the game quite nicely, although it is pretty cheesy.