Minecraft

Lore & Background

Minecraft is a sandbox video game developed by the Swedish company Mojang Studios. It was originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, with Jens "Jeb" Bergensten later taking over development after the game's full release. The game is played in three-dimensional worlds composed of discrete blocks arranged in a voxel grid, representing materials like dirt, stone, ores, and water. Players explore procedurally generated, virtually infinite terrain, breaking and placing blocks to build structures. Gameplay has no required goals, though an optional achievement system exists, and is viewed in first-person by default, with third-person options available. Players can craft tools, weapons, armor, and functional blocks such as furnaces and torches, and trade with villager NPCs using emeralds. A day-night cycle lasts twenty real-time minutes. The material redstone allows construction of mechanical devices and logic gates. Hostile mobs like creepers, skeletons, and zombies spawn at night or in dark places, while passive animals appear during daytime. The game's environment is procedurally generated using a map seed, divided into biomes with unique resources. Horizontally, worlds are effectively infinite, though a barrier exists thirty million blocks from the center; vertical space is limited by a bedrock layer. Minecraft supports multiplayer and a large community provides user-generated content including modifications, custom maps, and texture packs. The game has been ported to numerous platforms, and the Bedrock Edition, evolved from the Pocket Edition codebase, is a unified cross-platform version updated concurrently with the Java Edition, though with small differences.

Reader's Guide

Minecraft is a three-dimensional sandbox video game that has no required goals to accomplish, giving players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. An optional achievement system is additionally included. Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option of third-person perspectives. The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes, referred to as blocks—representing various materials. The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. Players can break, or mine, blocks and then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build structures. Players can craft a wide variety of items, such as armor, weapons, and tools. The game has an inventory system and follows a day and night cycle. The game also contains a material called redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates. The Minecraft environment is procedurally generated as players explore it using a map seed. The game features three independent dimensions: the Overworld, the Nether, and the End. Game modes include Survival mode, where players have to gather natural resources and manage health and hunger bars.

Did You Know?

• The game was originally created by Markus 'Notch' Persson using the Java programming language.
• The End dimension contains a boss enemy called the Ender Dragon, and killing it cues the game's ending credits and the End Poem.