I Minecraft, do you?
With my schedule lately, I have found it difficult to get in a game of TF2 or L4D2 or Civ5. But I have become somewhat fond of the latest indie hit, Minecraft. Unless you have been hiding under a rock, or queing for a raid group in World of Warcraft (same thing in my opinion), you may have heard of this interesting retro styled game already. If not, let me go over some basics.
Minecraft is a sandbox block building game with two main modes of play. The Classic mode is focused purely on creativity, and allows you to build unlimited structures with whatever material you wish. The Beta mode (a one time purchase of $22 US roughly) is kind of like an RPG where you must survive against zombies and monsters and are faced with geographic challenges in order to build your world.
I tend to play Beta as I enjoy the challenge and the exploring options that the Beta world encourages. The game world is procedurally generated as the player explores it. Although limits exist on vertical movement both up and down, Beta allows for an infinitely large game world to be generated on the horizontal plane.
The game starts by placing the player on the surface of the game world, often near the shore of a lake or ocean. The player can walk across the terrain consisting of plains, mountains, caves, and various water bodies. The world is also divided into biomes ranging from deserts to snowfields. The in-game time-system follows a day and night cycle. The player can acquire different resources and craft tools, weapons, armor, food, and various other items. By acquiring better resources the player can make more proficient items. For example, tools such as axes, shovels, or pickaxes, can be used to chop down trees, dig soil, and mine ores respectively. The game has an inventory system and the player is limited in the number of items they can carry.
During daytime, different non-hostile animals spawn, which can be hunted for food and crafting materials. Hostile mobs, such as large spiders, skeletons, and zombies will spawn in unlit areas, such as during nighttime and in caves. Armor can help mitigate damage from mob attacks, while weapons can be used to kill enemies and other animals. The player has a health bar, which is depleted by attacks from monsters, falls, or environmental damage (such as drowning or falling into lava or magma) and can be replenished by eating certain food items, or by playing on the easiest difficulty, at which health regenerates by itself. Upon dying the player is teleported to the starting spawn point or their bed and items in their inventory are dropped. The items can be recovered if the player reaches them in time.
Complex systems can be built using the in-game physics engine with the use of primitive electrical circuits and logic gates. For example, a door can be opened or closed by pressing a connected button or stepping on a pressure plate. Similarly, larger and more complex systems can be produced, such as a working arithmetic logic unit.
I am working on a world right now which I am treating as a frontier. Kinda building small survival huts for shelter as I work, and exploring the terrain. It is amazing how far the game has come in just the few months I have been playing. i.e. the addition of many types of biomes, and different tools and objects. I do have some suggestions however.
I would like to see slightly more realistic mining. For example, I would like to see ores and coal clustered into high density locations underground. Perhaps with some slight tell-tale surface features to hint to their presence. This would make prospecting for the most ideal mine site a must more realistic task, and encourage expansion and exploration. Sure ore and coal would be available randomly throught the map as it is now, but some rare areas will produce excessive amounts of it. These areas might be rare, maybe one such cluster in a 50 square chunk area (a chunk is a section of the game world).
I would also like to see more rolling plains. I always tend to see hills, and I kinda want to do some ranching and farming. Not really easy to do with hilly terrain. I would also like to see an option to make clay. Maybe 4 Dirt + 4 SandStone + 1 Water = 4 Blocks of Clay? Either way there has to be an easier way to produce bricks.
All in all, a good game for those who like to explore. I find I can play it for a few minutes here, and a few minutes there. I do have a Minecraft server set up. Sadly at the time of this posting it is not online. But I will get it online soon enough and add the IP Here for people to explore.