Minicraft

Minicraft is a 2D top-down action game designed and programmed by Markus Persson, the creator of Minecraft, for a Ludum Dare, a 48-hour game programming competition. The game was released on December 19, 2011.

Minicraft
Title screen of the original game
Designer(s)Markus Persson
Platform(s)Java applet
ReleaseDecember 19, 2011
Genre(s)Action, survival
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay

Similar to Minecraft, the player roams an infinite world and must find resources, fight enemies, and build a home. The goal of the game is to kill the Air Wizard, the boss of the game.[1] It is also stated in the official description, in line with the theme, that "the goal of the game is to kill the only other sentient being in the world, making sure you’ll be alone forever". The game is set in a top down perspective, and according to Alec Meer from Rock, Paper, Shotgun – the game has a touch of Zelda to it.[2]

Development

Minicraft was developed by Minecraft creator Markus Persson in 48 hours as a part of the 22nd Ludum Dare competition, which requires game developers that enter the contest to make a game in 48 hours based on a theme that is released just before the time starts.[3] For this Ludum Dare, the theme was "Alone".[2][4] During the 48 hours, Persson also livestreamed his coding of the game and made blog entries on the Ludum Dare website for significant milestones he reached.[5] Minicraft competed against 891 other games, with the judging based on nine categories, some of which include "innovation, fun, graphics, audio, humor and mood". The voting for best game was determined by the Ludum Dare community and the time for voting ended on January 9, 2012.[6][7]

Sequel

Persson tweeted on December 26, 2011, that he was working on Minicraft 2, but planned to change that interim title.[8] When asked what type of direction the game would be going in, Persson responded, "action roguelike with crafting and modifiable terrain."[9] On January 1, 2012, Persson announced via Twitter that the new title for the sequel to Minicraft was to be MiniTale.[10] He also obtained "the .com and .net" URLs with the title to host the game on.[11]

Other versions

PlayMinecraft

Currently there is only one unofficial website for Minicraft called PlayMinicraft, created by Shylor in 2011. The website has previously hosted many different versions of the game, but has since 2019 been edited to only include Minicraft Plus and the original source code.[12][13] Persson released the source code under Ludum Dare's rules, but under no license after the 22nd Ludum Dare competition.[12] PlayMinicraft also has a Discord server, where most of the discussion about the game occurs.[14]

Minicraft Plus

This version of the game was started by Davideesk and Dillyg10 in 2011.[15] Since then the game has been expanded with multiplayer, food, items, and mobs such as cow, pig, sheep, knight, among others. Most of the features in this version are based on the features in Minecraft. The source code is released under the GNU General Public License.[16]

Minicraft Delux

This version of the game was developed and released in 2012 by Samuel Werder. It added more features to the game like the ability to save and load games, the Archer and Lumberjack enemies, more equipment such as iron and gold boots, etc.

Ports

Fans of the game have ported it to various devices, languages and operating systems.

Platform Author
PlayStation Portable konchunas[17]
Nintendo 3DS Davideesk[18]
PlayStation Vita Rinnegatamante[19]
Windows Phone elznerp[20]
JavaScript ostracod[21]
C#+.NET xposure[22]

Reception

The game was commonly likened to the early The Legend of Zelda games, with reviewers like Rock, Paper, Shotgun writer Alec Meer adding, "It's a good (and compulsive) time, and impressively complete for a mere 48 hours of crunch".[2]

Boing Boing reviewer Rob Beschizza critiqued the game saying, "A spectacular achievement in just a few hours of coding, Minicraft casts the same spell as the real thing. It does, however, suffer from shallowness and grind. There's not much to do except plow through the process of emptying each level in search of better ores."[5]

VentureBeat writer Dan Crawley commented on the gathering system, saying, "A simple but addictive approach to resource gathering helps give the game a whimsical charm not a million miles from that of its big brother."[6]

Matt Bradford of GamesRadar stated that, "The project is about as basic as one can expect from a marathon coding competition, but the mere fact it's actually a solid, playable game is a testament to Persson's skill", and also pointed out that; "No doubt, this could easily be a discount app for iOS or a PS Mini."[7]

References
  1. Lee, Kevin (December 20, 2011). "Minecraft Creator Notch Makes Minicraft in 48 Hours". PC World. IDG. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  2. Meer, Alec (December 19, 2011). "Minecraft But Not: Minicraft". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  3. Senior, Tom (December 19, 2011). "Notch makes Minicraft in 48 hours for Ludum Dare". PC Gamer. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  4. Staff writer (March 8, 2012). "Minecraft creator designs Minicraft 'sequel' in 48 hours". BBC News. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  5. Beschizza, Rob (December 23, 2011). "Minicraft". Boing Boing. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  6. Crawley, Dan (December 19, 2011). "Minecraft developer makes new 'Minicraft' game in just two days". VentureBeat. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  7. Bradford, Matt (December 20, 2011). "Markus "Notch" Persson creates Minicraft in two days". GamesRadar. Future plc. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  8. Hinkle, David (December 27, 2011). "Minicraft 2 in the works and needs a better name, Notch reveals". Engadget. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
  9. Lee, Garnett (December 26, 2011). "Minecraft creator Notch working on sequel to Zelda-like Minicraft". Shacknews. Retrieved December 26, 2011.
  10. Hilliard, Kyle (January 1, 2012). "Minicraft 2 Has Been Renamed MiniTale". Game Informer. Retrieved January 1, 2012.
  11. Harrison, Josh (January 3, 2012). "Notch's 'Minicraft 2' Is Now 'MiniTale'". Ology. Archived from the original on April 23, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  12. "PlayMinicraft". PlayMinicraft. Archived from the original on April 26, 2015. Retrieved June 5, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  13. "PlayMinicraft". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on July 11, 2019. Retrieved June 5, 2020.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  14. "Play Minicraft Discord Server". Discord Me. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  15. "[V1.6] Minicraft Plus". Minecraft Forum. December 25, 2011. Archived from the original on February 7, 2017. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  16. Johns, Christopher (June 5, 2020). "Minicraft Plus Revived". GitHub.
  17. "Minicraft for PSP". konchunas.github.io. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  18. "Minicraft: 3DS Homebrew Edition". GBAtemp.net - The Independent Video Game Community. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  19. "PS VITA / PS TV - Minicraft PSVITA Homebrew Edition port by Rinnegatamante". PSX-Place. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  20. "Minicraft WP | diamond productions". www.diamond-pro.com. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  21. Eisenmann, Jack. ""MINICRAFT IN JS"".
  22. "xposure/MiniCraft.NET". GitHub. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
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