Minecraft (ESRB: E10+, PEGI: 7) is a game created by Swedish game developer Markus Persson and later maintained by his company, Mojang AB. It was developed outside of any major studio in Persson's spare time illustrating a best of the public approach to game design. It has millions of players, and has been voted the top downloadable game by PCGamer.[1] It is a sandbox building game originally written in java code by the Swedish indie gamer, Markus Persson.[2] Official releases for iOS and Android have been released and the full version of the PC game was released on November 18, 2011 at MineCon(Minecraft Convention) 2011. The Android release was temporarily exclusive to the Xperia Play but is now available to the rest of the Android market. A version of the game for Xbox 360 was released in 2012. The gameplay is heavily inspired by Infiniminer by Zachtronics Industries, and Dwarf Fortress by Bay 12 Games. In 2014 Microsoft acquired Minecraft for 2.5 billion US Dollars.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Gameplay
* 3 Awards
* 4 References

## History[edit]

Minecraft was first released to the public on May 17, 2009, as a developmental "alpha" release. Although Persson maintained a day job with Jalbum.net at first, he later moved to working part-time and has since quit in order to work on Minecraft full-time as sales of the beta version of the game have expanded. Persson continues to update the game with releases distributed to users automatically. Persson plans to continue these updates after the release of the full game as long as there is still an active user-base. These updates have included features such as new items, new blocks, an alternate "Hell" dimension (accessible through construction of a portal) that Persson terms "The Nether", tamable wolves that assist the player, and changes to the game's behavior (e.g., how water flows).

## Gameplay[edit]

Minecraft is heavily reliant on the player's creativity, and is centered around construction. The game world is essentially made of cubical blocks arranged in a fixed grid pattern which represent different materials, such as dirt, stone, various ores, water, and tree trunks. While the players can move freely across the world, objects and items can only be placed at fixed locations relative to the grid. The player can gather these material "blocks" and place them elsewhere, thus potentially creating various constructions. Furthermore, the blocks can be combined with other items or used in crafting to create usable materials such as pickaxes, shovels, glass, torches and even complex circuitry. The game starts by placing the player on the surface of a huge procedurally generated game world. 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. Throughout the course of the game, the player encounters various non-human creatures, referred to as mobs. During the daytime, non-hostile animals spawn, which can be hunted for food and crafting materials. Hostile monsters, such as large spiders, skeletons, zombies and the dangerous exploding "creeper" will spawn in unlit areas, such as in caves or during the night.

## Awards[edit]

* Best Indie Game 2010
* Best Downloadable game 2010
* Best sandbox game 2011
* Best everyone's game 2010[3]

## References[edit]

1. ↑ ^ a b Persson, Markus. "Minecraft – Statistics". Mojang. Archived from the original on 2011-01-12. Retrieved 2011-01-13.
2. ↑ creator of minecraft
3. ↑ http://www.gamespot.com/minecraft