Minecraft Alpha

[The Vortex Empire]

I'm surprised I haven't seen anything on here about this game yet. Anybody playing it?

http://www.minecraft.net/

In it's current state, it's pretty much First Person Dwarf Fortress minus dwarves. There aren't NPCs except monsters yet, but the dev plans on adding them.

[Mr Bean]

Hell yes Minecraft is addictive as hell

For a basic explanation of the game I turn to Penny Arcade



You punch tree's to get wood, wood can be turned into sticks, sticks can be turned into (with other materials) either torches to light up the dark or tools of various qualities. The world is randomly generated each time you start a new game and the world is still being generated as you play. IE the game only generates a 5km by 5km starting area (Up, down, east, west) and generates more as you explore.

In dark areas underground the walking dead can spawn as well as above ground when dark falls, so you have to fort up each night until the day comes.

Addictive is an understatement.

[Karza]

From what people are saying about this, you'd think it was a digital combination of legos and crack. But the way it is at the moment, I'm not really seeing it. Sure, it's fun to tinker with occasionally, but if you're not into humongous construction projects (and people have built some insane shit alright, check youtube), there's not that much to the game yet. Maybe when multiplayer survival is added it'll get more interesting.

[weemadando]

There is some potential for amazing stuff in there. I think it looks fantastic and the randomly generated landscapes can be stunning, even before you set about improving them.

Most impressive though are some of the creations. Like the guy who made a functioning 16bit processor in game. Think about it.

[Stark]

I'm really not sure how that's impressive. I'm looking for a game, not a tech demo.

[weemadando]

It's an example of just how ridiculous you can go. During an hour or so that I tooled about I built a lean-to under an overhang. And then got eaten by skeletons/zombies.

[Jaepheth]

I love this game.

It's not only already good/playable now, but it's also got a lot of room for improvement and future additions.



Here's a temple I built:


It's got a fire shrine, a water shrine, a double helix staircase in the center and a double row of columns lining the sides.

[Scottish Ninja]

That looks pretty sweet, but I think it'd be worth it to make those skulls out of obsidian.

[ShadowDragon8685]

If it works like Dorf Fortress, Jaepheth can farm obsidian by pouring water on the lava.

Man, this game looks like a soul-sucker.

[The Vortex Empire]

So I was just digging a deep mine, when I fell through a hole in the floor into a natural cave. I thought, "No problem, I'll just tunnel back up into the tunnel I just made." Unfortunately, I missed the tunnel, broke all of my picks halfway to the surface, and had to spend 30 minutes digging my way up by smashing rock with another rock.

Goddamn, I love this game.

[Dave]

If it works like Dorf Fortress, Jaepheth can farm obsidian by pouring water on the lava.

Yes.

Man, this game looks like a soul-sucker.

It can be. I was hooked for 6 hours when I first got it, but now I just mess around.

Believe it or not, I found the most rewarding experience was playing the nomad and constantly heading in one direction with just the clothes on my back things I could carry in my inventory. I'd walk through the day, find a divot in a mountain to hole up in in the afternoon, then make a workbench and a fireplace to while away the night cooking ham, smelting surface iron I'd found, and making tools for the next day's journey. When morning came, I just left that crap behind and kept going.

That was fun.

[Scottish Ninja]

In fact there's a map generator that is designed specifically to convert a Dwarf Fortress map to Minecraft.

[SAMAS]

If it works like Dorf Fortress, Jaepheth can farm obsidian by pouring water on the lava.

Yes.

Man, this game looks like a soul-sucker.

It can be. I was hooked for 6 hours when I first got it, but now I just mess around.

Believe it or not, I found the most rewarding experience was playing the nomad and constantly heading in one direction with just the clothes on my back things I could carry in my inventory. I'd walk through the day, find a divot in a mountain to hole up in in the afternoon, then make a workbench and a fireplace to while away the night cooking ham, smelting surface iron I'd found, and making tools for the next day's journey. When morning came, I just left that crap behind and kept going.

That was fun.

My best experience was the time I got lost, found a huge tunnel going all the way through the mountain, and holed up in it, digging straight down until I found the iron and redstone to make a compass to find my way back to my base. I'm now trying to make the tunnel into a real one, and making enough beacons (my world is seriously covered in mountains) to be able to get from the base to the tunnel without getting lost (yet again). I'll probably just build a road instead.

[Darmalus]

With the Pumpkin Patch looming (Oct 31), I am just building a kingdom for myself at the moment and planning on deleting all the extraneous chunks to see what regenerates on them once all the new stuff is added.

So far, I have a half built castle, a constructed but unfurnished town, 1.5 farms, 2 roads leading off to where I plan on adding hamlets and an ongoing forestry project where I hope to make it dense enough that monsters will spawn in it during the day.

On my disposable World5 map, I keep practicing with ever more complex mine cart and redstone systems, and create ever deeper craters.

[GuppyShark]

Is there a point to building these things? Do they attract NPC villagers that can work for you?

[Oskuro]

My guess (haven't played it) is that, much like lego, building it is the point. Won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm glad such a concept is being explored, and the retro art direction is interesting.

[Stark]

'Retro art direction'? I thought it was just 'shit graphics'. It's seriously 'worse than Underworld 1' level awful/hideous.

Without multiplayer, a point, or any meaningful interaction, it's just a tech demo for OCD people. I seriously don't get the appeal at all.

[Vendetta]

Without multiplayer, a point, or any meaningful interaction, it's just a tech demo for OCD people. I seriously don't get the appeal at all.

It does have multiplayer. The server code is available so you can run a persistent world people can log into and build shit in.

[Stark]

Does it really count if you are just fiddling with bricks? It'd be trivial - absolutely trivial - to make an effective multiplayer game (actual game, mind you) out if it, but I think I'm just missing the point.

[Mr Bean]

Is there a point to building these things? Do they attract NPC villagers that can work for you?

If by NPC villagers you mean it attracts Zombies and Shambles eager to feast on your flesh then yes.

Minecraft is in Alpha and already addictive. It has no point, no end game except when you stop building your little world. The default goal is "survive" and after that its do whatever you want. The game is a year or two from release but it's already addictive at this point just playing with blocks.

As for the graphics and their primitive state, if you want better graphics there exists graphic patches you can download. As it is in Alpha graphics are placeholder only. Just enough to let you know what's were.

[Stark]

Is there any indication of what is expected from the more advanced game? As a tech demo to test their scripting this is fine, but hopefully the guy isn't a self-indulgent moron like the DF guy.

[Mr Bean]

Is there any indication of what is expected from the more advanced game?

The basic idea is it's a survival horror game where your building structures to defend yourself. There will be variant game play types. The basic type is classic (What the game is now) where your plunked down in the wilderness and you have to fend for yourself. However survival will get harder as time goes on with more enemy types and smarter enemies. The second is sandbox mode where you can just build in the world. Third is multi-player versions of the first two modes (I count that as one) Forth that is Team Survival where your given tools, some equipment and a time limit where you have to build a little house/fort and hold of waves of enemies. Plus two other modes which are still in development and who knows what they will be.

As a tech demo to test their scripting this is fine, but hopefully the guy isn't a self-indulgent moron like the DF guy.

Yes, in the normal case this unfinsihed game would never be seen but it's just "some guy" an Indie developer who was working for home and released the Alpha he had built to raise cash to build the rest of the game (Which he did making over 100k off of 10$ pre-orderS) the full game is going to be 20$-30$ and contain much more.
It was one guy programing before he made cash so he hired two other guys and now it's gone from side project to full time job.

Also DF guy? ?

[Stark]

Dwarf Fortress.

Hopefully they evolve the idea a bit more, because even their end-goals don't sound interesting right now. Tower defence? Pfft. I was hoping they'd at least make some degree of specialisation or advancement so that cooperative/competitive teamplay was viable. Even more advanced interaction like that insane Unreal World game would be an improvement.

It's actually kind of sad that 'script demo' + 'stupid zombies' = 'reams of cash'. Game industry, doomed.

[weemadando]

I'm impressed by the game for a few reasons. The aesthetic, though blocky with low res textures, does manage to convey a lot. I actually have to say it's a good looking game.

The basic concept for me though I would have loved it 5 or 10 years ago doesn't appeal to me now. But if they push it in the directions that have been mentioned by the dev (questlines, better and more critters and NPCs) and you end up with something that is a borderline MMO with a persistent player created world, but that has a storyline and quests it could be interesting. As it is, it's something that I doubt I'll play again (I played when it was free a few months back) but will definitely keep following in case it ever hits one of my buttons.

[Oskuro]

'Retro art direction'? I thought it was just 'shit graphics'. It's seriously 'worse than Underworld 1' level awful/hideous.

When even stuff that does not need be made of blocks, like animals or clouds, are drawn with low-res square blocks, tends to mean it's an art direction, not just sucky graphics. And it is a practical choice, seeing how the terrain engine will make it look blocky anyway.

Without multiplayer, a point, or any meaningful interaction, it's just a tech demo for OCD people. I seriously don't get the appeal at all.

Yet other people get the appeal. Is it so hard to say "this isn't the type of game I like" instead of trying to claim it is not a proper game, or even say it is a scripting demo? Do you even know the difference between programming and scripting?


And I have finally played the free version of the game (the run around building stuff exclusively version). I like the terrain engine, and see potential for the game. I would personally set players on the randomly generated world, give them resources and a time limit for them to build their fortresses, and when the time limit hits, give them rocket launchers and flamethrowers and have them destroy one another.

The skeleton survival thing feels like can be fun, I had a fun time building a tower and flooding underwater caves, it must be even better when skeletons spawn at nightfall to chew on your skull.