All too late, I noticed the sun was setting on my virtual world. A cold chill ran down my spine as I realized the gravity of my situation. You see, the monsters come out at night.
Well, the monsters don’t only come out at night, they come out whenever, and wherever, it’s dark enough. But that’s just how the Survival mode is in “Minecraft,” a fantastic game I’ve been having a lot of fun with lately.
I’ve been following the development of “Minecraft” since I first heard about it last year. At that time, there wasn’t a whole lot to do. It took the idea of a “sandbox” game literally and placed you in one, giant sandbox, free to build and create whatever you wanted with little more than rudimentary blocks of earthlike materials. Like a giant LEGOLAND, you could delete and add blocks of earth at will, building huge, elaborate structures, or digging deep into the Earth, and that was it. Slowly, as the game grew, eventually you were able to mine for other materials and craft objects out of them (mine craft, get it?) But then came the monsters, and Survival mode had you scrounging and digging to gather enough material to make farm implements, weapons and other objects.
At the start of a new game, you have only your bare hands to break down rock, dirt and trees into their base parts and assemble into more complicated tools. From there, it’s very important that you find coal to make a torch with so you can see in the dark. Torches are important because they keep the monsters away; the monsters won’t come near the light — they burst into flames when they do. Eventually, the sun comes back up, and you’re free to go about your business ... unless you choose to delve into a dungeon and face them on their own turf.
The monsters come in a variety of shapes, from your average zombie to skeletons, spiders and other nasty things. They also carry weapons, such as bows and arrows and swords. They come out in huge numbers and can usually finish you off pretty quickly. It’s not a pretty sight. Your best bet is to just head underground, explore for new materials and work on some crafting. Just be sure to keep a good supply of torches to light your underground haven, or it’ll quickly become a breeding ground for evil.
The world of “Minecraft” is huge — something like the size of the actual Earth — so while you can only go so far up or down, you’ve got plenty of room in every other direction. It’s impossibly big, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that the graphics are very, very basic. The graphics are about the equivalent of a 3-D “Super Mario Bros.” Everything is represented with textured cubes and just a few shaders to make the water, sky and other elements look pretty. Again, it’s a lot like a giant, living LEGOLAND. But the most impressive thing is that it was all built by just one man — Markus Persson.
Inspired by games like “Infiniminer” and the equally obscure, extremely detailed “Dwarf Fortress,” Persson released the game in an alpha state in May, 2009 to wild acclaim. Almost anyone who’s played “Minecraft” is instantly pulled in, spending hours either just building things in Creative mode or trying to get by in Survival mode. It’s incredibly easy to get lost in. As if that wasn’t enough, Persson has more plans for the game up his sleeve with extra modes and MMORPG elements. Of course, while the Creative mode is free, Survival mode will cost $9.99 and comes with the promise that Persson will continue to develop the game.
“Minecraft” can be played on any computer with a Web browser and a decent graphics card. For more info, visit Minecraft.net.
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