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Minecraft From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Minecraft

The Minecraft logo Developer(s)	Mojang 4J Studios (Xbox 360) Publisher(s)	Mojang Microsoft Studios (Xbox 360) Designer(s)	Markus "Notch" Persson Jens "Jeb" Bergensten Artist(s)	Kristoffer Zetterstrand Markus "Junkboy" Toivonen Composer(s)	Daniel "C418" Rosenfeld Version	1.4 Patch versions[show] Platform(s)	Java platform, Java applet, Android, iOS, Xbox 360 Release date(s)	PC (Java) WW November 18, 2011[1] Android WW October 7, 2011[2] iOS WW November 17, 2011[3] Xbox 360 WW May 9, 2012[4] Genre(s)	Sandbox, survival Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer Media/distribution	Download, in-browser

Minecraft is a sandbox indie video game developed and published by Mojang and released for PC on November 18, 2011. A version for Android was released a month earlier on October 7, and an iOS version was released on November 17, 2011. On May 9, 2012, the game was released on Xbox 360 as an Xbox Live Arcade game, co-developed by 4J Studios. Minecraft, originally created by Swedish programmer Markus "Notch" Persson, debuted on May 17, 2009 as a developmental "alpha" release, with a beta version released on December 20, 2010. The official release came after some work and development on the project.

Minecraft is focused on creativity and building, allowing players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D, procedurally generated world. Gameplay in its commercial release has two principal modes: survival, which requires players to acquire resources and maintain their health and hunger; and creative, where players have an unlimited supply of resources, the ability to fly, and no health or hunger. A third gameplay mode, named Hardcore, is essentially the same as survival, but the difficulty is locked on the hardest setting and respawning is disabled, forcing players to delete their worlds upon death. An outdated version of the game called Minecraft Classic is also available for free, although it is no longer being developed. Creative Minecraft resembles Minecraft Classic, but contains many more features.

Minecraft has received many awards, including five awards taken home from the 2011 Game Developers Conference. It took the Innovation Award, Best Downloadable Game Award, and the Best Debut Game Award from the Game Developers Choice Awards and the Audience Award as well as the Seumas McNally Grand Prize from the Independent Games Festival. As of October 2012, the game has sold over seven million copies on PC and over eleven million copies across all platforms.[5]Contents [hide] 1 Gameplay 1.1 Survival mode 1.2 Creative mode 1.3 Adventure mode 1.4 Minecraft Classic 2 Development 2.1 Soundtrack 3 Ports 3.1 Minecraft – Pocket Edition 3.2 Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition 3.3 Minecraft 4k 4 User generated content and DLC 5 Cultural impact 5.1 Reception 5.1.1 Commercial 5.1.2 Critical 5.2 MineCon 5.3 Popular culture and applications 5.4 Merchandise 5.5 United Nations project 5.6 Minecraft clones 6 Footnotes 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

Gameplay A screenshot of a procedurally generated terrain from Minecraft 1.0.0

Minecraft is an open world adventure game with no specific goals for the player to accomplish,[6] giving players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game.[7] However, there is an optional achievement system.[8] The gameplay by default is first person, but players have the option to play in third person mode. The core gameplay revolves around building and breaking blocks. The game world is essentially composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes—that are arranged in a fixed grid pattern and represent different materials, such as dirt, stone, various ores, water, and tree trunks. While players can move freely across the world, objects and items can only be placed at fixed locations relative to the grid. Players can gather these material blocks and place them elsewhere, thus allowing various constructions. The game primarily consists of two game modes: survival and creative. Unlike in survival mode, in creative mode, players have access to unlimited blocks, heal when damaged, and can fly freely around the world. The game also has changeable difficulty system of four levels, with the easiest difficulty (peaceful) allowing no hostile mobs to spawn.[9] A few of the hostile mobs in Minecraft, from left to right: zombie, spider, Enderman, Creeper, skeleton (creative mode).

The game starts by placing players on the surface of a procedurally generated and virtually infinite game world.[10] Players can walk across the terrain consisting of plains, mountains, forests, caves, and various water bodies.[10] The world is also divided into biomes ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, with one full cycle lasting 20 real time minutes. Throughout the course of the game, players encounter various non-player characters known as mobs, including animals, villagers and hostile creatures. During the daytime, non-hostile animals spawn, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, which can be hunted for food and crafting materials. During nighttime and in dark areas, hostile mobs spawn, such as large spiders, skeletons, zombies, and Creepers, exploding creatures that sneak up on the player.[10] Another mob that has been noted by reviewers is the Enderman, a creature with the ability to teleport and pick up blocks.

Complex systems can be built using the in-game physics engine with the use of primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits and logic gates built with an in-game material known as redstone. 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 – as used in CPUs.[11]

The game world is procedurally generated as players explore it, using a seed which is obtained from the system clock at the time of world creation unless manually specified by the player.[12][13] Although limits exist on vertical movement both up and down, Minecraft allows for an infinitely large game world to be generated on the horizontal plane, only running into technical problems when extremely distant locations are reached. The game achieves this by splitting the game world data into smaller sections, called "chunks", only created or loaded into memory when players are nearby.

Multiplayer in Minecraft is available through player-hosted servers. This allows for players to play in a common world, and achieve goals together.[6] Single player worlds can also allow LAN connection so players on the same network can join locally without a server setup.[14] On multiplayer servers, PvP (player vs. player) may be enabled to allow fighting between players. Survival mode A screenshot of the Minecraft crafting screen, showing a stone axe being crafted

In this mode, players have to craft blocks and items from natural resources found in the environment.[10] Depending on the difficulty, monsters spawn at night and other dark places, necessitating that the player builds a shelter.[10] A health bar which is depleted by attacks from monsters, falls, or environmental damage, drowning, or falling into lava, is also featured in this mode. Players also have a hunger bar, which must be periodically refilled by eating various food (pork chops, bread, etc.) in-game. Players can craft armor, which can help mitigate damage from attacks, while weapons such as swords can be crafted to kill enemies and other animals. Health replenishes when players have a full hunger bar, and also regenerates regardless of fullness if players play on the easiest difficulty. Players may acquire different resources to craft tools, such as weapons, armor, food, and various other items. By acquiring better resources, players can craft more effective items. For example, tools such as axes, shovels, or pickaxes, can be used to chop down trees, dig soil, and mine ores, respectively; and tools made out of better resources (such as iron in place of stone) perform their tasks more quickly and can be used more heavily before breaking. Players may also trade goods with villager mobs through a bartering system. Emerald ores are often the currency of the villagers, although some trade with wheat or other materials.

The game has an inventory system and players are limited to the number of items they can carry, specifically, 36 spaces. Upon dying, items in the players' inventories are dropped, and players respawn at the current spawn point, which is set by default where players begin the game, but can be reset if players sleep in beds in-game. Dropped items can be recovered if players can reach them before they despawn. Players may acquire experience points by killing mobs and other players, mining, smelting ores, and cooking food. Experience can then be spent on enchanting tools, armor and weapons. Enchanted items are generally more powerful, last longer, or have other special effects.

Minecraft features two alternate dimensions – the Nether and The End.[15] The Nether is a hell-like dimension accessed via player-built portals that contains many unique resources and can be used to travel great distances in the overworld.[16] The End is a barren land in which a boss dragon called Enderdragon dwells.[17] Killing the dragon cues the game's ending credits, written by Irish author Julian Gough.[18] Players are then allowed to teleport back to their original spawn point in the overworld, and will receive "The End" achievement.

Players may also play in Hardcore mode, a variant of survival mode, which differs primarily with the game being locked to the hardest gameplay setting as well as featuring permadeath; upon players' death, their world is deleted.[19] Creative mode

In creative mode, players have access to unlimited resources or items through the inventory menu, and can place or remove them instantly. Players also do not take environmental or mob damage, and are not affected by hunger. They can also fly freely around the game world and will only die by breaking through bedrock and falling into the void. Adventure mode

In Adventure mode, added in version 1.3, the gameplay is similar to survival mode except players are unable to break blocks without appropriate tools. The players can still interact with items, such as chests, and mechanics, such as buttons, levers, and repeaters. This mode was developed for playing player-made custom maps[20], which often involve rules that prohibit breaking blocks. Another addition designed for custom maps and added in 1.4 is the command block, a block that allows mapmakers to expand interactions with players through server commands.[21] A screenshot of Minecraft Classic (single player) Minecraft Classic

An older version of Minecraft is available online for players.[22] Unlike newer versions of Minecraft, the classic version is free to play, though it is no longer updated. It functions much the same as creative mode, allowing players to build and destroy any and all parts of the world either alone or in a multiplayer server. There are no computer creatures in this mode, and environmental hazards such as lava will not damage players. Some blocks function differently since their behavior was later changed during development. Development

The developer of Minecraft, Markus Persson aka Notch, had previously worked on games such as Wurm Online and as a game developer for King.com for over four years.[23][24] Persson quit his job at King.com in order to independently develop Minecraft.[23][25] Persson was inspired to create Minecraft by several other games such as Dwarf Fortress, Infiniminer by Zachtronics Industries, and Dungeon Keeper by Bullfrog Productions. He was still working out the basics of gameplay when he discovered Infiniminer and played with others on the TIGSource.com forums.[24][25] At the time, he had also been visualizing an isometric 3D building game that would be a cross between his inspirations and had made some early prototypes.[23][26] After discovering Infiniminer, Persson declared, "My god, I realized that that was the game I wanted to do."[27] Infiniminer heavily influenced the style of gameplay that eventually resulted in Minecraft, including the first-person aspect of the game and the "blocky" visual style.[25]

Minecraft was first released to the public on May 17, 2009, as a developmental "alpha" release,[28] with a beta release on December 20, 2010.[29][30] 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.[24] 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 userbase.[25] 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", tameable wolves that assist the player, and changes to the game's behaviour (e.g., how water flows). Persson plans to eventually release the game as open-source after sales have dropped off and when he wants to move onto other projects.[24] A screenshot of "The Nether", an alternate dimension

In September 2010, Persson announced that he and a friend were starting a video game company, Mojang, with the money earned from Minecraft. This company was intended to back the development of Minecraft and an unrelated game, Scrolls, which his friend was to primarily work on. As part of creating the company, Persson hired "an artist, a web site developer, and a business guy", additional programmers, and established an office in Stockholm.[31][32] The four additional employees hired in 2010 were Jens Bergensten, a programmer; Daniel Kaplan, the "business guy"; Jakob Porser, who will be working on the other game for Mojang; and Markus "Junkboy" Toivonen, a pixel artist.[33][34][35] The plans for Persson's new company were delayed by weeks when his account with PayPal, containing over US$763,000 in proceeds from Minecraft sales, was frozen due to a "suspicious withdrawal or deposit".[36]

On December 11, 2010, Persson announced, via his personal blog, that Minecraft would be entering its beta testing phase on December 20, 2010.[37] He further stated that users who bought the game after this date would no longer be guaranteed to receive all future content free of charge as it "scared both the lawyers and the board." However, bug fixes and all updates leading up to and including the release would still be free. At the start of 2011 Mojang expanded to include Carl Manneh as a "managing director" and Tobias Möllstam as a programmer.[38] Mojang moved the game out of beta and released the full version on November 18, 2011.[39] The game has been continuously updated since the release.

Minecraft.net provided online systems to authenticate logins and host the player's profile including its modifiable character skin pattern and the purchased gift codes. On January 18, 2011, Persson announced in a blog post that Minecraft's web servers would be switching to being hosted solely on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) content delivery network. Persson stated in his personal blog that their old web host was having trouble and that Mojang would be switching to using AWS as their host for both Minecraft.net and Minecraft's web functions such as logging in.[40] On February 21, Mojang hired Dan Frisk to oversee the servers and back end for both Minecraft and Scrolls.

In 2011, Jens Bergensten, also known by his pseudonym Jeb, took full creative control over Minecraft.

On December 2, 2011, Persson announced via his personal blog that he would be stepping down as the lead developer of Minecraft, with Bergensten becoming lead developer.[41] Persson would remain as a developer of Minecraft but would be taking time away from the game in order to work on an unannounced project.[42] On February 28, 2012, Bergensten announced that the main developers of Bukkit, a community-based project that works on Minecraft server implementation, joined the ranks of the Mojang team to work on "improving both the server and the client to offer better official support for larger servers and server modifications".[43] SoundtrackMinecraft – Volume Alpha

Soundtrack album by C418 Released	March 4, 2011 C418 chronology I forgot something, didn't I. (2011)	Minecraft – Volume Alpha (2011)	72 Minutes of Fame (2011)

German composer Daniel "C418" Rosenfeld (born May 9, 1986), the composer of the music in Minecraft, released a soundtrack, titled Minecraft – Volume Alpha, on March 4, 2011.[44] It included most of the songs in Minecraft, as well as some other non-minecraft music.[44][show] Track listing

Ports Minecraft – Pocket Edition

On August 16, 2011, Minecraft – Pocket Edition was released for the Xperia PLAY. It was then opened up to the rest of the Android Market on October 8, 2011.[45][46] The current version of the software concentrates on the creative building and the primitive survival aspect of the game. The Pocket Edition currently does not contain all the features of the PC and Xbox 360 releases. The current release allows for multiplayer across a local wireless network.[47] An iOS version of Minecraft was released on November 17, 2011.[48] On his Twitter account, Jens Bergensten noted that the Pocket Edition of Minecraft is written in C++ and not Java, due to iOS not being able to support Java.[49] Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition

The Xbox 360 version of the game, developed by 4J Studios, was released on May 9, 2012.[50][51] It is planned to support Kinect play and cross-platform playability with the PC version.[50] At the Game Developers Conference, it was announced that Minecraft for XBLA would be released on March 17, 2012.[citation needed] However, Daniel Kaplan said on Twitter that it is Microsoft's decision on when it will be released, 4J Studios told Microsoft that the game was ready for release, Microsoft waited for a date that they are happy to release.[citation needed] On March 22, 2012, it was announced that Minecraft would be the flagship game in a new Xbox Live promotion called Arcade NEXT.[51]

The game has some features that are exclusive to the Xbox 360 version, including the newly designed crafting system, the control interface, and the ability to play with friends via Xbox Live.[52] On October 16, 2012, update 1.8.2 was made available on Xbox 360 for Minecraft players.[53] This update included many features, such as more mobs, different food, the hunger bar and creative mode.[54] Minecraft 4k

Minecraft 4k is a simplified version of Minecraft similar to the classic version that was developed for the Java 4K "in way less than 4 kilobytes".[55] The map itself is finite - composed of 64x64x64 blocks - and the same world is generated every time. Players are restricted to placing or destroying blocks, which are randomly located and consist of grass, dirt, stone, wood, leaves, and brick.[56] User generated content and DLC

A wide variety of user-created content for Minecraft, such as modifications, texture packs and custom maps, is available to download from the internet, especially fansites. Modifications of the Minecraft code, called mods, add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks, new items, new mobs to entire arrays of mechanisms to craft.[57][58] An example of these are the Technic Pack and its multiplayer variant Tekkit, which incorporates many other mods that focus on industrial and electrical machines.[59] Texture packs that customize the game's graphics are also available.[60] Custom maps have become popular as well. Players can create their own maps, which often contain challenges, puzzles and quests, and share with others to play.[20] Mojang has developed content specifically designed for playing custom maps, such as Adventure mode,[20] and command blocks.[61]

The Xbox 360 version supports DLC, via the Xbox Live Marketplace. Currently, the only content available for purchase are additional character costumes.[62] Unlike the PC version, however, this version does not support player-made mods, texture packs or custom maps.[63] Cultural impact Reception Commercial

In September 2010, after an impromptu free-to-play weekend, the game had a spike in sales of over 25,000 purchases in 24 hours.[64][65] On January 12, 2011, Minecraft passed 1,000,000 purchases,[66][67] less than a month after reaching Beta. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth,[68] and apparently unpaid mention in popular media like Penny Arcade.[69] By April 2011, Persson estimated that Minecraft had made €23 million (US$33 million) in revenue, with 800,000 sales of the alpha version of the game, and over 1 million sales of the beta version.[70] On July 1, 2011 Minecraft passed the 10 million registered users mark.[71] As of November 7, 2011, Minecraft had over 16 million registered users, and over 4 million purchases.[72] As of May 25, 2012, the game has sold over six million copies on PC and over nine million copies across all platforms.[73]

The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft became profitable within the first 24 hours of the game's release, when the game broke the Xbox Live sales records, with 400,000 players online.[74] Within a week of being on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Minecraft sold upwards of one million copies.[75] It was announced in July 2012 that Minecraft has sold over three million copies since the game debuted on Xbox LIVE Arcade in May 2012. This brings the total projected sales for Minecraft to over seven million for all platforms in its lifetime.[76] Critical[hide] Minecraft (PC) Aggregate scores Aggregator	Score GameRankings	92.79%[77] (21 reviews) Metacritic	93/100[78] (33 reviews) Review scores Publication	Score 1UP.com	A+ [79] Edge	9/10[80] Eurogamer	10/10[15] GameSpot	8.5/10 [81] GameSpy	[82] IGN	9.0/10 [6] [hide] Minecraft (Xbox 360) Aggregate scores Aggregator	Score GameRankings	83.42%[83] (37 reviews) Metacritic	82/100[84] (63 reviews) Review scores Publication	Score Eurogamer	9/10[85] Game Informer	9.25/10[86] GameSpot	7.0/10 [87] IGN	8.5/10 [63]

Minecraft has received favorable responses from critics. The game has been praised for the creative freedom it grants players in-game, as well as the ease of enabling emergent gameplay.[88][89][90] PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work.[91]

A review of the alpha version, by Scott Munro of the Daily Record, called it "already something special" and urged readers to buy it.[92] Jim Rossignol of Rock, Paper, Shotgun also recommended the alpha of the game, calling it "a kind of generative 8-bit Lego Stalker".[93] On September 17, 2010, gaming webcomic Penny Arcade began a series of comics and news posts about the addictiveness of the game.[94] Video game talk show Good Game gave it a 7.5 and 9 out of 10, praising its creativity and customization, though they criticized its lack of a tutorial.[95]

In December 2010, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for "Best Downloadable Game of 2010" title,[96] Gamasutra named it the eighth best game of the year as well as the eighth best indie game of the year,[97][98] and Rock, Paper, Shotgun named it the game of the year.[99] Indie DB awarded the game the 2010 "Indie of the Year" award as chosen by voters, in addition to two out of five Editor's Choice awards for "Most Innovative" and "Best Singleplayer Indie".[100] It was also awarded "Game of the Year" by PC Gamer UK.[101] The game was nominated for the "Seumas McNally Grand Prize", "Technical Excellence", and "Excellence in Design" awards at the March 2011 Independent Games Festival[102] and won the Grand Prize along with community-voted "Audience Award".[103] At Game Developers Choice Awards 2011, Minecraft won the award for Best debut game, Best downloadable game and Most Innovative game award, winning every award for which it was nominated.[104][105][106] It has also won GameCity's videogame arts prize[107]

On May 5, 2011, Minecraft was selected as one of the 80 games that would be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of "The Art of Video Games" exhibit that opened on March 16, 2012.[108][109]

The Xbox 360 version was generally received positively by critics, but did not receive as much praise compared to the PC version. Although reviewers noted the lack of features such as mod support and Creative Mode as disappointing, they acclaimed the version's addition of a tutorial and in-game tips and crafting recipes, saying that they make the game more user-friendly.[63]

In 2012, Minecraft XBLA was awarded a Golden Joystick Award for the Best Downloadable Game,[110] and a TIGA Games Industry Award for the Best Arcade Game.[111] MineCon

On May 11, 2011, Persson announced via his blog that an official Minecraft convention titled "MineCon 2011" would be held November 18–19 in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the United States and on August 11, the MineCon website was launched.[112] The event included the official launch of Minecraft; keynote speeches, including one by Persson; building and costume contests; Minecraft-themed breakout classes; exhibits by leading gaming and Minecraft-related companies; commemorative merchandise; and autograph and picture times with Mojang employees and well-known contributors from the Minecraft community.[113] After Minecon, there was an Into The Nether after-party with electronic musician deadmau5.[114] As well as this, free codes were given to every attendee of MineCon that unlock alpha versions of Mojang's other upcoming game, Scrolls, as well as an additional non-Mojang game, Cobalt, which is being developed by Oxeye Game Studios.[115] MineCon sold all of its 4,500 tickets.[116][117] According to the official Minecon website, MineCon 2012 will take place in Disneyland Paris from November 24–25.[118] The tickets were quickly sold out with each released batch. Popular culture and applications

Minecraft-related videos have gained popularity on YouTube, often made by commentators and containing screen-capture videos of the game and voice-overs.[119] Common coverage in the videos includes creations made by players, walkthroughs of various tasks, and popular culture parodies. Some of the popular commentators have received employment at Machinima, a gaming video company that owns the most-viewed entertainment channel on YouTube.[119] One of the most popular groups that regularly produce Minecraft videos is known as the Yogscast. Two of the key figures from the group, Simon Lane and Lewis Brindley, have been described as celebrities. Their presentation at Minecon 2011 became the most attended panel.[119] By July of 2012, the group’s main YouTube channel received a total of over one billion views, drawing in three million people each day. [120] In October 2012, the Yogscast received a Golden Joystick Award in the category "Greatest YouTube Gamer Award".[121]

Due to its popularity, Minecraft has been referenced by other video games, such as Runescape, Torchlight 2, Borderlands 2, Choplifter HD, Super Meat Boy, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Binding of Isaac, Team Fortress 2, and FTL: Faster Than Light.[122] It's has also been referenced by musician deadmau5 in his performances.[123]

The applications of the video game have been discussed by educators and designers. A Swedish programmer discussed the possibility of using the game to redesign public buildings and parks.[119] An educational organization, MinecraftEdu, was formed, with the goal of introducing the Minecraft into schools. The group works with Mojang AB to make the game affordable and accessible to schools. Educational activities involving the game include labeling objects with vocabulary from foreign languages, building cellular structures, and creating settings that resemble those found in assigned novels. Some analysts have described that playing the game can improve creativity and collaboration skills.[119]

Minecraft’s rise in popularity has been studied by academics. Some analysts have theorized that many Minecraft players share a common idealism that devalues consumerism and goals of fame and money. They are described to be intrinsically motivated when building creations in the game. Some of the attendees at Minecon 2011 have shown support for the Occupy movement.[119] Merchandise	This section requires expansion. (January 2012)

See also: Lego Minecraft

In December 2011, Mojang submitted the concept of Minecraft merchandise to Lego for the Lego Cuusoo program, from which it quickly received 10,000 votes by users, prompting Lego to review the concept.[124] On January 24, 2012, Lego Cuusoo announced the concept was approved and they would develop sets based around Minecraft.[124] In February 2012, the first Lego Minecraft set of Micro World was showcased and made available for pre-orders, with a release set for the summer of 2012.[125]

Mojang also has a collaboration with the 'Jinx' online game merchandise store to sell Minecraft (and eventually Scrolls and 0x10c) products, like T-Shirts, foam pickaxes, toys of creatures in the game, and other items of clothing including hats and hoodies.[126] United Nations project

In September 2012, Mojang began the Block By Block project in cooperation with UN Habitat to create real-world environments in Minecraft. The project allows young people who live in those environments participate in designing the changes they would like to see. Using Minecraft, the community has helped reconstruct the areas of concern, and citizens are invited to enter the Minecraft servers and modify their own neighborhood. “Minecraft has turned out to be the perfect tool to facilitate this process,” Manneh writes. “The three-year partnership will support UN-Habitat’s Sustainable Urban Development Network to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016.”

Mojang signed Minecraft building community, FyreUK, to help render the environments into Minecraft. The first pilot project began in Kibera, one of Nairobi’s informal settlements, and is already in the planning phase.

The Block By Block project is based on an earlier initiative started in October 2011, Mina Kvarter (My Block), which gave young people in Swedish communities a tool to visualize how they wanted to change their part of town. The project was a helpful way to visualize urban planning ideas without necessarily having a training in architecture. The ideas presented by the citizens were a template for political decisions.[127] Minecraft clones See also: Category:Minecraft clones

After the release of Minecraft, some video games were released with various similarities with Minecraft, and have been called "clones" of the game. There have been a few Minecraft-like games across various gaming platforms since Minecraft became popular.[128] Examples include Terraria, Ace of Spades, CastleMiner, CraftWorld, FortressCraft, and Total Miner.