Square EnixYears hence, when we are looking back at gaming history trying to find the tipping point at which every game series began to turn into a Minecraft clone, we may point to the day that Square Enix announced Dragon Quest Builders.
While all we have so far by way of information is a single screenshot, it’s looking fairly clear that Builders takes the seminal Japanese role-playing game series and applies its distinctive veneer of teardrop-shaped Slimes and adorable dragons to Minecraft‘s magical $2 billion build-stuff-out-of-pixelated-blocks formula.
Dragon Quest practically invented the console role-playing game, and is one of Japan’s biggest game franchises (you can eat at a Dragon Quest cafe and outfit yourself entirely in Slime-themed clothing should you desire), but the tail’s been wagging the dog for some time now—Dragon Quest‘s trappings have been applied to action games, music games, and now a Minecraft-like, but not so much with the actual RPGs, which are much more costly and time-intensive to make these days.
So if you’re going to chase other popular genres, why not chase Minecraft? It’s all the rage with the kids these days and it’s likely that this take on the block-building genre will do fairly well for Square Enix worldwide, which will probably cause other third-party publishers to ask themselves why they don’t have similar games in their catalogs. Sort of like how the early success of Call of Duty made every publisher believe it had to have a World War II period shooter out there somewhere.
The difference (and the reason this should give you some sort of hope for the future) is that while game publishers are always going to chase the leader, the leader now no longer has to emerge from one of their studios in the first place. Minecraft‘s ascension from indie game obscurity into the world’s most popular videogame may be a one-in-a-million shot, but you’ve got to figure the next big breakout hit from an unknown developer isn’t too far away. And years down the line it’ll be Minecraft that’s the sort of catch-all nostalgia brand, being applied to anything that seems like it might work.
Mojang announced the release of Minecraft’s newest version together with Microsoft’s Windows 10 Edition during the last Minecon. The Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition will be released on July 29.
Minecraft for Windows 10 is the beta version of the earlier Minecraft games. Its release was also posted on Mojang’s blog article last July 4.
According to the blog post, the new Minecraft will be released complete with the 1.9 update. It will still include some features from its earlier PC version, but this time with the aim to allow its players to enjoy gaming with mobile and console users.
The multiplayer feature of the beta version will only allow a maximum of eight players for PC and Xbox Live. The new version will still include both survival and creative mode where players get to build their world and enjoy character abilities.
Players will also get the chance to record their gameplay with the DVR feature. More gamers are recording their gameplay to either provide tips to other gamers or to simply get feedback which can help them improve their play. The DVR feature will make this task easier for them.
Part of the announcement posted on Mojang’s blog was Microsoft’s desire to further develop the said game. The previous version was known as “Java”, which later on included an edition for mobile users.
The developers called the newest Windows 10 edition as “beta” to note their desire to further improve the game. The company further noted that they will be adding up new features and other updates in the future.
Upon release, those with PC versions will get the update of the newest Minecraft for free. For those who haven’t had the previous version, they can acquire it at US$10 (AU$13.38) while it’s still under beta.
If robots are to be useful in everyday settings, they will need better ways to plan their actions.
Minecraft was used to teach a virtual agent what steps to exclude when trying to put a gold block in a furnace.
The computer game Minecraft, which depicts a world made up of retro, pixelated blocks that can be modified and rearranged in endless architectural configurations, has been praised for teaching young players about creativity, problem solving, and survival skills (in certain modes you have to avoid threats including zombies). Well, it turns out even inexperienced robots can learn a thing or two by playing the game.
Stefanie Tellex, a professor at Brown University, is using Minecraft, as well as real-world machines, to explore ways for robots to solve new problems faster and more efficiently. This isn’t something most robots need to do, since they work in a fixed environment, performing work that has been carefully programmed beforehand. But it could be important as robots start to take on more complex, open-ended tasks in less structured settings. A robot designed to help around the home, for instance, would need figure out how to perform different chores.
“You might tell a robot ‘Make me coffee,’ but the next minute you might say ‘Do the laundry,’” says Tellex. “In this context, where you don’t know the goal in advance, there’s this planning problem. Finding the sequence of actions that’s going to work in this particular environment is very challenging. Our approach is about learning that faster.”
The researchers’ algorithm was tested on a real robot programmed to help with cooking.
The challenge for a robot is that it lacks contextual understanding about the world. That means it has to run through all the possible actions that might help it reach a goal. To do the laundry, then, a robot might consider whether using the coffeemaker could help. And for a sophisticated robot working in a complex environment, the number of scenarios that need to be considered may be huge, requiring extensive computational power.
Tellex, together with one of her graduate students, David Abel, and several other colleagues at Brown, developed an algorithm that lets a robot prune away certain possible paths of action by understanding the direction in which a particular task points. Armed with such an algorithm, a robot might understand that doing the laundry does not involve using any kitchen equipment or utensils—knowledge that can be either preprogrammed or learned through experience.
Minecraft was used to test the learning approach. The researchers controlled a virtual character that was tasked with putting a virtual gold block into a virtual furnace, while avoiding a virtual pool of lava. After performing the task in a limited setting, through lengthy trial and error, the algorithm controlling the character learned that certain behaviors, such as placing gold blocks on the ground, could be excluded when trying to achieve the goal.
When asked to perform the same task in a more complex setting, the character could then work through a much smaller set of potential scenarios. And the approach could let robots learn how to perform a task in a virtual setting before taking on real-world scenarios (see “Even Robots Now Have Their Own Virtual World”).
Manuela Veloso, a professor specializing in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, says virtual learning is an important area for robotics already. “Clearly a robot cannot use trial and error to learn to go down stairs, as it will break at the first trial,” she says. “Simulation, in general, can help train a model, which can then be used by a real robot.”
The Brown researchers also tested the approach with a real machine: a Baxter robot from Rethink Robotics. They assigned the robot to help a person cook, and programmed in an understanding of the actions that could be discounted for certain recipes. This made the machine more efficient when determining its own course of action in helping make brownies.
The approach followed by the Brown researchers is not only more efficient but, in a sense, more human, in that it requires a deeper understanding of a task and its context. “We were inspired by some of the literature on ‘affordances,’ which is how people look at the world when they’re trying to achieve something,” Tellex says.
When you write about Minecraft, you’d better get it right, or millions of kids all over the world will be ready to pounce on your errors.
The Financial Times learned this the hard way. Last weekend, the paper published a story on the Microsoft-owned hit game, titled “The business behind Minecraft.” And this weekend, Zorawar Bhangoo, a 6-year-old from London, wrote in to correct the paper for a graphic it published to accompany the piece.
Bhangoo’s handwritten note, which the FT transcribed and reprinted in its letters section, reads:
Sir, Your big Minecraft picture on the front page of your Life & Arts section (July 4) is wrong.
In Minecraft, smoke does not come out of chimneys and doors cannot be a light colour. Doors need four boxes at the top of them. Trees have to be round and not any other shape and you put the trees a rectangle shape. The clouds have to be 3D. You put the clouds upright. The roof of a house cannot be blue.
Zorawar Bhangoo (age 6)
London SE21, UK
This kid’s got a bright future. And the FT may need to build itself a burn unit in Minecraft, because getting owned by a 6-year-old has got to hurt.
While the absence of a number of major multi-platform franchises and IPs from Nintendo hardware can be easily explained, the fact that Minecraft has never come to the Wii U or 3DS remains surprising. While technical limitations would hold a 3DS version back to being a lighter / smart device port, the Wii U would be a great home for the sandbox game, especially with the GamePad’s ability to offer physical and touch screen controls to deliver the best of console and tablet-style approaches.
With Mojang’s global phenomenon skipping Nintendo hardware we’ve seen smaller developers attempt to fill the gap. Yet, if Mojang COO Vu Bui is to be believed, there’s still an appetite within the company – despite its acquisition by Microsoft – to expand to more platforms.
Speaking to MCV, Bui was clear that Nintendo fans shouldn’t completely give up hope yet.
If I had my way, we’d be on everything.
We want to continue to be available to all players, and that means being on new platforms because everyone uses something different.
…I’ve never heard a reason why we haven’t ended up on Wii U or 3DS. It just hasn’t happened yet.
Of course, positive noises have been made in the past regarding Minecraft and Nintendo hardware, yet with different versions of the title continuing to sell in significant numbers it would still – even after its prolonged absence – be a welcome arrival.
Time will tell whether Minecraft arrives in some form on Wii U, 3DS or even NX.
Minecraft 1.9 has been in the works for a very long time now without a snapshot, and while this leads many to believe the developers are simply taking a break; the reality is in fact quite the opposite. Minecraft 1.9 will be the biggest update ever for the Java version of Minecraft, and what we know so far is very exciting.
The biggest feature though, is dual wielding. This is something players have asked for since the very beginning of Minecraft, and although it is available through a whole host of mods, none of them have pulled it off very successfully so far. This is how Dinnerbone, one of the key Minecraft developers is going to change things. Instead of having two hot bars or two interactions with the existing hot bar, there will just be a simple off hand slot in the inventory (also known as a shield slot) which you can put items in. Simple as that.
How does this second hand work then? When you put an item in it, the item will appear in your second hand. There is not going to be a second click function, however. These items will only work when there is something in your main hand which doesn’t have a “use” function. For instance if you have a pickaxe out, this will mine but can’t be used in the same way a torch is. So, if you want to have a pickaxe to mine with, and a torch to light up tunnels, this is entirely possible now because your torch will take up the use slot. This opens up an entire range of possibilities, like sword and potion, sword and ender pearl or pickaxe and torch to make a lot of things significantly easier.
For a more in depth explanation, check the video in the original article.:
On the subject on caving underground, there is a new type of dungeon coming to the game in 1.9. This has been hinted at by Jeb_ and is mainly a solution to the repetitiveness of the current design, which again has been the same for many many updates now (before even the beta). This new design is going to contain mobs very different to the current mob spawners, and contain a lot of birch wood and prismarine. The blocks besides these will also be very different, and this does open up the imagination to a variety of exciting new blocks that might be coming.
So, the next update already has new blocks, new mobs and a brand new way to wield weapons. Given the update is called the combat update, this appears to be just the start of development and we likely have much more ahead of us in the way of new structures, new weapons, a new set of off hand items and even the potential for a new dimension. I’m personally very excited for the combat update, and I’m sure we’ll see more features which excite and re-energise the game once more
