by Stone Marshall | Feb 27, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Books |
Furthering the running gag that Microsoft is slow to the draw and deficient in apps in regards to its smartphone platform, Minecraft: Pocket Edition is just now heading to Windows 10 Mobile.
Though previously available on Windows Phone 8, Minecraft developer Mojang dropped support for Microsoft’s older mobile OS back in October of last year.
Minecraft: Pocket Edition’s arrival on Windows 10 Mobile now means those who’ve upgraded will also finally catch up on major updates that they have missed out on since, including Achievements and support for Realms, add-ons, and texture packs.
A Minecraft in every phone
The ultra-popular brick building game coming to Windows 10 Mobile may as well just be a formality at this point, with the game already selling over 100 million copies and counting, and the handheld Pocket Edition and console ports outselling the PC original almost 2 to 1.
That said, it’s still amusing to think that one of the latest systems to just now get in (or rather, back in) on one of gaming’s biggest, best-selling brands is Microsoft’s own, considering it owns Minecraft after purchasing Mojang for $2.5 billion back in 2014.
Thankfully for owners of the previous version, anyone who purchased the game for Windows Phone 8 will be able to download the Windows 10 Mobile version at no additional charge.
by Stone Marshall | Feb 26, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions |
The Fig tree is bearing some big fruit.
Today is Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire‘s last day of crowdfunding, and it has passed some big milestones. Fig announced that the PC, Mac, and Linux role-playing game is the most successful campaign ever for the crowdfunding site, right now achieving over $4.2 million with about five hours left to go. Fig also noted to GamesBeat that this is the first crowdfunded game to pass $4 million since 2015, with Shenmue 3 (6.3 million) and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night ($5.5 million).
Both of those game’s were on Fig competitor Kickstarter. Unlike Kickstarter, Fig allows for equity backing, which could give people a share in a game’s profits. Before Pillars of Eternity II, Psychonauts 2 was Fig’s most successful crowdfunding campaign. It raised over $3.8 million.
The original Pillars of Eternity raised $3,986,929 on Kickstarter in 2012, making it the No. 4 game in Kickstarter history. Since then, Obsidian chief executive officer Feargus Urquhart helped start Fig. This is the first Obsidian project to appear on Fig.
Obsidian is famous for its RPGs, which includes hits like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout: New Vegas, and South Park: The Stick of Truth.
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire becomes Fig’s most successful game by passing $4 million
by Stone Marshall | Feb 26, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, State of Stone |
The big, recently released Star Wars mobile game is getting its first wave of new content.
Netmarble is updating Star Wars: Force Arena, its head-to-head strategy battler, on iOS and Android today. This patch is the publisher’s first major attempt to bring changes to the game, and that means a shift in how seasons work, new units, and an upgraded user interface. Force Arena plays a lot like Supercell’s 2016 mobile hit Clash Royale, but it features hero characters like Han Solo and Boba Fett that players control and use in conjunction with grunts like Rebel soldiers and Stormtroopers. Updates like this keep the game running smoothly, but it should also potentially bring lapsed players back to the game and get them spending money on the microtransactions.
One of the biggest changes to Force Awakens is how its reward system works. These balance tweaks will increase the likelihood that players will get powerful units that can compete at a higher level. New units are the other major tweak. Force Arena now has an Aqualish Engineer and Wed Treadwell Droid, which can each repair turret units for the Rebel Alliance and the Empire, respectively.
“We are happy to announce an upgraded reward system into Star Wars: Force Arena, which will give players more gold packs and leader cards,” Netmarble chief marketing officer Seungwon Lee said in a statement. “The two new characters will bring in more strategy into the game as we expect more players to enjoy and have fun and play with their favorite Star Wars characters.”
Additional changes to Force Arena include improvements to guilds, trading, and the tutorial.
Star Wars: Force Arena gets first big update as Netmarble adds new units, improves rewards
by Stone Marshall | Feb 25, 2017 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, State of Stone |
Minecraft lives on Windows Mobile devices.
Developer Mojang has updated Minecraft for Windows 10 Mobile, and you can get it for free if you already own it and update your Windows Phone 8 device to Windows 10 Mobile. In this version of the game, players can access important new features like achievements, the update that adds Minecraft’s The End region, and the Realms multiplayer functionality. That support for Realms also means that you can use your Windows 10 Mobile smartphone to log into official Mojang servers to play online with you friends on iPhone, Android, or Windows 10 PCs.
“We stopped shipping Minecraft updates for Windows Phone 8 back in October last year,” Mojang developer Marsh Davies wrote in a blog post. “Of course, players can still carry on building and exploring their worlds as they always have, but, to get access to the newest Minecraft goodies, DLC, and other fun stuff, you’ll have to upgrade to the Windows 10 Mobile version of the game.”
This is a small part of Mojang and Microsoft’s efforts to bring all of Minecraft under one code base. The game still runs on separate foundations when it comes to the original PC version, the console versions, and the mobile versions, but the company has made a lot of effort to bring all of the mobile versions into parity. Moving ahead, the companies have a long-term plan to further join together the various offshoots of Minecraft across platforms.
Minecraft gets updated for Windows phones — yes, really
by Stone Marshall | Feb 25, 2017 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, State of Stone |
Swedish National Land survey has put its maps on Minecraft to promote its work
Since December 2015, anyone playing popular sandbox game Minecraft has been able to build their worlds on the actual map of Sweden.
Lantmäteriet, the Swedish National Land survey, launched the country’s maps as Minecraft-friendly downloads to increase interest in geospatial information and open data, particularly among younger citizens.“We were going to launch some maps as open data and I thought it would be great to do it on Minecraft, and our managers liked the idea,” Bobo Tideström, business developer at the Lantmäteriet, told Computer Weekly.
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Tideström introduced the idea of a Minecraft Sweden in August 2015, and the complete map of Sweden and individual maps of each of its 290 municipalities were released to the public four months later. “For a governmental department, we completed the project very fast,” said Tideström. Lantmäteriet had a small internal team working on the project while the map data was converted to Minecraft by outside consultants using FME mapping tools.
The maps have gathered over 19,000 downloads to date, but Tideström believes their reach is far wider through the visibility of the project and the use of the maps in various other projects, such as a competition for schools to design a future city in the municipality of Kiruna.
“We were surprised that municipalities and organisations have started to use Minecraft as an actual planning tool for city development and have a dialogue with citizens,” said Tideström. “It is an easy way to translate maps into 3D, which makes it far easier for people to see how their city will look.”
The project, which cost an estimated kr400,000 (£36,000), has also received an accolade from the IT community, winning Digital Project of the Year at the Swedish CIO Awards.
Sweden is not the first country to recreate itself in Minecraft. Denmark and Norway have previously had similar projects, but Tideström said Lantmäteriet has gone a step further with the granular data the maps offer, from roads and lakes to forests and grasslands.
Lantmäteriet used the earlier project in Denmark for benchmarking, namely in opting for downloadable maps instead of a server-based approach. “In Denmark, they had an open server so people could log in and play,” said Tideström. “They had big problems with houses being torn down by players.”
The Swedish maps are available in 8×8 metre resolution (each Minecraft block is equivalent to eight meters). While this means small file sizes for downloading, the maps are more suitable for roaming the landscape than building detailed houses. To address this Lantmäteriet has so far launched four municipalities in a higher (1×1) resolution to enable more creativity.
“In some areas, schoolkids have built the whole centre of a town so it looks like real life, with the right textures and colours,” said Tideström.
Tideström said the Minecraft project hasn’t faced any major technical issues, but it has had an impact on Lantmäteriet’s approach to IT projects. The agency is now encouraging more experiments and fast deployments in addition to traditional large-scale projects.
“We realised if we would have taken this project through our normal process of driving things, we would have released it in 2018 or 2019,” he said. “We are now looking into how we can change this prioritisation and act faster with the deployment of ideas.”
Sweden uses Minecraft for urban planning
by Stone Marshall | Feb 24, 2017 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, State of Stone |
“Minecraft” is an incredible game. It’s basically virtual Legos, and you can play it with dozens of friends. And sometimes, friends who play “Minecraft” together become people who create something magical in “Minecraft” together.
Such is the case with “Pokémon Cobalt and Amethyst,” a “60- to 80-hour” Pokémon game built entirely within “Minecraft.” For real! Just look at this:
YouTube
We’re talking about the good stuff: finding, battling, and capturing Pokémon — and then battling other Pokémon with the ones you’ve enslaved. There’s a full story, various locales to explore, and much more. Better yet, it’s entirely free! All you need is a copy of “Minecraft” on PC or Mac, and about 15 minutes.
Here’s the deal:
The game is called “Pokémon Cobalt and Amethyst” — a nod to the naming convention of the Nintendo-made Pokémon games:
It’s a full-on, brand-new “Pokémon” game — albeit one that isn’t officially supported by The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.
Just look at this madness! Since it’s built in “Minecraft,” it’s a 3D version of the normally 2D “Pokémon” games.YouTube
There’s a brand new Pokémon game, and it’s built entirely within ‘Minecraft’ — take a look
