I have an addiction. It’s kept me awake all night some nights. I can wander around for hours, completely forgetting about how hungry I’m getting. I’ve gone to The End and back, chasing the dragon.

How is Minecraft such a great game? It defies reason that this retro building game could be so addictive, but I’ve spent hours figuring out how to place my mob farms to get them to spawn and shaping the outside to look like Asian architecture.

Minecraft started as an indy game, but it went viral and is one of the most in-demand console games because it allows you to create in ways that other games just don’t.

I dabbled in game mods (very, very, very newbie.) Some years back I downloaded an emulator to one of my favorite MMOs and learned how to do very basic modifications to AI scripts through trial and error. There was a world of potential in that and it lit my brain on fire to think of creating cities and new continents in the game.

But although you could place blocks through modding that game, it was just way too complicated and not very enjoyable.

Minecraft makes that block placing much easier, since that’s the main focus of the game. Switching around from wood blocks to stone, to ice, to sand or iron or glass, Minecraft addicts can craft buildings and towns ranging from great to spectacular (with the occasional newbie dirt hut thrown in). Some of the most impressive buildings and towns take months or even years to complete.

I’m not going to get that hard core about it. Probably.

Another part of this creative element is crafting, brewing things you need for survival, such as food recipes and potions. The addition of “redstone,” which acts as a sort of magic wire, allows you to extend the reach of levers to activate doors, pistons or carts on rails. This is what adds an entirely new sort of creative element: invention.

I’m still dabbling in this. So far, the only redstone machine I’ve crafted is a semiautomatic sugar cane farm, with pistons to knock the top two blocks off and a canal of water to funnel them into a collection point. Other gamers have figured out brilliant ways to exploit the game mechanics to make NPCs harvest crops automatically for you while an underground cart on a redstone rail automatically collects it for you. Fans have also created secret doors, giant locking mechanism, even a very basic but functional computer processor, existing within the game.

That took one guy two years to make.

Like I said, I don’t think I’ll get quite that hard core, but I may spend a month or two crafting my idea of an Asian village in this swampy area sprawled around my mob farm with a tower of stacked sugar cane farms.

And I will call the city Geek-topia.

What is the appeal of Minecraft?

Minecraft update are always a time for celebration. The game began life in a very different state than it is in right now, with tons less features, and essentially feeling like a totally different experience. Now, with millions of players having purchased the game, every update seems to add something new and fresh for them to try out. Today is no different with the release of Minecraft Update 1.11.1 arriving on PC. Console players should still pay attention though, these features are probably heading your way later on.

Minecraft Update 1.11.1 adds the following: “Added rocket-propelled elytra flight. Added Iron Nuggets. Added Sweeping Edge enchantment for swords. Changed the attack indicator to hint when you should attack.” Along with this are, of course, the requisite bug fixes that are in pretty much every Minecraft update.

The big news is the rocket powered elytra flight. This item was recently added to Minecraft, allowing players to glide through the skies. Adding rocket power to this feature will let players fly through the air using fireworks.

These sorts of big changes to Minecraft have been coming for a long time. The game is one of the best selling of all time, and Mojang has done a great job keeping players engaged. Offering them new features and places to explore, Minecraft has grown by leaps and bounds in a number of different ways.

The PC version of Minecraft is usually where these changes come first, with them trickling down to consoles, mobile, and the special Windows 10 edition later on. The console editions have come close to totally catching up lately, so players might not have long to wait to get their elytra flight in their PS4 and Xbox One versions.

What’s been your favorite addition to Minecraft over the last couple of years? Let us know in the comments.

Minecraft Update 1.11.1 Hitting PC Today

Minecraft: Console Edition players aren’t the only ones getting a new mash-up pack this month and the next addition to Minecraft: Pocket Edition and Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition is decidedly more festive than the Fallout Mash-Up Pack announced last week.

Say hello to the Festive Mash-Up Pack!

As the name implies, the new Minecraft mash-up pack from Mojang celebrates the holiday season with new skins and textures inspired by festive celebrations from around the globe. Players can adorn themselves in Santa’s suit, or dress up like Krampus, and the new skins include plenty of other popular holiday imagery, like elves, reindeer or something called a Dishevelf. The Festive Mash-Up Pack even includes yeti and bigfoot skins. Hilariously enough, there’s enough a blue variant of Santa’s traditional red-and-white outfit called “ Cool Claus ”.

Unfortunately, unlike last week’s Ender Update, and the recent spate of holiday content we’ve seen for PC and console games, the Festive Mash-Up Pack won’t be a free download for Minecraft: Pocket Edition or Windows 10 Edition players. Those interested in the holiday content can purchase the Festive Mash-Up Pack from their preferred app store for $3.99.

For a closer look at the the Minecraft Festive Mash-Up Pack, take a few minutes to watch the new trailer from Microsoft and Mojang. Then head down to the comments section and let us know what mash-up pack you’d like to see in Minecraft: Pocket Edition and/or Windows 10 Edition next.

Minecraft is now available on PlayStation 3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS Vita, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, PC, iOS and Android.

Be sure to check back with iDigitaltimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more Minecraftnews throughout what’s left of 2016 and however long Mojang supports Minecraft in the years ahead.

‘Minecraft’ Festive Mash-Up Pack Now Available On Pocket And Win10 Editions

The full version of Minecraft is finally coming to Apple TV, as the Pocket and Windows 10 editions of the game leave beta and see the addition of endgame content.

Owners of Apple’s miniature black box can get their hands on Minecraft now. To make up for it being possibly the last format in the tech world to receive the game, the tvOS release will come with seven pieces of DLC to bolster the core world-building game.

Per developer Mojang’s blog, buyers of Minecraft: Apple TV Edition will receive the Holiday 2015, Town Folk, and City Folk skin packs, plus the Plastic, Natural, Cartoon, and Festive 2016 mash-ups packs. The DLC is available “for a limited time”.

Apple TV was previously graced with Minecraft: Story Mode, the narrative driven episodic adventure developed by Telltale Games, back in June but this marks the first time the full sandbox gamehas appeared on the device.

There is one slight downside – the Apple TV Edition currently doesn’t support Minecraft Realms or Xbox Live log-ins. However, Mojang says the game will be updated to support both features “in the near future”.

Elsewhere, Minecraft: Pocket Edition and Windows 10 Editionhave finally come out of beta. Both are now running at version 1.0, with updates available to download now.

The full version brings with it the Ender Update. This expands Minecraft’s world with a whole new realm to explore – The End – and the iconic Ender Dragon, the game’s major ‘boss’. The new area, which can be accessed after players have found, repaired, and re-activated the End Portal, also features unique cities, ships, and locations to explore, along with new enemies.

The Ender Update also adds in new items and crafting materials, such as End Stone bricks and Purpur objects. The regular Minecraft world will also see additions and fresh recipes, including igloos and polar bears.

While Pocket Edition has been in development in various iterations since 2011, and Windows 10 Edition since 2015, anyone buying the Apple TV Edition gets to jump to the front of the queue – that version launches with the Ender Update already included.

Minecraft arrives on Apple TV as Pocket Edition gets Ender update

Fallout Comes to Minecraft With New DLC Pack

44 new skins are included with Minecraft’s Fallout mash-up pack.

Minecraft and Fallout are coming together with a new mash-up pack for the sandbox game. The $6 Minecraft add-on will introduce 44 skins based on characters from the Fallout series, including Fawkes, Nick Valentine, Tinker Tom, Dogmeat, and of course Fallout’s mascot, Vault Boy.

It also adds new, irradiated environments to explore, complete with two-headed cows and massive, scary-looking spiders. Fallout’s ghouls and other mutants will also show up, as will familiar Fallout locations such as the Capitol Building and Tenpenny Tower.

Additionally, Minecraft’s UI gets a “retro-futuristic” makeover in the mash-up pack, while there are some Fallout songs also included with the expansion. Watch the announcement trailer above to see the new content in action.

The Fallout mash-up pack for Minecraft comes out “soon” on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PlayStation Vita.

This is not Minecraft’s first mash-up pack, as those already available are themed around gaming franchises like Halo, Mass Effect, as well as The Simpsons.

Fallout Comes to Minecraft With New DLC Pack

We’ve already seen the holidays bring a ton of different sales on the Xbox One S, but the latest may take the cake . If you have yet to pull the trigger on a console of your own, Microsoft is offering the Minecraft Xbox One S bundle for an impressive $229. The only catch? The discount is only available today, December 16.

Given this bundle usually goes for $299, and most of the discounts we’ve seen so far have only dropped the console to $249, this is a pretty darn good deal. On top of the 500GB console, the bundle packs in Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta, Minecraft: Xbox One Edition Favorites Pack and the Minecraft Builder’s Pack. As the cherry on top, you can also add in an extra select game for free.

In any case, if you’re up for saving $70 on the Minecraft Xbox One S bundle, you have through the end of today, December 16, to take advantage of this discount at the Microsoft Store and other retailers.

Pick up the Xbox One S Minecraft bundle and an extra game for $229

FALLOUT MASH-UP PACK INCOMING!

The success of Minecraft has led to many people claiming that they too once had the idea to create an elaborate game of digital building blocks. When you hear these claims, you tend to just nod your head and smile politely. When Shigeru Miyamoto starts talking about a Minecraft-like vision he once had, however, it’s fairly notable.

In an interview with Glixel, Miyamoto shared his admiration of the Minecraft series and his regret that he never followed through on similar ideas that he had in the past.

“I do like Minecraft, but really more from the perspective of the fact that I really feel like that’s something we should have made,” said Miyamoto on whether or not he plays any non-Nintendo games. “We had actually done a lot of experiments that were similar to that back in the N64 days and we had some designs that were very similar. It’s really impressive to me to see how they’ve been able to take that idea and turn it into a product.”

The fact that Miyamoto’s nearly unmatched level of success in the video game industry makes him an unlikely candidate for professional exaggeration certainly helps the validity of this claim, but it’s actually not that difficult to imagine Miyamoto shaping a Minecraft-style game many years ago. He’s always been a huge proponent of slightly bizarre experiences that emphasize child-like creativity (such as Mario Paint), and games that draw upon fairly common real-life experiences.

So why didn’t Miyamoto ever finish working on this project? If there’s a reason, he’s not saying, but it seems likely that it was just one of many Nintendo projects that was worked on for a time but ultimately never led to anything tangible. It’s also fairly interesting to hear Miyamoto praise Minecraft so openly given how long Nintendo resisted bringing the game to Wii U.

Should Miyamoto ever decide to finish that particular project, we’re sure that the world wouldn’t have a problem with that particular clone.

Shigeru Miyamoto imagined a Minecraft-like game for N64

Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has admitted that Nintendo almost made a Minecraft-style game at one point.

In an interview with Glixel, it was mentioned that Miyamoto plays the cat-collecting mobile game Neko Atsume. He was then asked if there are any other games that he enjoys playing. “Not really,” he stated. “I do like Minecraft, but really more from the perspective of the fact that I really feel like that’s something we should have made. We had actually done a lot of experiments that were similar to that back in the N64 days and we had some designs that were very similar. It’s really impressive to me to see how they’ve been able to take that idea and turn it into a product.”

The next Mario title is Nintendo’s first big game to come to mobile devices: Super Mario Run. This past weekend, the game received both a new trailer and a television commercial. The television ad was filmed with live actors, showing people around the world running and jumping. The trailer shows gameplay of the upcoming runner, and teaches players what they can do in the game, as well as how to do it.

Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto says Nintendo nearly made a Minecraft-style title

Even before Minecraft became a big hit that brought millions of revenues to its sole creator, Nintendo also had an almost exact same game design and concept but did not seem to materialize.

Coming from Nintendo ‘s Shigeru Miyamoto Himself

The revelation is more than just hearsay. The statement came directly from Shigeru Miyamoto himself during an interview with Glixel, as per IGN.

As the creative mind behind some of gaming’s most successful franchises such as Donkey Kong, Mario, and Pikmin, Miyamoto admitted to liking the Swedish-developed game.

But unlike initial perception about the statement when cut halfway, his liking of the game is leaned more towards the idea that the game itself is something they “should have made.”

Elaborating on the idea, Miyamoto revealed that back in the N64 era, they had been doing some experimental designs when developing some games for the console. Some of these designs closely resemble the Mojang-developed title.

The notion, however, does not surmise that there is an infringement in one of game developing company’s intellectual properties. The project which Shigeru Miyamoto was referring to did not actually pass the planning stages because they find one critical element to the game missing: a compelling gameplay, as per VG247.

Miyamoto later admitted he surprised on how the sandboxed game title turned out to be a success in the West given that it did not fare as well in Japan, in terms of gameplay.

The Growing Success of Minecraft

Since entering beta testing in 2011, the originally one-man project has sold over 100 million copies throughout the years. Apart from the original PC title, the game has also spawned a number of iterations across different platforms which further add success to the franchise.

Although there is no telling of how a game similar to Minecraft would fare in the N64 back in the day, Nintendo has nonetheless given their own twist to the existing Wii U title of the same game called the Super Mario mash-up pack.

Nintendo Had Their Own Unfinished Version of ‘Minecraft’ Back in N64, Says Miyamoto

The creator of the most successful game character of all time says he came close to making something like one of the most successful games of all time.

In an interview with Glixel, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto explained that he admires Minecraft “from the perspective of the fact that I really feel like that’s something we should have made”.

The Mario creator said: “We had actually done a lot of experiments that were similar to that back in the N64 days and we had some designs that were very similar.”

It sounds as though the idea didn’t meet Miyamoto’s notoriously high bar for quality, however – which seems to be why he’s impressed by Minecraft‘s success in that department: “It’s really impressive to me to see how they’ve been able to take that idea and turn it into a product.”

Minecraft has sold over 100 million copies since entering its beta phase in 2011. Nintendo finally got in on the blocky action earlier this year, when it released a Super Mario mash-up pack for the Wii U edition of the game.

Shigeru Miyamoto: Nintendo Planned a Minecraft-Like Game for N64

This week’s launch of Super Mario Run should power up shares of Nintendo, 7974.TO -2.786675208199872% Nintendo Co. Ltd. ADR U.S.: OTC ^USD30.35 -0.87 -2.786675208199872% /Date(1481757601000-0600)/ Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1026072 P/E Ratio 69.83433041877589 Market Cap 34748994841.3984 Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee 753082 More quote details and news » which still offer value as the Japanese game maker looks to replicate the massive success of Pokemon Go that fueled a powerful rally in the stock this year.

Nintendo’s (7974.JP) release of Super Mario Run marks the company’s first proper foray into smartphone games, and it’s been a long-time coming for the 130-year old company. Nintendo has missed out on the mobile craze, which has spawned mega hits from Candy Crush to Clash of Clans. Sales of its gaming hardware have dwindled. Pokemon Go, which has been downloaded 500 million times, was developed by Google’s Niantic and its impact on Nintendo’s bottom line has been negligible. For the company’s full-blooded mobile debut, players take control of Mario as he runs through levels collecting gold coins and fighting his arch-foe – a large turtle called Bowser.

While the success of the launch of Super Mario Run will dictate the stock’s short term direction, there is more to Nintendo than just its mustachioed Italian mascot. Long-term earnings should lift as the company gradually unlocks the mobile potential of its intellectual property, while new hardware set for next year could get gamers logging on again. The stock is up roughly 70% this year, placing it on track for its biggest calendar year return since 2007, but potential to grow earnings at a double digit pace could lift the stock another 30%.

Nintendo Can Score 40% Gain on Super Mario Run

Minecraft took off while it was still the project of just one developer, and went on to become one of the biggest games in the world today. Imagine how different its history might have been with the backing of Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto.

That’s the alternate world state we’re all contemplating in the wake of a Glixel interview in which the creator of Donkey Kong, Mario, Pikmin and more revealed his own dabbling in the genre.

“I do like Minecraft, but really more from the perspective of the fact that I really feel like that’s something we should have made,” he said.

“We had actually done a lot of experiments that were similar to that back in the N64 days and we had some designs that were very similar.”

Given how much Nintendo enjoys fostering play and creativity, you have to wonder why it didn’t happen. Was it hardware limitations? The lack of online infrastructure at the time? Miyamoto’s next comment may provide some clues.

“It’s really impressive to me to see how they’ve been able to take that idea and turn it into a product,” he said. That sounds to me like Nintendo prototyped some sort of sandbox builder but couldn’t figure out how to turn it into a compelling game. Heck, plenty of people still don’t “get” why Minecraft’s so fun.

At this point I was reminded of a 2014 Kotaku interview in which Miyamoto and colleague Shinya Takahashi said that Minecraft isn’t as popular in Japan as in the west, and that they’d like to see it made more kid-friendly in terms of controls.

It occurs to me the family-friendly Nintendo would definitely have wanted some way to prevent players creating giant golden dicks, too – something LEGO Universe struggled with – as well as copyright infringements.

Anyway. Elsewhere in the interview Miyamoto talked about his drafting process and how he views himself as a designer of products, not works of art. Nevertheless, he said he designs gams with his three close colleagues at Nintendo based on what they themselves think is fun, and then see if it sells, rather than researching the market first.

Miyamoto also said he doesn’t really play many competitor’s games; he prefers to spend time gardening and practicing carpentry.

There’s heaps of other good stuff in there for anybody interested in one of Nintendo’s most important figures and how the platform holder functions; go check it out through the link above.

Nintendo made a game “very similar” to Minecraft for the N64

Since its release in 2011, Minecraft has captured the hearts and minds of today’s youth. With the recent release of MinecraftEDU school version, this popular game is rapidly becoming the most important educational software of our generation and is now used to teach logic, problem solving, and geometry.

While many educators use Minecraft to teach project-based learning and other liberal arts topics, many don’t realize that Minecraft is one the best ways to teach students computer programming. Here are four reasons Minecraft is great for teaching kids coding.

Minecraft Motivates

Getting kids to try computer programming is surprisingly easy. Keeping them engaged, however, is a very different story. While kids will quickly adapt to the new stimuli, they rarely take the steps towards became masters of this new, albeit complicated skill.

But when it comes to this popular game, kids are more interested that you can imagine. Be introducing mods, you can engage kids by letting them change their own game. “Mods” (short for modifications) are changes to the Minecraft game that give its characters, objects, and landscapes new and surprising characteristics. In order to “mod” the game, students must learn to to code in order to make meaningful changes. When kids are able to imagine and code their own custom mods, they become focused and engaged.

Visual Block Coding Options

Hunting for keys on a keyboard can be frustrating for young learners. As a solution, some brilliant educators developed drag-and-drop visual block tools that allow kids to perform event-driven programming with with Lego-like function blocks. Alice and Scratch popularized this methodology, and in 2016 Microsoft and Code.org unveiled a Minecraft drag and drop coding platform.

Visual blocks represent important computer programming functions such as If Then statements, Loops, and more, and can help younger students learn the foundations of computer science in a visual way. Visual block coding is in some respects similar to training wheels on a bicycle. It is designed to be outgrown. For early learners, however, it allows students to focus more on concepts rather than syntax, and provides another great way to use Minecraft as a coding resource.

Modding Teaches Real Java

When kids are ready to take their skills to the next level, Minecraft Modding with Java can introduce them to real programming. One of the coolest byproducts of Minecraft’s open architecture is that it allows users to access Minecraft’s Java source code to literally create anything that they can imagine. While modding with Java, kids learn to create their own custom pickaxes, their own enemies, or their own dimensions. They can use Java coding to give their creations special properties and then try out their creation in the game that they love to play.

The “Ah Ha” moment in which a child plays with her mod in the game is a marvel to see, and once kids experience it, they want to learn more. Modding provides children with the additional motivation and persistence required to overcome common occurrences in programming – bugs, exceptions, and other technical glitches.

Courses Provide Numerous Options

Minecraft-based educational offerings keep expanding at breakneck speed, and there are many interesting resources that kids can use to learn coding. Microsoft’s investment in MinecraftEDU seems promising and they’re expected to build out more Minecraft visual block coding challenges.

Other providers such as CodaKid, CodeKingdoms, and LearntoMod are also producing interesting high-quality Minecraft coding courses that can help kids gain an understanding of important coding concepts and walk away with valuable 21st century skills.

David Dodge is the founder and CEO of CodaKid Online Kids Coding Academy. He is a former game designer for the Sony Playstation and PC, and the software architect of Tutorware.

4 Reasons Why Minecraft Is Great for Teaching Kids Coding

The creator of Nintendo’s Donkey Kong, Pikmin and Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, expressed his regrets that Nintendo was not able to release a game like Minecraft. The creator admits they had games designed like it but the project never realized to an actual game.

Nintendo Released A Game Like ‘Minecraft’

The ‘Minecraft’ project started with only one developer and suddenly became one of the hottest and most popular game in the world. But fans can’t help but think what could have happened if they have Nintendo to back them up.

According to Miyamoto, they had the same idea and design similar to it before. He reveals the game even have multiple experiments to polish the game as they plan to release it on N64. However, Miyamoto shares the team just didn’t have enough ideas to turn the idea into an interesting game. “That sounds to me like Nintendo prototyped some sort of sandbox builder but couldn’t figure out how to turn it into a compelling game.” Miyamoto said.

Why Nintendo Never Released the Game Like ‘Minecraft’

And it looks like ‘Minecraft’ didn’t really need a compelling idea how the game should be played as its players have their reason why they’re playing. Miyamoto says a lot of people never really figured out the purpose of the game but lots of them still play the game.

Minecraft has definitely captured the hearts of many gamers of every age. This is also the reason why more players are wondering why Nintendo never really released a game like this. But Miyamoto seems to understand now why it happened. Nintendo is strict in providing family-friendly games and with the freewill every player have in ‘Minecraft’, a clash between ‘Minecraft’ gameplay and the rules of Nintendo will clash at some point. For instance, the ability of ‘Minecraft’ players to create naughty images or anything not suitable for a child.

Nintendo Made A Game Like ‘Minecraft’; Super Mario Creator Regrets Nintendo Did Not Release ‘Minecraft’