Microsoft Aims to Build on ‘Minecraft’ Success
The Nov. 1 launch of a “Minecraft” version tailored for the classroom is exciting educators and parents alike.
“Phenomenal” is how Mark Minghella describes the test version of “Minecraft: Education Edition,” the new iteration of the popular building game.
“I’ve got an overwhelmingly … positive attitude toward ‘Minecraft’ in the classroom,” says Minghella, a technology teacher in the nation’s capital at the British International School of Washington. He says he was familiar with “Minecraft” thanks to his two kids. “It’s actually being used for education purposes and not just for students to play games.”
Minghella says the game can help students understand the concepts involved with building a sustainable community, as well as how to work collaboratively, overcome obstacles and prioritize tasks.
“Minecraft” gamers can build their own worlds. Stealth/YouTube
“Understanding that logical sequencing and systems thinking” is one of the many benefits of gaming for students, says Lisa Douthit, an emerging technology teacher with the Turner Unified School District of Kansas City, Kansas. “It’s all about logical thinking and critical thinking, and how it expands that student’s mind from that perspective.”
For Microsoft, the parent company of “Minecraft,” the foray appears to make sense, as the game-based learning market is expected to reap revenues of $4.9 billion by 2019. The company, which acquired “Minecraft” developer Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014 in one of the largest acquisitions in gaming history, announced the updated game version in January. The original “Minecraft” version has seen more than 100 million downloads on PCs alone since 2009.
Based on MinecraftEdu, a licensed game developed by TeacherGaming LLC and purchased by Microsoft earlier this year, “Minecraft: Education Edition” has been free to more than 35,000 students and teachers around the world taking part in an early access program. Since June, schools and students have been testing the new edition, providing feedback to the company to refine the game before its official launch.
“We have high hopes for this title to be a game-changer in classrooms around the world,” Deirdre Quarnstrom, director of “Minecraft” education at Microsoft, tells U.S. News. “Our first priority in the short term is driving awareness of the new title and getting continued educator feedback to finesse the experience as we go.”
“Minecraft: Education Edition” provides a team-play mode for up to 30 students and allows them to take pictures of their work for teachers to track their development. It also adds a chalkboard feature so teachers can post information or give instructions during the game. It has a single sign-on feature for privacy and security protection, and a non-player character function in the November version enables educators to act as guides within the game.
The technical nature of the game itself may impede classroom adoption for some, as it takes place in an open “sandbox” format in which players build worlds from scratch using 3-D blocks.
“For educators who know and love ‘Minecraft,’ the blank canvas is an exciting opportunity, but for those who are new to ‘Minecraft,’ this format can be overwhelming,” Microsoft’s Quarnstrom admits.
But features like an in-depth tutorial, lesson plans, a variety of templated worlds and a classroom mode can help reduce the learning curve. So-called “Minecraft” mentors will be available to aid teachers working to incorporate the game into classwork as well.
That schools and interested parents will adopt the game on a widespread level is the gamble Microsoft is taking. “Minecraft: Education Edition” will be available in the Windows Store for $5 per user per year from Nov. 1, while schools also can obtain the game under a districtwide licensing agreement that charges in the range of $1 to $2 per user per year, the “Minecraft” team tells U.S. News in an email.
The November launch comes as efforts to connect more classrooms to the internet have ramped up in recent years, involving advocates such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the nonprofit world and the Obama administration on the federal level. Yet concerns about children and teens spending too much time watching television or using other media devices remain prevalent, with the American Academy of Pediatrics recommending parents set consistent limits on such activities.
“Minecraft” encourages logical thinking and critical thinking, educators say. Stealth/YouTube
But while some may balk at the idea of making gaming a focal point in the classroom, most of the educators contacted by U.S. News say they have overwhelming support from parents.
“There are definitely parents who would not agree to applying gaming, but I would like to think that it is a function of not understanding the association with the learning objectives,” says Steven Isaacs, a game design and development teacher at William Annin Middle School in New Jersey, who also will be serving as a “Minecraft” mentor.
Minghella says his school did receive a complaint from a parent who was not convinced about the benefits of applying gaming to the classroom. But he says most parents have been very supportive.
“I think that some parents play games and as such, get the idea. Some don’t play games but understand that we can harness games to enhance education. Finally, some don’t play games and can’t see past games as being anything more than just games,” Minghella says.
He also thinks efforts by schools and teachers can mitigate parents’ worries. The British International School of Washington, for example, hosted a “Minecraft for Parents” event to let parents experience the game and see what the students can learn.
Mark Blair, a technology specialist with the Douglas County School District in Colorado, says some teachers testing the game did have technical difficulties getting it running. But he thinks those issues will be minimized in the new edition, in which teachers will simply have to create a world for the students to operate within after joining.
“Because they added some new modifications for teachers to better manage their class, and to be able to do things like coding and other things that teachers are interested in, it’s just easier for teachers to adopt it,” says Mimi Ito, research director of the Digital Media and Learning Hub at the University of California—Irvine. Ito also is a co-founder of Connected Camps, a for-profit online learning organization through which teenage coaches use “Minecraft” to teach younger children computer coding and Spanish.
Some educators and after-school programs already using the standard “Minecraft” version may be reluctant to switch to the education edition, worried it may pale in comparison to some of the original’s more powerful features, such as modded weapons, characters and game modes.
Whether students can continue their learning at home using the education edition is another question for users. While Microsoft has said kids can play the game at home as well, Ito notes their particular identity in the game is tied to where they currently attend school, meaning switching to another may force them to start from scratch or scrap the game altogether.
“What’s very important for our learning model is that it’s about having a social relationship, a community, being a part of a shared ‘Minecraft’ server community,” Ito says. “And in order to do that, kids need to be able to connect from home and need to be able to maintain that ‘Minecraft’ identity, which is different from the education edition where the school is going to buy the accounts and the school owns the account for whatever period of time that they want to subscribe their kids.”
However, Douthit says she’s excited to see how the new version evolves.
“Obviously they are developing their regular version of ‘Minecraft,’ so I have great confidence that they are gonna do the same with the teacher version,” she says.
‘Minecraft’ is coming to Apple TV
Today’s Apple event might be about new Macs, but the company is taking time to detail updates for its other products too. First up: Apple TV. On stage today, CEO Tim Cook said that the box now offers access to over 8,000 apps, and will soon become home to one of the most popular games on both consoles and mobile: Minecraft. That’s right, Microsoft’s huge open-world sandbox game will be available on Apple TV “by the end of the year.”
Apple has provided no additional details about what is in store but you’ll likely want to invest in a third-party controller to get the most from the title. Sure, Apple’s new wireless remote sports a touchpad and hosts more buttons than the minimalist silver remote that shipped with the company’s older streamers but we imagine it won’t be the best tool to help you (or the little ones) build that all-important End Portal. We’ve contacted Microsoft and Mojang for more details and will bring you more information as we get it.
Microsoft’s new Paint 3D app will let you 3D print your Minecraft creations
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At an event in New York City today, Microsoft unveiled a radically updated version of its ubiquitous Paint app for Windows 10, one that lets users build three-dimensional creations. And it turns out that the new tool will be especially useful for Minecraft players. According to Microsoft, players will not only be able to export their in-game creations to the new Paint 3D tool, but then 3D print them from the app, so you can have a real live version of your previously digital creation. There are already a few third-party options that offer similar services, of course, but given the tight integration between Minecraft and Paint 3D, this should be the most streamlined way yet.
MS Paint is now 3D
Microsoft’s new Paint 3D app will let you 3D print your Minecraft creations
James Mangold Reveals ‘Logan’s’ Timeline and Talks Unique Tone
Earlier today we saw the first Logan trailer, which is cut to Johnny Cash‘s cover of NIN’s “Hurt.” Perhaps not a terribly subtle song choice, but it’s pretty damn effective. The fun nod to Mangold’s Walk the Line aside, the song choice also hints the filmmaker is bringing audiences a slightly different offering from the superhero genre, and that was the Mangold and 20th Century Fox’s intent with the trailer.
Below, James Mangold discusses Logan’s timeline and his aspirations for the film.
Mangold believes Cash’s music makes the trailer stand apart from the “standard, bombastic, brooding orchestral, swish-bang, doors opening and slamming, explosions kind of methodology of some of these movies.” Another way Mangold wants Logan to stand out from the herd? By making the stakes less global, more personal. Logan isn’t saving the world this time.
In an interview with Empire, Mangold talks about how his film is driven more by character than conventional genre spectacle:
Hugh and I have been talking about what we would do since we were working on the last one, and for both of us it was this requirement that, to be even interested in doing it, we had to free ourselves from some assumptions that had existed in the past, and be able to change the tone a bit. Not merely to change for change’s sake, but also to make something that’s speaking to the culture now, that’s not just the same style — how many times can they save the world in one way or another? How can we construct a story that’s built more on character and character issues, in a way as if it almost wasn’t a superhero movie, yet it features their powers and struggles and themes.
To make the character more vulnerable his healing powers have been slowed down. The Logan we see in the trailer is scarred and battered, a true depiction of Old Man Logan. Mangold explains Jackman and him had the freedom to play with certain rules and traditions from the X-Men series:
One of the things we all thought about as we worked on this film is, well, we don’t want to rebuild everything. We want to have some questions. In order to make a different Logan, and a different tone of a Wolverine movie, we felt like we couldn’t hold on to every tradition established in all the movies religiously, or we’d be trapped by the decisions made before us. So we questioned whether Logan’s healing factor causes him to heal without even a scar. We imagined that it may have when he was younger, but with age, he’s getting older and ailing. Perhaps his healing factor no longer produces baby-soft skin. So we imagined he heals quickly, still, but it leaves a scar. The simple idea was that his body would start to get a little more ravaged with a kind of tattooing of past battles, lacerations that remain of previous conflicts.
Although Mangold wants to dig deeper under Logan’s skin, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to see the character unleash his claws and go berzerk in Logan. Mangold promises visceral, R-rated action, which, based on the trailer, relies far more on practical effects and real environments than CGI:
This represents] to me the kind of aggressive, classical Wolverine action that we want in the movie – more of something that fans have been asking for, for a really long time. We’ve been limited in one way or another from giving it to them, but I think we’ve got the go-ahead to really go for it on this picture. So we’re really trying to deliver what folks have always imagined those kind of battles would look like. There is a lot of high-octane action in the movie. We’re just trying to do it very differently and very viscerally.
Mangold doesn’t have much to say about Laura Kinney (Dafne Keen) or Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook). He’d prefer to maintain a little mystery regarding those characters. The director does say Holbrook brings some humor to the villain, though, and that Keen’s character is a part of the film’s family. Mangold tells Empire that Logan, first and foremost, is a movie about family. Based on the trailer, and Jacob’s breakdown, this family is going to get put through the wringer next March.
Logan opens in theaters March 3rd, 2017.
James Mangold Reveals ‘Logan’s’ Timeline and Talks Unique Tone
Here’s How You Can Play Minecraft: Story Mode For Free
If you still haven’t taken Minecraft: Story Mode for a spin, your patience (or stubbornness) is being rewarded in the form of some gratis gaming. For a limited time, you can get your hands on the first chapter free of charge.
Telltale announced this week that they have made the first chapter of Minecraft: Story Mode 100 percent free across multiple platforms, including the Xbox Marketplace, iOS, Google Play, the Amazon Appstore, and the PlayStation Network. Pretty much anywhere you can play the game (and there are certainly a large number), you can get in on the action for no initial investment.
To make this news even better, Telltale has announced that, after you give the first chapter a go, you can get the rest of the episodic series at a discounted rate. So not only can you play for a couple of hours with no commitment, you can keep right on trucking for a fraction of the original asking price.
There are a few options when it comes to purchasing the full game, including the Season Pass, Adventure Pass, Season Pass Deluxe and The Complete Adventure across various platforms. There’s also the physical game disc, which can be purchased at retail. No matter which route you go, you’ll find that Minecraft: Story Mode has seen a reduced rate, though we’d argue that publishers are getting a bit carried away with all of these different packages.
In total, Minecraft: Story Mode comes in at eight episodes. That’s five episodes from the core game, plus the additional three episodes from the Adventure Pass. That’s a break in the norm for Telltale, who tend to keep their episodic games, including The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Tales From the Borderlands, Batman and the like, to about five episodes.
Starting next Tuesday, Oct. 25, Minecraft: Story Mode — The Complete Adventure will be available at retail for $29.99. That’s a pretty nice price point for all of that blocky goodness. This physical version of the game will be available for the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A PC launch is planned for the near future.
If you’re new to Telltale games, they don’t really venture below “fantastic” in the quality department these days, and reviews for Minecraft: Story Mode show that it does a good job of keeping that tradition alive. It’s got a solid cast, too, featuring Patton Oswalt, Catherine Taber, Ashley Johnson, Corey Feldman, John Hodgman, Paul Reubens, Sean Astin and more.
For those of you who have already plowed through everything Telltale’s Minecraft has to offer, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Not that people should need extra convincing to try a free chapter, but is this something folks might want to move to the top of their “to do” list?
The Impossible Problem of Where Minecraft Goes Next
It’s been two years since Microsoft bought Minecraft, and the new owners are faced with a conundrum: what do you do with a game that is already a phenomenon?
Complicating things further, Minecraft is now a seven-year old game. While lot of work has been put into keeping the game current, Minecraft is also beginning to show its age. Mojang developer Nathan Adams compared it to rebuild the engines of a jet in the middle of a flight, because taking the game down to patch it just isn’t an option. The tension at the heart of Minecraft heightens when you consider that the developers say difficulties associated with coding the blocky builder sometimes prevents them from adding features that the community wants, like a working API or a server browser.
I got a chance to suss out the future of Minecraft at last month’s Minecon, where the community rubs elbows with the people who make Minecraft great. Obviously, that description includes the developers, but it also expands farther into the YouTubers who make hilarious videos, the modders who create new ways to play, and the builders, who create wonderful worlds for others to enjoy as well.
This was at the forefront of my mind when I attended Minecon. Minecraft has always been a community-driven game, and I was curious how Mojang would handle that aspect of Minecraft’s identity while also pushing the game into new frontiers.
I met with Saxs Persson, developer for the Pocket and Windows 10 editions of Minecraft, and Matt Booty, head of Minecraft, in nearby Marriott hotel. Persson was dressed casually, in a black shirt and jeans. He came off as enthusiastic, prone to geeking out about new tech or features. Booty on the other hand was dressed in a button-down, slacks and came off as more reserved. They couldn’t have chosen a better pair to represent Minecraft.
“We want everybody to play with everybody,” Persson told me. “Minecraft is better when you can connect to your world wherever you with whatever device.” Windows 10 and Pocket Edition players already enjoy cross-platform play, but Persson paints a picture of complete compatibility – console and Java and Win 10 players all connecting and enjoying Minecraft together. In his ideal world, you’d be able to log on to the same persistent server from your iPad, your computer, and your console—a technical and legal hurdle that has been branched in part by games like Rocket League, but full connectivity across all platforms still seems like a lofty goal for Minecraft.
What’s more, this idea seems to ignore that the various Minecraft editions floating around all have varying features, something that even the biggest Minecraft fan finds annoying. For example, MCPE is still missing The End, but at the same time it will get additions that Java won’t see till later (or ever.) Persson didn’t specifically address version mismatches when I asked if feature parity was still a priority, but he also didn’t seem concerned about potential version conflicts. “There’s not a lot holding us back from connecting these versions, and parity is not the main goal,” he said. There is no doubt that this kind of cross-platform play would be popular and welcomed, but I’m skeptical as to how it would actually work. I’m also not sure it’s a feature that the community truly cares about.
Persson also enthused about “new input methodologies,” specifically the Oculus touch. Actually, VR played a big role in Minecon: the line to try it out was hours long throughout the entire event, and Mojang highlighted it often enough that VR seems to form a centerpiece for Minecraft’s future plans.
Virtual reality is still an incredibly niche technology, and Minecraft’s hallmark has always been its accessibility—you can run the game on pretty much any device. It’s hard to understand how adding a style of play that requires a powerful computer or console and a pricey headset fits with the existing appeal of Minecraft. Community response to VR offerings is and always has been tepid at best, especially among veteran Minecraft players, who remember Notch’s quarrel with Oculus in the past.
For now, most of the YouTubers and map makers and modders attached to Minecraft seem pretty happy with their current arrangement—Mojang is still very relaxed about letting people profit off of their game—but some are starting to see the writing on the wall. Long-time Minecraft YouTubers, such as skitscape and setosorcerer, have been moving on to other games or other careers. Map creators like Hypixel have had to adapt and often abandon single-player maps in favor of multiplayer ones, and the often-ignored mod community is starting to feel the strain of an aging game. Each recent patch has created a new set of problems — a recent one, for example, made many large texture packs unuseable, and while a different patch made PvP unplayable for many. With add-ons and an API still a long way off, frustrations continue to mount for some fans.
Mojang’s vision for the future of the game and the communities’ vision have not always been in line, and you could see the effects of that fissure on the showfloor itself. When I asked how they chose the people that ended up on stage at Minecon—essentially receiving the Mojang stamp of approval—or heading up the panels, Persson and Booty were a little evasive. “There is an active curation [of exhibitors],” Booty said about the people that were invited to attend the event and present, “ranging from trying to stay true to Minecraft’s indie roots to working with corporate partners and everything in between.” This was an obvious nod to the big name partners like Mattel that were taking up large amounts of real estate on the expo floor. There were plenty of indie names and creators features, but their competition was fiercer. The Minecon docket was stacked with young, high energy personalities who curated an atmosphere of fun and excitement—the old guard, like Hypixel and other creators, were less well represented.
Persson and Booty still recognized, at least in part, the debt that they owed to the the community. “We ask that they come and meet their fans with open arms,” Persson said, “as a true fan event, not just a primarily corporate one.” Persson and the Mojang team seem eager to signal to their fans that they were still the focus of the event and of their efforts, and that the Microsoft buyout still doesn’t indicate a change in direction or an abandonment of their core users. It was a necessary reminder, given that Minecraft’s indie origins made some people deeply skeptical of Microsoft’s purchase, and these same fans have remained guarded even as the company seeks to reassure them.
Regardless, the Mojang team has actually shown that they are listening to the community in some respects. Minecon saw the first full presentation of the add-on system, which allows players to tweak the behavior and statistics of mobs at first, and will eventually allow wide modification of all entities. Players have been asking for something like this as far back as 2011.
“Add-ons are just the first step,” Persson said, confirming that an application program interface, or API, was being co-developed – a feature that would make modding significantly easier. Persson admitted that two previous attempts at creating an API had failed, and that they had brought on the creators of Bukkit–a popular mod utility–to help them make this attempt stick. This may represent a serious commitment to developing an API, but those promises go back as far as 2009. The community remains skeptical after being burned so many times before.
It’s also obvious that Microsoft has invested heavily in making Minecraft more than just a video game. Minecraft’s developers preferred to use words like “platform”, “tool”, and “environment” instead of “game,” and they were effusive about applications for research, education, and machine learning. “At a high level, we want to maintain Minecraft as an innovation brand,” Booty said when asked about his vision for the future of the game. It was a little hard to pin down exactly what they meant by this — it sounds like they want Minecraft to be all things to all people, which, while ambitious, sounds like a recipe for failure.
Despite the abundance of buzzwords, Mojang’s description is a telling indication of Microsoft’s concerns over their $2.5 billion investment. Minecraft is a completely unprecedented phenomenon, and so too is a massive buyout of an indie game by a major corporation. Minecraft has already conquered video games, so it seems natural that Microsoft and Mojang now want to create something that supersedes gaming.
Everyone I talked to at Minecon was excited about exactly one thing—meeting their heroes, whether that was one of the developers, a popular YouTuber, or a modder. As far as the fans are concerned, the future of Minecraft will always be with the people who make the game great, not fancy technology. Mojang has loftier goals, though it’s hard to say if VR and added connectivity truly hold the key to where Minecraft goes next. Then again, predicting the future is no easy task.
Rob Guthrie is a lapsed academic who writes about history, video games, and weird internet things. Follow him @RobertWGuthrie for pithy Tweets and lukewarm takes.
Minecraft: Pocket Edition gets boss fights and Add-Ons
Above: A custom-made creeper add-on in Minecraft.
Microsoft is giving Minecraft fans a way to remix the building game however they want.
Minecraft: Pocket Edition’s latest update is live, and it introduces two key features for iOS, Android, and other mobile operating systems. Microsoft and developer Mojang have finally brought boss fights into this version of the game. Now, players can take on the Elite Guardian and the Ocean Monuments in epic battles. This patch also introduces the Add-Ons feature that Mojang first announced earlier this year. With Add-Ons, any Minecraft player can dig into its files to create custom edits and remixes. Minecraft is one of the biggest games in the $99.6 billion gaming industry, and it is consistently one of the best-selling games on consoles, PC, and mobile devices.
Add-Ons is one of the ways that Mojang is keeping Minecraft appealing. By making it easier to create unique experiences for the game, the developer is making it more likely that fans of Minecraft will transform it into exactly what they want. Previously, most fans had to wait for community creators to build mods, but Add-Ons makes it so that you can change nearly everything about Minecraft by changing a few numbers in a text file.
Here’s how the Add-Ons feature works:
When I talked to Mojang at the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in June, the company explained that the process to make something like a UFO is so basic that almost anyone can do it.
““It’s really not that difficult,” Minecraft senior producer James Webster said in June. “It’s just a matter of creating the geometries, which is just a bunch of points in space. And then adding the textures to that. It’s really simple to make these massive changes. Add-Ons, we hope, are going to encourage people to be super creative. It’s a simple thing to change things, but then they can take things a step further by remixing all of these elements to come up with brand new ideas.”
While Add-Ons are coming to the Pocket Edition first, Mojang plans to eventually roll the feature out to every version of Minecraft. That’s part of a long-term road map to bring the various versions of the game together while consistently expanding all of their features. But if Add-Ons is a hit with fans, then the Minecraft community may keep the game feeling fresh and exciting all on their own.
The Boss Update for Minecraft Pocket Edition and Windows 10 is rolling out
After a small delay, the advertised Boss Update is rolling out for Minecraft on Windows 10 and Windows phones.
The Boss Update will bring Guardians, Ocean Monuments, the summonable Wither Boss fight, slash commands, and some UI refinements to the game. Additionally, it also provides the first iteration of Add-ons, allowing people to customize Minecraft using tools as simple as Notepad and MS Paint.
You can download some example Add-ons from Minecraft.net right here, including the E3-demonstrated Alien Invasion pack and a zombie Castle Siege pack. We’ll have some guides up shortly on how you can customize your own creatures in Minecraft, from the way they look, to the way they behave and interact with the game’s world.
The full changelog is as follows (via Mojang):
New Features
- Ocean Monuments
- Guardians and Elder Guardians
- Prismarine, dark prismarine & prismarine bricks
- Prismarine shard & prismarine crystal
- Sea lantern
- The Wither!
- Nether star
- Beacon
- Wet & dry sponges
- Slash commands (with a handy auto complete feature). Enable cheats for a world in the options screen for access, but note that Xbox Live achievements will be disabled when you’re using ’em!
- Custom key bindings! Hooray for lefties!
- A new Creative inventory search feature
- Add-On section for world settings
- Basic F3 support! (Win 10 only)
- Coordinates!
- You can change game modes in Realms (note that doing this will restart the realm)
- Ability to upload & download worlds in Realms
- Ability to promote players as operators in Realms
Tweaks
- UI improvements!
- Performance improvements!
- Tweaks to various mob action/behavior triggers, including fixing creeper explosions
- Elder guardian de-buff visuals fixed (feedback from Android beta)
- Fishing rods & arrows will fire in more than just one direction
- Lots of tweaks to water textures to make underwater more fun
- Tweaks to Realms settings
- Visual tweaks to sun, moon & stars when rendering in VR immersive mode
- Ridiculous numbers of bug fixes!
Sadly, the update still excludes the Windows Phone version of the game from Realms, Microsoft’s subscription-based dedicated Minecraft hosting service, but the company has always told me that it is their goal to bring it in, eventually, in addition to Xbox One and Xbox 360.
If you don’t have Minecraft and want to see what all the fuss is about, join me, Daniel Rubino and Zac Bowden tonight on Beam.pro where we’ll stream some Minecraft, chat with you about Microsoft and probably get blown up by wayward creepers!
The Boss Update for Minecraft Pocket Edition and Windows 10 is rolling out
The Impossible Problem of Where Minecraft Goes Next
It’s been two years since Microsoft bought Minecraft, and the new owners are faced with a conundrum: what do you do with a game that is already a phenomenon?
Complicating things further, Minecraft is now a seven-year old game. While lot of work has been put into keeping the game current, Minecraft is also beginning to show its age. Mojang developer Nathan Adams compared it to rebuild the engines of a jet in the middle of a flight, because taking the game down to patch it just isn’t an option. The tension at the heart of Minecraft heightens when you consider that the developers say difficulties associated with coding the blocky builder sometimes prevents them from adding features that the community wants, like a working API or a server browser.
I got a chance to suss out the future of Minecraft at last month’s Minecon, where the community rubs elbows with the people who make Minecraft great. Obviously, that description includes the developers, but it also expands farther into the YouTubers who make hilarious videos, the modders who create new ways to play, and the builders, who create wonderful worlds for others to enjoy as well.
This was at the forefront of my mind when I attended Minecon. Minecraft has always been a community-driven game, and I was curious how Mojang would handle that aspect of Minecraft’s identity while also pushing the game into new frontiers.
I met with Saxs Persson, developer for the Pocket and Windows 10 editions of Minecraft, and Matt Booty, head of Minecraft, in nearby Marriott hotel. Persson was dressed casually, in a black shirt and jeans. He came off as enthusiastic, prone to geeking out about new tech or features. Booty on the other hand was dressed in a button-down, slacks and came off as more reserved. They couldn’t have chosen a better pair to represent Minecraft.
“We want everybody to play with everybody,” Persson told me. “Minecraft is better when you can connect to your world wherever you with whatever device.” Windows 10 and Pocket Edition players already enjoy cross-platform play, but Persson paints a picture of complete compatibility – console and Java and Win 10 players all connecting and enjoying Minecraft together. In his ideal world, you’d be able to log on to the same persistent server from your iPad, your computer, and your console—a technical and legal hurdle that has been branched in part by games like Rocket League, but full connectivity across all platforms still seems like a lofty goal for Minecraft.
What’s more, this idea seems to ignore that the various Minecraft editions floating around all have varying features, something that even the biggest Minecraft fan finds annoying. For example, MCPE is still missing The End, but at the same time it will get additions that Java won’t see till later (or ever.) Persson didn’t specifically address version mismatches when I asked if feature parity was still a priority, but he also didn’t seem concerned about potential version conflicts. “There’s not a lot holding us back from connecting these versions, and parity is not the main goal,” he said. There is no doubt that this kind of cross-platform play would be popular and welcomed, but I’m skeptical as to how it would actually work. I’m also not sure it’s a feature that the community truly cares about.
Persson also enthused about “new input methodologies,” specifically the Oculus touch. Actually, VR played a big role in Minecon: the line to try it out was hours long throughout the entire event, and Mojang highlighted it often enough that VR seems to form a centerpiece for Minecraft’s future plans.
Virtual reality is still an incredibly niche technology, and Minecraft’s hallmark has always been its accessibility—you can run the game on pretty much any device. It’s hard to understand how adding a style of play that requires a powerful computer or console and a pricey headset fits with the existing appeal of Minecraft. Community response to VR offerings is and always has been tepid at best, especially among veteran Minecraft players, who remember Notch’s quarrel with Oculus in the past.
For now, most of the YouTubers and map makers and modders attached to Minecraft seem pretty happy with their current arrangement—Mojang is still very relaxed about letting people profit off of their game—but some are starting to see the writing on the wall. Long-time Minecraft YouTubers, such as skitscape and setosorcerer, have been moving on to other games or other careers. Map creators like Hypixel have had to adapt and often abandon single-player maps in favor of multiplayer ones, and the often-ignored mod community is starting to feel the strain of an aging game. Each recent patch has created a new set of problems — a recent one, for example, made many large texture packs unuseable, and while a different patch made PvP unplayable for many. With add-ons and an API still a long way off, frustrations continue to mount for some fans.
Mojang’s vision for the future of the game and the communities’ vision have not always been in line, and you could see the effects of that fissure on the showfloor itself. When I asked how they chose the people that ended up on stage at Minecon—essentially receiving the Mojang stamp of approval—or heading up the panels, Persson and Booty were a little evasive. “There is an active curation [of exhibitors],” Booty said about the people that were invited to attend the event and present, “ranging from trying to stay true to Minecraft’s indie roots to working with corporate partners and everything in between.” This was an obvious nod to the big name partners like Mattel that were taking up large amounts of real estate on the expo floor. There were plenty of indie names and creators features, but their competition was fiercer. The Minecon docket was stacked with young, high energy personalities who curated an atmosphere of fun and excitement—the old guard, like Hypixel and other creators, were less well represented.
Persson and Booty still recognized, at least in part, the debt that they owed to the the community. “We ask that they come and meet their fans with open arms,” Persson said, “as a true fan event, not just a primarily corporate one.” Persson and the Mojang team seem eager to signal to their fans that they were still the focus of the event and of their efforts, and that the Microsoft buyout still doesn’t indicate a change in direction or an abandonment of their core users. It was a necessary reminder, given that Minecraft’s indie origins made some people deeply skeptical of Microsoft’s purchase, and these same fans have remained guarded even as the company seeks to reassure them.
Regardless, the Mojang team has actually shown that they are listening to the community in some respects. Minecon saw the first full presentation of the add-on system, which allows players to tweak the behavior and statistics of mobs at first, and will eventually allow wide modification of all entities. Players have been asking for something like this as far back as 2011.
“Add-ons are just the first step,” Persson said, confirming that an application program interface, or API, was being co-developed – a feature that would make modding significantly easier. Persson admitted that two previous attempts at creating an API had failed, and that they had brought on the creators of Bukkit–a popular mod utility–to help them make this attempt stick. This may represent a serious commitment to developing an API, but those promises go back as far as 2009. The community remains skeptical after being burned so many times before.
It’s also obvious that Microsoft has invested heavily in making Minecraft more than just a video game. Minecraft’s developers preferred to use words like “platform”, “tool”, and “environment” instead of “game,” and they were effusive about applications for research, education, and machine learning. “At a high level, we want to maintain Minecraft as an innovation brand,” Booty said when asked about his vision for the future of the game. It was a little hard to pin down exactly what they meant by this — it sounds like they want Minecraft to be all things to all people, which, while ambitious, sounds like a recipe for failure.
Despite the abundance of buzzwords, Mojang’s description is a telling indication of Microsoft’s concerns over their $2.5 billion investment. Minecraft is a completely unprecedented phenomenon, and so too is a massive buyout of an indie game by a major corporation. Minecraft has already conquered video games, so it seems natural that Microsoft and Mojang now want to create something that supersedes gaming.
Everyone I talked to at Minecon was excited about exactly one thing—meeting their heroes, whether that was one of the developers, a popular YouTuber, or a modder. As far as the fans are concerned, the future of Minecraft will always be with the people who make the game great, not fancy technology. Mojang has loftier goals, though it’s hard to say if VR and added connectivity truly hold the key to where Minecraft goes next. Then again, predicting the future is no easy task.
Minecraft’s Boss Update now available for Windows 10 and Pocket Edition
Microsoft recently announced a major update coming to Minecraft on Windows 10. Today, Mojang has started rolling out the update, titled the “Boss Update” to Minecraft’s Windows 10 Edition and Pocket Edition. With the latest Minecraft update, players can now fight the wither, and the game also includes new ocean monuments, as well as the beacon. More importantly, the update brings support for add-ons which is a huge addition to the game. Along with all the new features, the update also comes with some user interface and performance improvements. Here is the full changelog:
New Features
- Ocean Monuments
- Guardians and Elder Guardians
- Prismarine, dark prismarine & prismarine bricks
- Prismarine shard & prismarine crystal
- Sea lantern
- The Wither!
- Nether star
- Beacon
- Wet & dry sponges
- Slash commands (with a handy auto complete feature). Enable cheats for a world in the options screen for access, but note that Xbox Live achievements will be disabled when you’re using ‘em!
- Custom key bindings! Hooray for lefties!
- A new Creative inventory search feature
- Add-On section for world settings
- Basic F3 support! (Win 10 only)
- Coordinates!
- You can change game modes in Realms (note that doing this will restart the realm)
- Ability to upload & download worlds in Realms
- Ability to promote players as operators in Realms
Tweaks
- UI improvements!
- Performance improvements!
- Tweaks to various mob action/behavior triggers, including fixing creeper explosions
- Elder guardian de-buff visuals fixed (feedback from Android beta)
- Fishing rods & arrows will fire in more than just one direction
- Lots of tweaks to water textures to make underwater more fun
- Tweaks to Realms settings
- Visual tweaks to sun, moon & stars when rendering in VR immersive mode
- Ridiculous numbers of bug fixes!
Minecraft’s Boss Update now available for Windows 10 and Pocket Edition
Teach Your Kids How to Code with Minecraft or Star Wars Tutorials
Programming is a valuable skill for kids of all ages to pick up, and when they learn by playing with their favorite characters and games it’s even more fun. Code.org has two new tutorials that will appeal to many kids based on Minecraft and Star Wars.
The Minecraft interactive tutorial has kids choosing between Steve and Alex for their character and then dragging and dropping code blocks to get their character to mine, explore, and craft in the very familiar Minecraft world (complete with that haunting music). There are 14 challenges available now, rated for kids ages 6 and up, and it looks like more languages will be added soon.
The Star Wars tutorial, also in beta, offers both the blocks code and a JavaScript version intended for older kids ages 11 and up (but depending on your child, it’s totally doable for younger kids as well).
These are incredibly fun tools, part of the Hour of Code, which many schools are scheduled to participate in from December 7 to 13th, Computer Science Education Week. You can volunteer here. Thanks Vin!
Teach Your Kids How to Code with Minecraft or Star Wars Tutorials
A Parent’s Guide to Playing Minecraft With Your Kids
When your kid shows interest in a popular phenomenon, usually there’s not much to understand—you just help them turn on the videos, and put the toys on their birthday wish list. But it’s a little trickier when your kid comes home and insists that they need to play Minecraft. You have some learning to do.
If you’re nervous about letting your kid log on to a server with other people, it may help to know that they don’t have to. We’ll discuss below how to set up a multiplayer world, but there are plenty of ways to do that while keeping the world private. Minecraft is also tons of fun in single player mode. If you do end up introducing your child to public servers, you’ll probably want to have a talk with them about online safety, and it may be a good idea to play with them at first.
Pick a Platform and Install the Game
There’s a version of Minecraft for every platform. The cheapest, and easiest to install, is the Minecraft Pocket Edition app. It’s $6.99 on iOS and Android. Once it’s installed, you just hit Play, create a world, and you’re off.
Pocket edition has a limited set of inventory items and commands. You can still do a ton of fun things, but currently the game lacks large “boss” monsters to battle, and you don’t have access to some of the lesser used items. The mobile app will do almost anything you can think of, but if you want the most flexibility down the line and the physically largest worlds, go with the desktop version. We imagine though, that your child will probably have a preference as to the platform you buy and install on.
The traditional and most full-featured way to play is on a computer, with the version that runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux. The software is free to download, but you have to pay a one-time fee of $26.95 to create an account. The program won’t run unless you log in.
Minecraft is also available for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and 4, Wii U, and a handful of other console and mobile platforms,at varying price points in the $20-$30 range, with licenses available either through direct download or physical copies, whichever you prefer. Once you’ve installed the version Minecraft of your (or your child’s) choice, create a Single Player world for starters, and begin exploring.
Learn the Controls
Even if it’s your kid that will be doing the gameplay, you’ll want to have a sense of how to move around and use objects in the game. I can’t count how many times a kid asked me how to do something, I googled and confidently told them the answer, and then felt a little clueless when they handed me the device and said “Show me how.”
On a computer, the w, a, s, and d keys control which direction you walk, and your mouse position controls where you look. Left click destroys a block; right click places the block you are holding. Similarly, interact with objects with a click: left click to hit, right click to use an object. So, for example, hold a bone and right click on a dog to give the dog a bone. Left click to smack the dog with the bone.
The space bar lets you jump, and in creative mode (more about that below), you can fly. Double tap the space bar to start flying, and tap it again to move higher. Shift lowers you down, and another double space drops you to the ground.
On a touch screen device, you’ll have arrow buttons on the left side of the screen for walking, and a separate button for jumping or flying on the right. Swipe the screen to look around. Place blocks with a tap, and destroy them by tapping and holding. You can use some items by tapping, others by tapping and holding, and still others by looking for a special button to appear at the bottom of the screen. For example, if you hold an apple and approach a horse, there will be a “feed” button. You can read more about all the different controls for all the different platforms on the Official Minecraft Wiki.
To manage your inventory, press “e” on your keybord (on the desktop) or tap the “…” button next to the row of nine empty boxes at the bottom of the screen (on mobile.) Scroll through to see what you’ve picked up, if you’re playing in survival mode. In creative mode, you can also search and scroll through hundreds of items that are yours for the choosing. Those nine empty boxes, by the way? Those are your “hot bar” of readily accessible objects. You can drag items from your inventory into them to use them quickly, like with a single tap or keypress, which comes in handy later.
So, What Do You Do?
So what do you do in Minecraft, anyway? What is your kid trying to accomplish when they spend hours at the computer playing? You already know the answer, actually: you mine blocks from your surroundings, and you use them to craft new things. Imagine walking through a world made of lego blocks as far as the eye can see. You can break off a block from the ground, from a tree, anywhere you like, and then you can use the blocks you’ve gathered to make something new.
In survival mode, you arrive in Minecraft land with literally nothing. You can karate-chop the world with your hand to gather blocks of dirt and wood. You can make a pickaxe out of wood, and use it to mine for stone. Then you can make a better pickaxe out of stone. In the meantime, you’d better create a shelter before dark, because that’s when the monsters come out. If they get you, you die:
Survival minecraft can be challenging and fun, but young kids are often more interested in building things, spawning animals, and exploring all the different types of objects that exist in the universe. (Me too, honestly.) You can do all that without fear of being killed by Creepers if you play your game in creative mode. That means you don’t have any damage or hunger meters, you can fly, and you can have as many as you want of anything. Diamond armor? Golden apples? Potions that let you see in the dark? All yours!
Fun Things to Try with Your Kids
Here are some things you can do right away. They’re easy in creative, and possible (if you can gather the materials) in survival. Best of all, if you’re new to the game, you can do them yourself, or if you’re installing for your kids or playing along with them, they’re fun for everyone involved.
- Watch the Sunset: A new day dawns in Minecraft every 20 minutes. You get 10 minutes of daylight, 90 seconds of dusk, seven minutes of night, and another 90 seconds for sunrise. It’s kind of beautiful.
- See in the Dark: If a young child starts crying for seven out of every 20 minutes while playing, now you know why. After dark, just snag a Potion of Night Vision from your inventory. On the computer you can search for items by name; on mobile, scroll until you find it. It’s dark blue. Right click, or tap and hold, to drink the potion.
- Change Your Skin: Gameplay is typically in a first person point-of-view, but if other players are around, they’ll be able to see you. You can also switch views while playing and see yourself in the third-person. If you’d like to tweak your look, visit minecraftskins.net, where you can choose a new skin. Hit Edit to customize it to your liking, and if you play the desktop edition, hit Change to submit it to Minecraft’s account servers. (Your skin is considered part of your account profile.) If you play on the mobile editions, Download the skin and save it to your device’s photo library. Then you can change your skin from within the game.
- Tame a Wolf: No wolves? Look in your inventory for an egg called “spawn wolf.“ It does exactly what you’d think. Feed one of your new wolves a bone, and it will start following you and exuding hearts. Once the wolf has been tamed, it wears a red collar and is a dog. Do not hit your dog with a bone. They attack as a pack when one is hurt.
- Ride a Pig: Hold a carrot on a stick, and all the pigs around will follow you. Place a saddle on a pig, and then you can ride it. The pig will walk constantly, but you can steer with your mouse as usual. To stop the pig, take the carrot and stick out of your hand.
- Teleport: If you’re playing with your kid in multiplayer mode, they’re almost guaranteed to wander off. If you type a forward slash, you’ll find you can enter commands. A handy one is /teleport, or /tp for short, followed by your kid’s player name. You’ll teleport right to where they are.
- Build a Beacon: Especially in survival mode, you’ll want to find a way to get back to your home. Build dirt, or whatever you’ve got, into a tall tower that you can see from a distance. While there are other ways to find your way home when you get lost, this is the simplest.
I learned all of these tricks from my six-year-old son, who in turned learned them from watching YouTube. As an adult, you may not have noticed, but roughly half of YouTube is just videos of people playing Minecraft. You can find a guide to the best channels, with notes on their kid-friendliness, at Common Sense Media.
Be warned: these videos often show features that go far beyond what you can find in an ordinary Minecraft installation. There are mods (modifications to either clients or servers), resource packs (which change game features like the appearance of blocks), maps (pre-built worlds), and mini-games (maps set up for solo or competitive games).
Playing With Others
In single player mode, you can set your kid up with a world of her own that she can build and proudly show you all about. But if you really want to play with your kid, you’ll need to learn about multiplayer Minecraft. There are three big ways to play multiplayer:
- On a computer, after creating a single player world, you can choose “Open to LAN” to enable others to connect to the world you’ve created. Your friends will need to know your IP address and port to connect to your server. Don’t forget that each player needs their own Minecraft account, so you’ll have to pay again to play together: one account for you, one for your kid.
- You can install a server on another, separate computer to keep your world running all the time. The server software is free, but again each player needs their own account.
- You can sign up for Minecraft Realms, a subscription service at $9.99/month. Only the person who sets up the world needs a paid subscription, and they can invite others to play with them.
Pocket edition, Windows 10, and consoles support those same three ways of connecting with other players, but are incompatible with PC/Mac editions. Realms subscriptions are, likewise, available either for the PC/Mac edition or the Pocket/Windows 10 edition. That means you can’t play on your phone and connect to your kid’s desktop-based world. Try both if you like, but make sure you consider which ecosystem you want to stick with before your kid starts building that massive castle.
Why Tilda Swinton Was The Perfect Choice For The Ancient One In Doctor Strange, According To The Director
When it was first announced that Tilda Swinton would be playing the Ancient One in Doctor Strange, critics claimed that the role was being whitewashed since in the original comics, the Ancient One is Tibetan. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige and director Scott Derrickson have frequently spoken out about why they made the choice they did, and now Derrickson has revealed that only Swinton could have played the role in the first place. Here’s what he said:
Looking at Marvel movies, I think that we’re missing a major character that is Tilda’s age and has this kind of strength and power. The Ancient One in the comics is a very old American stereotype of what Eastern characters and people are like, and I felt very strongly that we need to avoid those stereotypes at all costs
Preparing for the release of Doctor Strange, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed some of the cast and crew of the film, and one of the topics discussed was the casting of Tilda Swinton. Scott Derrickson insists that the role of the Ancient One was always written with Swinton in mind for the part. In fact, had she not signed on, they would have had to rework the character. The filmmakers wanted to do something unique with the Ancient One and veer away from the stereotype of the character. There’s no denying that Swinton has a presence all her own that isn’t easily replicated.
This Ancient One controversy has surrounded Doctor Strange since Tilda Swinton’s casting was first announced. Swinton herself has come out to say that she was never approached to play an Asian character. The Ancient One in the MCU is a title that has been passed down throughout the ages. Swinton’s version is just the latest to have the role by the time the film begins.
Leading to the release of Doctor Strange, Marvel was always going to have to deal with this backlash. This sort of casting is a controversial choice for any film. On one hand, you’re avoiding negative stereotypes; on the other, you’re depriving asian actors of a big film role- which is major considering how few leading roles are given to asian actors. But once the movie comes out and people see Tilda Swinton in action, perhaps opinions may change.
Doctor Strange is directed by Scott Derrickson and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, and (of course) Tilda Swinton. After a car crash ruins his hands, Doctor Stephen Strange, a brilliant but arrogant surgeon, travels the world searching for a treatment. His journey eventually leads him to Nepal and the Ancient One, who promises to teach him the ways of magic, revealing to him a universe of endless possibility.
Doctor Strange is releasing in theaters on November 4, 2016.
Why The New Ghostbusters Should Get A Chance To Make Their Ghostbusters 2
Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters ran into a buzzsaw when it was released this past July. Unfairly, I might add. For reasons we may never be able to figure out, the Bridesmaids director’s efforts to revive the classic comedy for a new generation (with a female cast of legitimately hysterical performers) were met with fierce resistance — mostly in the perpetually perturbed online community — and it affected the film’s overall grosses. Ghostbusters earned $228 million worldwide, but for a summer blockbuster, the overall feeling is that it could have, and should have, done better.
This week, Ghostbusters finds its way to home video, and I’m really hoping that this is how the comedy finds its larger audience. While Paul Feig and his team put extreme effort into perfecting the 3D on Ghostbusters — the movie earned the rare perfect score on our To 3D scale — the film’s finest moments are smaller, character-driven ones that work better on your TV screen, be it Chris Hemsworth’s subtle, scene-stealing comedic work as the dumb receptionist Kevin, or the adorable way that Kate McKinnon’s Jillian flirts with Erin Gilbert, played by the flustered Kristen Wiig. Feig and crew have created a weird world that these offbeat characters now occupy, and it’s for the following reason I hope they are able to return for a sequel. Spoilers for this movie will follow.
They’re Not Beholden To The Original Film Anymore
Even with its obvious surface changes, Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters was a rehash of Ivan Reitman’s original Ghostbusters, with three eccentric scientists and one native New Yorker forming a team of paranormal investigators right around the time that some supernatural nonsense started to happen. Set pieces were changed and the effects were drastically improved, but these two movies, structurally, were mirror images. A sequel to the new Ghostbusters would be freed from the shackles of trying follow in the exact steps of a beloved predecessor. Feig isn’t going to remake Ghostbusters II, right? (He shouldn’t. That movie’s not good.) A second Ghostbusters movie could send this team to a new city. They could take on a villain that doesn’t look exactly like Mr. Stay Puft. And they’d need to make great use of Sigourney Weaver’s Rebecca Gorin, introduced in the final moments as Holtzmann’s mentor.
Because using Zuul for the sequel, as hinted at in the end-credits sequence, would be a bad, bad idea.
The Origin’s Done, So They Can Hit The Ground Running
Because it chose to follow the script of the original film, we spent an hour establishing the backstories of lead characters Erin (Wiig) and Abby (Melissa McCarthy). The new film spent time establishing Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), and more time building up Kevin (Hemsworth) then it did laying out Rowan North (Neil Casey), the eventual villain. But now that the pleasantries are out of the way, a sequel could really hit the ground running with a complicated plot, a challenging villain, more jokes (naturally), but a story that better utilizes the idea of battling the supernatural in the year 2016 (or whenever a sequel would come out). Sequels aren’t automatically better that the originals — looking at you,Iron Man 2. But having fully established characters allows you to play with their personalities, bring in new elements that challenge the team, and improve on the foundation that Paul Feig has laid.
However…
Ghostbusters 2 Also Could Give A New Director The Chance To Play In The Sandbox
My advice for Sony if they move forward with Ghostbusters 2? Hand the reigns to a new director. And this has NOTHING to do with Paul Feig, whom I love and think he has created some ridiculously funny movies in Bridesmaids, Spy and The Heat. But I honestly believe that this process burned him out on the concept of a Ghostbusters movie… and on the decency of the franchise’s fanbase. Sony could — and should — treat this series like James Bond, where a new creative voice picks up the tools and sees what they can create within certain parameters. Keep the central cast, but let them play off of a horror director, or a female filmmaker. Give the guys behind Netflix’s Stranger Things a crack at creating a wildly original yet still nostalgic Ghostbusters story. There’s so much juice left in this concept, and we don’t automatically have to jump to a male-driven Ghostbusters movie because this one stumbled. Give the ladies another shot, and let’s see what else they can do.
Why The New Ghostbusters Should Get A Chance To Make Their Ghostbusters 2
Writers Board Lion King, Wolf Man and Minecraft
Writers board Lion King, Wolf Man and Minecraft
Three big Hollywood IP properties have just scored three big screenwriters: Disney’s live-action Lion King, Universal’s Monsters Universe version of The Wolf Man, and Warner Bros.’ video game adaptation Minecraft.
First up is The Lion King, which Deadline says shall be written by veteran scribe Jeff Nathanson (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales). Disney announced last month that director Jon Favreau (The Jungle Book) will helm the live-action remake based on the 1994 animated classic with a fast track to production.
Next is Universal’s The Wolf Man, which will be unrelated to their 2010 dud starring Benicio Del Toro. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Expendables 1 & 2 scribe and “Jean-Claude Van Johnson” creator Dave Callaham is set to rewrite the screenplay first drafted by Prisoners writer Aaron Guzikowski. The film will be produced by Alex Kurtzman (Star Trek) and Chris Morgan (Fast & Furious) for the Universal Monsters Universe they are overseeing starting with the Kurtzman-directed The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise.
Lastly there’s Minecraft, which Variety says Jason Fuchs (Pan) will take over after a draft by Doctor Strange writer Jon Spaihts. Based on the video game franchise from Swedish developer Mojang AB, the movie will be produced by Roy Lee (The LEGO Movie) through his Vertigo Entertainment alongside Jill Messick (Mean Girls). “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” creator Rob McElhenney is still slated to direct.
The Minecraft Movie Is Being Rewritten, Again
There aren’t too many video games that inspire the level of imagination and creativity that’s inherent in Minecraft, which is probably why Warner Bros. wants to make a film adaptation of the game. Hoping to imitate the success of The LEGO Movie, Warner Bros. has been trying to get a Minecraft movie up and running for a while now. Previously, Jon Spaihts was hired to write the first draft but now a different writer will be stepping in. It’s being reported that Jason Fuchs will pen a new draft of the film.
According to Deadline, Warner Bros. is turning to the scribe of Pan to take over the Minecraft script. A Warner Bros. stalwart, Jason Fuchs writing credits include Pan, Ice Age: Continental Drift and the in-development Break My Heart 1000 Times and Lobo. Hopefully Fuchs has whatever Warner is looking for and can bring some whimsy and fun to Minecraft. Fuchs will replace Jon Spaihts, who has written films such as Doctor Strange, The Mummy and Passengers
It’s up for debate whether this is a good or bad thing. Pan didn’t exactly work out for anyone involved and that was supposed to kick off a new franchise. Fuchs was also at first credited for the Wonder Woman screenplay before his name was left out of a release handed out at San Diego Comic-Con. That announcement said Geoff Johns and Allan Heinberg wrote the screenplay. That’s not to say Fuchs was the wrong choice. It’s too soon to tell what will happen with Minecraft — mostly because nothing is known at all about the plot or tone of the film.
Fuchs will be joining director Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), who’s making his feature film directing debut. McElhenney may not have much experience in the chair, but his pitch for the film must have been impressive enough for Warner to give him the job. Fuchs and McElhenney certainly have their work cut out for them. There’s yet to be a video game movie that has truly been “good,” and films like Warcraft haven’t exactly made huge impressions. With any luck, the two can come up with a vision that matches the ingenuity of its source material without coming off as a LEGO Movie ripoff.
There isn’t an established canon or storyline from Minecraft for a movie to adapt. The highly lucrative main game features a player-created avatar building unique stages out of 3D blocks by day and fending off zombies by night. Minecraft has a number of different modes for players to enjoy, none of which really has any plot that isn’t inside the head of the player. The film version could take cues from the Telltale game, Minecraft: Story Mode, a point-and-click adventure game separate from the main series.
Minecraft is currently scheduled for release on May 25, 2019.
The Xbox One S Minecraft bundle might have the most fun packaging ever
Last month, Microsoft announced the Xbox One S Minecraft Favourites bundle, but what it didn’t tell us was how awesome the packaging was going to be.
While the bundle features a 500GB console along with download code for the base game plus seven content packs, the box is arguably what will steal the show for Mojang loyalists.
In fact, the packing is probably more in tune with the sprit of the game than any bundle we’ve seen in a while.
The images you see below come from the Twitter account of Graeme Boyd, the social media manager for Xbox Europe.
If you’re interested in picking up this $300/£250 bundle for reasons other than the packing, it also includes code for the Builder’s Pack (6 content packs) and the Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta.
There’s also a 14-day Xbox Live Gold Trial.
Upon the announcement Microsoft said:” We’ve included over 230 character skins, 3 texture packs and 7 Mash-up packs alongside the Minecraft: Xbox One Edition game so you can let your survival and creative skills run wild.
“If you play Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, this is the perfect bundle to make the upgrade to Xbox One S. You can transfer your existing Xbox 360 worlds over to the Xbox One Edition, and enjoy building new ones that are up to 16 times bigger.”
The bundle went on sale in the UK on October 11.
The Xbox One S Minecraft bundle might have the most fun packaging ever
Minecraft Movie Taps Pan Screenwriter For Latest Script Draft
Based on the best-selling sandbox video game title originally created by Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson and subsequently developed and published by Mojang, the latest word on the status of the forthcoming live-action Minecraft movie has the film slated for theatrical release in 2019. Set to be directed by It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator and co-star Rob McElhenney, the forthcoming major motion picture production is all set to turn a few heads when it finally sees its worldwide premiere.
Given the outstanding property’s penchant for inspiring and inviting creativity and innovation, a talent like McElhenney behind the camera – and perhaps in front of it as well – should result in a fun take on a broad sampling of elements that makes Minecraft such a unique gaming experience already. On that note, the latest word has another notable screenwriter providing another pass on the feature’s script.
According to Variety, Warner Bros. Pictures stalwart Jason Fuchs – of the studio’s recent franchise remake Pan – has just been tapped to give a go at the script for the studio’s forthcoming Minecraft film – which was previously given a first draft by Jon Spaihts (Doctor Strange). With any luck, Fuchs will manage to bring some of the whimsy inherent to his last feature length production with Warner Bros. to bear in collaboration with McElhenney in the making of what is sure to be another heavily scrutinized theatrical adaptation of an outstanding video game property.
Keeping in mind the fact that Minecraft is still a heavily lucrative franchise in and of itself, it remains to be seen whether or not the forthcoming movie will manage to provide any cinematic avenues worth exploring. Considering the relative hardships faced by Warcraft at the domestic box office this past summer, McElhenney and Fuchs have their work cut out for them if they hope to truly bring something new to the table that hasn’t already been done before in the video game proper.
Then again, following video game studio Telltale Games own narrative spin on the Minecraft property, perhaps it’s too early to tell what shape and form the Warner Bros. movie will take as it continues down the path of its respective production stage. Until the movie finally sees theatrical release in the summer of 2019, longtime players and general viewers alike will just have to wait and see what will finally become of the latest in a long line of cinematic adaptations of best-selling video game franchises.
Minecraft will see theatrical release in the U.S. on May 25, 2019.
Minecraft Movie Taps Pan Screenwriter For Latest Script Draft
‘Wonder Woman’ Scribe Jason Fuchs to Write Latest Draft of ‘Minecraft’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Writer Jason Fuchs will pen the latest draft of Warner Bros.’ upcoming adaptation of the popular video game “Minecraft.”
“Doctor Strange” scribe Jon Spaihts penned the first draft. Fuchs is currently working with director Rob McElhenney on developing the latest script before writing it.
Warner Bros. acquired film rights to the video game franchise in February from Swedish developer Mojang AB and set it up with Roy Lee through his Vertigo Entertainment production company, along with Jill Messick (“Mean Girls”).
The game, which debuted in 2009, allows players to create their own avatars and build an environment using textured cubes in a 3D world as they battle nocturnal monsters. Multiple gameplay modes are available, including survival mode, creative mode and adventure mode.
The pic is set to bow on May 25, 2019.
Fuchs, who wrote last year’s “Pan” for Warner Bros, has also written Wonder Woman for the studio, and is currently writing DC Comics’ Lobo. His film “Break My Heart 1000 Times” is in development at Gold Circle, with Bella Thorne attached.
He is repped by WME and Brookside Artists Management.
‘Wonder Woman’ Scribe Jason Fuchs to Write Latest Draft of ‘Minecraft’ (EXCLUSIVE)
How to create an XP trap in Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta
How do I make a monster spawner trap in Minecraft?
If you happen to find a dungeon and don’t destroy the monster spawner, you can create an XP trap. Why do you need XP? You can use your levels with your enchanting table — the higher your level, the better the enchantment. Ready to start farming monsters? Here’s how to create an XP trap in Minecraft!
How to prepare
How to build a zombie or skeleton XP trap
How to prepare
Assuming you’ve located a dungeon that spawns zombies or skeletons, it’s time to prepare for the building process.
Monster spawner
Place torches around the monster spawner and in the dungeon to keep mobs from spawning.
Empty out the chests, mine them until they break, and keep them in your inventory until later.
Outside the dungeon, create a safe-room with a door where you can place a crafting table, furnace, and the chests you collected from the dungeon.
Sign recipe
Craft 23 signs.
Block off any open holes in the dungeon except for your access point. You can block this off later.
How to build a zombie or skeleton XP trap
One of the most effective XP traps you can create is one that uses a water elevator to haul monsters up, then drop them down to injure them. You can then finish them off with nothing more than your fist and collect the XP. This trap does not work for spiders, as they can stick to walls and usually won’t let themselves fall to their death.
Bisected trap
Here is a bisected, above-ground version of what you will carve underground. Notice the signs, the horizontal shaft at the top, the vertical drop at the end, and the opening at the bottom where you can hit the monsters’ feet.
Mine the mossy cobblestone blocks that make up the floor of the dungeon so that there is a gap beneath the monster spawner.
Mine the mossy cobblestone floor so that there is a space below the monster spawner.
Mine an opening that is two blocks high and one block wide in the middle of one wall of the dungeon.
Mine an opening that is two blocks high and one block wide.
Mine two blocks deeper into the wall.
Mine two blocks deeper into the wall.
Right-click with a sign in your hand to place the sign in the bottom corner opening you created.
Right-click to place a sign in the bottom corner of the opening.
Right-click with another sign one block above and one block to the right of the first sign.
Right-click to place another sign above and to the right of the first sign.
Right-click with a bucket full of water in the open spot beside the top sign.
Right-click with a bucket of water to place water in the open spot beside the top sign.
Mine the blocks above you. Make sure you alternate blocks so that nothing falls on your head and hurts you.
Mine the blocks above you.
Right-click to place another sign one block above and to the left of the second sign you placed.
Right-click to place a third sign one block above and to the left of the second sign.
Right-click with a bucket full of water to place water in the open spot beside the sign.
Right-click to place water in the open spot beside the sign. Repeat this process of mining the blocks above you, placing a sign in an alternating manner, and placing water in the open areas. The signs keep the water from going anywhere, but won’t stop monsters from being lifted up through the water.
To climb the shaft yourself to continue construction, just hold spacebar on your keyboard. Your character will not drown due to the open air pockets. Ideally, you want to place 23 signs in total in your vertical shaft. Any higher, and the monsters falling at the other end will die before you can hit them and collect XP.
Final sign should be on the side opposite the dungeon below you. The final sign you place should be on the far side of the wall from the dungeon.
Right-click with a bucket full of water both above the final sign and in the open area next to it.
Put water above the final sign and in the space next to it.
Mine a horizontal shaft two blocks high and one block wide toward the dungeon that is below you — the result will be a shaft that goes over the dungeon. Mine this shaft so that it is eight blocks long.
Bisected view of the top of the trap.
At the eighth block, mine one block down.
Mine one block down.
Right-click the hole with a bucket full of water.
Right-click to place water in the hole.
Mine another horizontal shaft that is two blocks high, one block wide, and eight blocks long.
Mine another horizontal shaft eight blocks long.
At the end of the horizontal shaft, mine a vertical shaft about 21 blocks down. You don’t want to dig straight down, so dig a 2×1 shaft, then fill in one side. There should be no water in this vertical shaft. If there is, the horizontal shaft at the top isn’t long enough.
Dig a shaft down 21 blocks.
At the bottom of the vertical shaft, create a one-block opening. You will use this to hit the enemy mobs once they’ve fallen.
Create a one block opening at the bottom of the drop. Return to the dungeon with two buckets of water. If you don’t have enough iron, you can make trips back and forth from a water source.
Right-click with a bucket of water in each corner furthest from the elevator opening. This creates a flow of water toward the elevator that will funnel zombies or skeletons that spawn.
Right-click with a bucket of water in each corner farthest away from the opening.
Break the torches on the monster spawner and watch out for any monsters that spawn! Wall up the dungeon, head over to the drop zone, and get ready to collect XP. Using your fist to hit monsters will work fine as they will be already heavily damaged from the fall.
The feet of zombies that have dropped down the trap. Hit them and collect your XP!
Your XP farm
Have you had a chance to set something like this up on your own? What was the result? Tell us in the comments section below!
How to create an XP trap in Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta
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