Minecraft

Minecraft is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus “Notch” Persson using the Java programming language, the first public alpha build was released on 17 May 2009. The game was continuously developed from then on, receiving a full release on 18 November 2011. Afterwards, Persson left Mojang and gave Jens “Jeb” Bergensten control over development. In the years since its release, it has been ported to several platforms, including smartphones, tablets, and various video game consoles.

In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. In Minecraft, players explore a procedurally generated, three-dimensional world with virtually infinite terrain made up of voxels. Players can discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, and build structures, earthworks, and machines. Depending on their chosen game mode, players can fight hostile mobs, as well as cooperate with or compete against other players in multiplayer.

The game has two main modes: survival mode, where players must acquire resources to survive, and a creative mode where players have unlimited resources and the ability to fly. Three more game modes exist; the spectator mode allows players to spectate others, the adventure mode forbids players from mining blocks and is used for map making, and the hardcore mode plays identically to survival mode but features permadeath. The game’s large community offers a wide variety of user-generated content, such as modifications, servers, skins, texture packs, and custom maps, which add new game mechanics and possibilities. 

Speedrunning is another popular community activity. Minecraft is a 3D sandbox video game that has no required goals to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play the game. The game also features an optional achievement system. Gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option of a second and third-person perspective. The game world is composed of rough 3D objects—mainly cubes, referred to as blocks—representing various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava.

The core gameplay revolves around picking up and placing these objects. These blocks are arranged in a 3D grid, while players can move freely around the world. Players can break, or mine, blocks and then place them elsewhere, enabling them to build things. The game also contains a material called redstone, which can be used to make primitive mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems. Comparatively, the game’s physics system has been described as unrealistic, with nearly all blocks unaffected by gravity.

Players can also craft a wide variety of items, such as armor, which mitigates damage from attacks; weapons (such as swords or axes), which allows monsters and animals to be killed more easily; and tools (such as pickaxes or shovels), which break certain types of blocks more quickly. Some items have multiple tiers depending on the material used to craft them, with higher-tier items being more effective and durable. They may also freely construct helpful blocks—such as furnaces which can cook food and smelt ores, and torches that produce light—or exchange items with a villager (NPC) through trading emeralds for different goods and vice versa. The game has an inventory system, allowing players to carry a limited number of items.