Minecraft - A classic with over 160 million active players!

Image taken from Nintendo Minecraft page

The best-selling videogame – Minecraft is still going strong even after thirteen years of its initial release. Minecraft was developed by Markus Alexej Persson who is also commonly known as Notch. He founded the video game development company Mojang studios in 2009. In 2014 Persson sold Mojang studios to Microsoft for a staggering two and a half billion dollars making him a billionaire. Under Microsoft the game has now become a titan in the gaming industry.

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is a sandbox game meaning there are no predetermined goals or objectives. At the start of the game a completely unique world is generated for each player. The player is randomly spawned in the game world with no tools and guides.

Players tend to roam around exploring the massive and beautiful world that Minecraft has to offer. Tress, grass, dirt, rivers and varying landscapes can be observed. Creatures such as cows, chickens, fish, bees, bats and many others are seen in the open world making the game feel alive and vibrant. These creatures are known as friendly mobs and generally spawn in groups on specific biomes. 

Some friendly creatures I met on my journey and guided to my home 

Health Gauge, Hunger Meter and Experience

These three indicators are the most crucial when it comes to staying alive and thriving in Minecraft. The health gauge represented by the hearts; show how much damage a player can withstand. The hunger meter’s (the ten drumsticks) main objective is to refill the health gauge. This is done by eating or drinking potions. The experience bar (the green bar) is used mainly for enchanting items in the enchanting table.

Enchanting table where tools and books can be enchanted with special effects

Multiple ways to enjoy the game

In Minecraft there are four game modes:

• Survival: the most fun and dangerous mode where players can die and spawn back to the original location with all their inventory and experience points lost at the scene of death. This can be regained by travelling back to the place of death and retrieving them. However, taking too long to retrieve the items would cause them to despawn forever. To emerge victorious in this game mode the Ender Dragon needs to be slain.

• Creative: players can unleash their full arsenal of creativity with no limits as all items are unlocked. Players can fly at will and have no worries about health or hunger. The possibilities are limitless for creative mode and some players dedicate an unhealthy amount of time to their creative worlds building mega projects.

 

• Spectator mode: players cannot interact with the blocks, and this allows for a unique outsider view of the world where they can pass through blocks and fly around wherever the game takes them. 

• Adventure mode: this game mode is similar to the spectator mode, but players can now interact with mobs and the outside world. This means hunger and health are also back in the equation. Players can explore dungeons, desert temples, woodland mansions and many more. The adventure has just started.

House built by me and my friends in survival Minecraft 

Early stages of survival

Beginners tend to explore and set forth into the world, but this amazing experience comes to an end when daylight disappears and the night rolls around. This is the time when hostile mobs such as creepers, skeletons, zombies and many others spawn. 

Image taken from Game Rant 

These mobs will attack on sight and try to bring the journey to a temporary halt. When a player dies in normal survival Minecraft, they are revived back to their starting spawn location without their experience points and inventory gained throughout the expedition. But for hardcore survival the game ends and there is no returning back! 

As with everything the dark time ends and a new dawn begins, a new day and a new trip along the dirt roads and forests, through the oceans and valleys. Now the objective is to gather resources and survive the night. Build a cozy home and spend the night there.

Start a farm of cows, sheep and chicken or plant seeds to grow wheat, potatoes or carrots to always have a great source of nutrients when the hunger meter starts to go down. It is time to head into the caves and find useful materials such as coal, iron, gold and diamonds! These materials can be used to craft better gear to protect yourself from hostile mobs and creatures. 

Time to take a step to the Underworld

This portal leads straight to hell where players need to locate a nether fortress which contains the Blaze mob. Blazes are fiery creatures that drop blaze rods when killed. Using these blaze rods and ender pearls, eyes of ender can be crafted which are used to locate the stronghold.

The end game

Finally players are ready to take on the Ender dragon and finish their quest. Use the eyes of Ender to open the end portal and travel to the end realm. 

Upon arrival players are greeted by hundreds of Ender men who do not act kindly if you make eye contact with them. Using a bow and arrow destroy the end crystals which cause the dragon to take a dive.

Now do as much damage as possible and wait for the dragon to dive again. 

Congratulations! The ender dragon is no more and now the player is worthy to head home with an ender dragon egg as their trophy. This breathtaking adventure game has sold more than 300 million copies, making it the most successful video game of all time.