Minecraft

***Minecraft*** is an indie survival sandbox construction video game designed by Markus "Notch" Persson and Mojang Studios and developed on Java. The game allows players to collect, assemble, or destroy a variety of blocks in a three-dimensional, procedurally-generated environment. The game takes inspiration from multiple sources, specifically the game *Infiniminer*.

Development began in May 2009, with pre-orders for the full game starting June 13, 2009. The game was officially released by Notch in mid-November 2011 during MineCon.

During late 2019, *Minecraft* has sold over 176 million copies worldwide across all platforms, making it the 2nd highest selling video game of all time, only behind Tetris.

### Premise

There are two game modes in the game: Survival and Creative. In Survival mode, players must gather resources from the Overworld, hunt for food to replenish health and hunger, and protect themselves from the deadly hostile mobs that attack them during nighttime, or in cave systems. The most prominent objective in Survival mode, is to mine diamonds to upgrade certain weapons or tools or make convenient armors that would help them throughout their journeys. In Creative mode, players are free to roam in the world wherever they want, and just simply build anything that comes within their imagination, like cities, redstone machines, etc.

The gameplay is in the first-person perspective by default, but players have the option for a third-person perspective. The game also contains a material known as redstone, which can be used to make mechanical devices, electrical circuits, and logic gates, allowing for the construction of many complex systems. Players can select any customized skin whenever they want to, but new players start with the default character skin of either Steve or Alex. Players encounter various non-player characters known as mobs, such as animals, villagers, and hostile creatures. Passive mobs, such as cows, pigs, and chickens, can be hunted for food and crafting materials. They spawn in the daytime, while hostile mobs, including large spiders, skeletons, and zombies—spawn during nighttime or in dark places such as caves. Some hostile mobs, such as the Zombie, Skeleton, and Drowned (underwater versions of Zombies), burn under the sun if they have no headgear. Other creatures unique to Minecraft include the Creeper (an exploding creature that sneaks up on the player) and the Enderman (a creature with the ability to teleport, pick up, and place blocks). There are also variants of mobs that spawn in different conditions; for example, Zombies have Husk variants that spawn in deserts.

Minecraft has two alternate dimensions besides the overworld (the main world): the Nether and the End. The Nether is a hell-like dimension accessed via player-built portals; it contains many unique resources and can be used to travel great distances in the overworld. The player can build an optional boss mob called the Wither out of materials found in the Nether. The End is a barren land consisting of many islands. A boss dragon called the Ender Dragon dwells on the main island. Killing the dragon opens access to an exit portal, which upon entering cues the game's ending credits and a poem written by Irish novelist Julian Gough. There is also another portal that access the outer islands of The End, in which players could access the outer islands. Players are then allowed to teleport back to their original spawn point in the Overworld and continue the game indefinitely.

Minecraft is a game that has no specific goals to accomplish, allowing players a large amount of freedom in choosing how to play it. However, there is an achievements system. While the gameplay revolves through the players' experiences, the game encourages many players to choose their own way of "adventure". There is no right or wrong way to play the game, players can play the game however they want it to be.