Minecraft: The Story of Mojang (2012) - full transcript

And here we are in Minecraft,
on a deserted island.

There's a few things we need to do
in order to survive the night.

'Cause what's going to happen is that sun
is going to rise, and then it's going to fall.

And when it falls,
that's when darkness descends on us,

and that's when the bad things come out of the dark
at night and hunt me down and try to eat me.

When did I first hear about Minecraft?

Where was I when JFK was assassinated,
basically, kind of thing?

My awareness of Minecraft
did not come from a magazine cover.

It's like you hear it a couple times in the hallway,
and it's like, "What? What was that? "

It accelerated so quickly, obviously,
that it's hard to recall that starting point,

because after that, obviously,
it caught like wild fire.



It's a very unique
success story, really.

In the past, you know,
five to ten years,

there's been some brilliant moments in gaming,
and Minecraft is definitely one of them.

Happy New Year.

Everything's, sort of,
happening at once.

You have this very clear, like,
starting point.

Yeah, I know, I took like a week off
during the Christmas and New Year's,

and it was just, like,
almost emotional, like, kind of weird, like,

"Oh, okay, all this has happened
and I haven't really relaxed until now. "

And then when I came back, the office felt really good;
and just; the first thing I did was work, like, 12 hours.

Let's just start with growing up in Sweden;
what area of the country were you originally from?

Well, the first seven years of my life I lived
out in the countryside in a place called Edsybn.

It's like, a bit north in the country;
very snowy winters.

At least, that's how I remember;
and really warm summers.



We went out, walked around in the woods,
just getting lost, basically.

And I did that and programming,
basically my two hobbies.

No, I've been programming
since I was eight, or something.

I kinda always knew that I wanted to make games,
and I said so in school to my, like...

... Career Counselor thing, and she said,
"Oh, well, that's probably not gonna happen. "

Yeah.

That's what he likes to do, you know;
but he always made games, you know;

I always found it interesting
to try out his games.

And I was like,
"Yeah, you're a genius! "

I like hanging out at his place, and he would like,
"do-do-do-do-do, " you know,

be on the computer,
and I like hearing that sound.

So, but, it's very much like an artist,
because he has so much integrity in his work.

Markus and I, we've been friends for the four
and a half years that we worked together at King.

And we became close, and we had a lot of fun,
and then of course he had the success,

'cause he left King to start--
basically he wanted to do games in his free time.

And while we were working with King,
we were allowed to make games in our spare time,

but we couldn't do it as a business;
and he wanted to try that.

I was sad, of course, that he left,
because we had a great time at King.

You know, I lost my best buddy,
my best working buddy;

but I wasn't worried for him,
and we stayed in touch regardless.

So I left to make my own games, and the first thing
I was gonna do was just gonna be, like a,

six to twelve month project;
and it kinda turned into what Minecraft is now, fairly soon.

But in the beginning, it was, I mean; it was so basic,
you can place blocks on other boxes or blocks.

So yeah, I got to be there
and look at it from the start.

Of course in the beginning, the world was more limited;
you had the edges; you would fall off.

I don't think anybody could predict
the success of Minecraft from looking at it back then.

I really liked the game from the start;
it's like a digital Lego, you know?

You have blocks, you can build things,
and people are like, "Oh, this isn't so fun. "

You know, it's hard to explain;
I usually say, "Okay,

but it's about surviving, as well;
you have monsters you have to fight,

you have to build your house
and collect stuff to be able to survive. "

So it's a bit like being stuck at a desert island, like,
figure out what to do.

Let's go to a place
where everything is made of blocks...

... where the only limit
is your imagination.

Let's go wherever you wanna go;
climb the tallest mountains,

venture down
to the darkest caves,

build anything you want,
day or night, rain or shine;

'cause this is the most significant sandbox
you'll ever set foot in.

Yeah, I usually tell people,
"Well, you have to try play it; you won't understand. "

To be honest, I really didn't understand
the power of the game in the beginning.

I think at the point where Markus took me aside
at the office and said, "I really need to focus on this"

and he told me about the success, and you know,
what kind of numbers he had.

Then I realized that this
is gonna be something big.

At first it was 40 sales for a day,
then it was like, 10,000 sales a day, you know?

I don't remember the date,
but when I had a million Swedish Crowns in the account...

... was, definitely
one of the bigger milestones....

And I got a print-out of the receipt,
showed Elin, joking, and jokingly said,

"Well, they say the first million is the most difficult, "
like I didn't expect to make another million.

I did.

You know, it's been like this process
of constantly being amazed.

Then like, early this year,
it got a big popularity spike on the site;

but I probably need to start a company here,
'cause I can't keep up with the demand of the game.

I called Jacob and just told him,
"Just quit your job; we're starting a company. "

With the success of Minecraft,
we get the chance to actually do something like this.

I'm not gonna turn that down.

So now we're seven people
and we have an office.

It's a new year,
and it's finally beta.

It's a very unique
success story, really.

The problem is is that Minecraft
never had a publicity department, a PR department.

They just did it all virally
and through word of mouth.

And, you know,
it sold three million copies off that.

If you are not familiar with this game,
this game is amazing.

I love this game so much,
I've been watching a ton of videos on YouTube.

I've been playing
a ton of this game.

There's something really magical about
when it first came out, and nobody knew much about it,

and we're all learning
at the same time.

Have you seen this crazy thing?

Look at this, look what you can do with here;
and people talking about it,

and I could not comprehend
what they were talking about.

I was like, "You did what in this game? This is insane.
I can't imagine it functions like you say it does. "

Let's talk Minecraft;
you've probably seen it popping up everywhere lately.

If you have not played it yet though,
we're about to school you,

because it's one of the best
gaming experiences out there right now.

I remember loading it up for the first time,
and nothing; you're just standing there with two hands.

And so I hit a tree and wood came out;
and I was like, "Oh no. "

Like, I could already see the spiral;
it was like, I hit this tree and wood came out.

And then I, you know,
hit the ground and rock comes out.

I was like,
"Oh no, this is gonna be bad. " ,
"... ? "

And then it's that first night
that you spend holed up;

all you can dig out is like,
maybe four squares before it gets dark,

and you just pile blocks up
as the zombies running around outside.

That moment, like,
I won't ever forget that.

That is a moment in video gaming
that will always be with me.

And to me,
that was what sparked my interest in the game.

Like, holy cow, this is--
I can do whatever I want here.

And so that's the first part of this game;
which is, you know, exploring and collecting resources.

People saw the potential in it,
and if you had the opportunity to play it at a friend's,

or you saw a video on YouTube, for example,
I think the game pretty much sold itself.

This is my house here, as you can see.

All you do is you put it in the center here, like this,
and then set a fire to it.

And not always, but most--
uh-oh.

Uh, sorry, sorry guys;
this is not supposed to happen.

Crap!
Oh, no way!

Yeah;
you have got to be kidding me.

You know, a lot of people
that saw those videos?

were instantly in love with the game too,
just by watching someone else play.

Okay, it is time I go exploring;
where should I go?

I'm going to climb to the top of this,
and I am going to see what is up there.

I'm joining Stu, and we're in the Minecraft multi-player;
we're exploring the cave here.

Uh, whoa!
Jesus, that scared the crap out of me!

Oh my God, oh my God,
oh my God!

Pull this switch here
and the flood starts.

Plop, plop, plop, plop goes the wheat;
plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop...

... moves its way down here till it gets to the very end,
drops into my collection tray....

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!
Holy shit bro!

Dude you're so laggy!

I blame it on lag;
damn it!

You guys get--take cover!
They're firing arrows at us.

Ahh, diamond, yes, oh!
Oh my God, there's more; yes!

Oh my God,
seven diamond from one.

What's wrong?
Ahh, what's that thing?

It's a skeleton; I'll kill it for you.
I killed it, yay!

-No, no, no, no!
-What's wrong?

-You're jumping into lava!
-What do you mean?

You're being so bad at Minecraft!
You're in lava.

-Oh, man!
-You're dying.

That's horrible.
I died.

That's okay, Mom.
That's okay.

And you know, this game
had a really special community around it.

And I think that's a fascinating story that before
the magazines and the TV shows were covering it,

there was a whole community
that was loving this game and supporting it,

and it was really
self-sufficient at that point.

So that could have existed, sort of, in its own little bubble,
but then the world found out about Minecraft.

-All right, what are you?
-Creeper.

A creeper?
What's a creeper?

A creeper is something that blows up
when you touch him!

Is that what you are?

-Okay, you want to take us in?
-Sure.

This is our fancy sign;
here we go, welcome.

As you can see, it's looking really awful right now;
we're going to remake a lot of things.

Yeah, I can show you around;
and here we are in the office space.

We have a PC section
and a Mac section.

We were thinking about having,
sort of, a Minecraft wallpaper here.

So this is Jacob;
he's one of the co-founders of Mojang.

Over there we have Jeb;
he's a game developer.

He's sort of the first person
to dive into the Minecraft code.

And so over here we have Daniel Kaplan;
he's the business developer.

Exactly; and here he is, Notch.
I'm sort of showing them around the office,

and you're Notch.
-I am Notch.

-He's the reason why we're all here.
-Yes, I am God.

-Yes, that's right.
-I am not God.

-Did I say I'm God on camera?
-Yes, I think you did.

I heard that Notch
was starting up a company.

I played and heard
about Minecraft before, obviously,

but I didn't know that he wanted
to take it to the next level.

So I just sent him an e-mail,
"Hey do you wanna--do you need an artist? "

Got a reply, we met up, and kinda hit it off,
I think, immediately;

started joking about prostituting ourselves
to elder women and stuff like that.

So that's it, really.
And now I'm here.

It's also fun to be a part of this so early,
and really be with the core team.

I don't know how big we are going to be in the future,
but it's fun to be here from almost the beginning.

Well, I started here
two days ago, on Monday.

I went in, signed the contract,
and started working.

-Welcome to Mojang.
-Thank you.

-Great; you've worked here for--
-I've worked here for four hours now, so.

I've had--got 600 followers on Twitter since Monday;
I had a thread on Reddit discussing me.

It's just an awesome place to be right now,
because it's like...

... I catch myself walking down the street,
or just thinking it;

you know, there's not a job out there
that I would rather have, that I would trade in for this.

I hope he doesn't miss and hit the other guy.

Punch his pal in the face
and they're all gonna fall and die.

-Oh, you're going to hit it from the other side now?
-Yup, here we go... whoa!

It feels really good, and it's very interesting,
what's going to happen.

We're going to have, like a, strategy meeting day thing,
trying to work out what we're actually going to do.

Let's do that again;
can we do that again?

-Wow.
-That's awfully bouncy.

We have to decide what actually, like,
the full version of the game is.

That's kind of the first step, I guess.

Then the next step is to do that.

Minecraft's a very dynamic game,
and it's 'cause it's still in development at the moment.

That means that it's continually being updated
with new stuff, and things are changing.

Back in like the '80s and the '90s
when you would get a game on PC,

or much more often, when you got a game on console,
when you got the game, that was it;

game was done, game wasn't gonna change;
and we've seen that change bit by bit.

And certainly it's happened more on PC
where people can patch and update games,

but I think none of that prepared anybody
for how malleable and evolving Minecraft was gonna be;

I mean, to the point
that you could buy the game, ultimately,

more than a year before
it was actually going to be finished,

and play the game as the creators
were updating the game.

And then slowly but surely,
it kind of, you know,

built attention and anticipation
about where it was gonna go.

So this is just like, the major headline;
some things we should add now.

Yeah, I think it's a bit like--
it's a weird way of making a game.

You just put it out and kind of
keep working on it as you're making it,

so it's kind of hard to say
is it released, or it's not released?

I try to make sure it's like,
yeah, this is not the game.

I'm just working on it and you can play it
while I'm making it.

Kind of, hopefully.

Should we go up with the dates, or should we just say this
will be released when it's done?

Or should we like, try to put up a date
and try to build hype?

I think date and hype;
I vote for that.

I think there's a difference between this and many other
games in that Minecraft has so many...

... so many users and so many players already;
and as we develop these things,

we're gonna--we're not gonna develop in, like,
in a lump and just put them all overnight and say,

"Okay, play this game, and now it's done. "
It's gonna come, you know--

every other week or so
it's gonna be small update or a small change,

so can we really live up
to a hype, you know?

This is finally the finished product, and I said,
"Yeah, but it's the same product as last week. "

What do you think of that?

It is--it's a bit intimidating, yeah.
I felt much more, just confident,

just going day to day
and just doing things as it went.

I don't think that works though,
if you have a company.

I'm a bit like--I don't really know
what Minecraft final will be yet,

but I think we kind of got
some kind of rough estimate, I think.

-The new roadmap.
-Yes.

We probably missed a bunch of things,
but I think this is a good basis.

-Oh, there they are.
-They want to film us eating the muffins.

Since we sort of missed it,
could you just explain what happened with the IGF today?

Yeah, they announced the IGF finalists,
and Minecraft got in three categories:

it was the main prize,
technical excellence, and design.

So the main one, the grand one,
technical, and design; which is really cool.

You know, Markus, when he e-mailed me,
he said, you know,

"I'm hoping to win
some Independent Game Awards. "

And he didn't really know what all these awards were,
but it was sort of a big trip to America;

really to, you know, meet the press,
and meet the industry for the first time.

And yeah, I think everyone then was starting to realize
that Minecraft wasn't some fluke,

it wasn't, you know, something
that was kind of coming and going.

It was building, and it was growing;
and that's what was great about it.

It's this virus
that was starting to spread.

-Hey, nice heads.
-Thank you; I have to say, it's an honor to meet you.

-Yeah, thank you.

-Hi.
-We're from high school.

-We just came here to meet everyone and see--
-Oh, cool, hi.

-It's so amazing to meet you.
-We all play Minecraft.

-Hi, it's an honor to meet you.
-You too.

-Man, you inspire us.
-Oh, cool, awesome.

-I gotta shake your hand one more time.
-Oh, of course.

-Notch.
-Hi.

-Pleasure to meet you; my name is John.
-Hi John.

-I was wondering if you could sign this for me?
-Absolutely.

-My name is Marie.
-I'm Markus.

It's amazing, and, I spend so much hours on it,
I can't believe I'm meeting you.

-Oh, cool.
-It's so fantastic, but um--congratulations.

Well, thank you.

-Hello.
-Hi.

Hello, how are you?

And it's fascinating to me
to see that happen, and you know,

see someone like him show up at GDC,
not knowing what to expect,

and then just have this constant deluge of people
coming up to him, saying, "I love the game. "

You know, that's when I think it probably really hit him,
that, you know, Minecraft had grown...

... into something that people weren't just playing;
it was something that people were loving.

-Should we go on?
-Yeah, yeah.

Going back to what we talked earlier about...

I told you that my daughter likes Minecraft.

I met Shigeru Miyamoto 2 years ago.
I said, "I'm going to meet the creator of Mario. "

She's like, "Yeah, whatever. "

Now I told her I was going to meet you...

And she's like, "Oh~"

How many new friends have you made
since you became successful?

How many relatives that come out of the woodwork?
How many lost cousins?

I probably shouldn't answer that.

So I only really just met you, but you seem
exceptionally cheerful, a cheerful man.

You just seem a happy man, and I'm wondering
if that is because of your success.

Are you always
kind of quite chippy and--?

-Jacob has known me for a long time.
-No, he's a total drag.

No he's not..

Yeah, I hope so, I try to feel so, but I still have
this kind of weird feeling that I don't really belong,

and I think it's called, actually,
"The Imposter Syndrome. "

It's like an actual term for it,
if you're like, you're just faking it.

And I think it's gone too fast or something,
so I don't really feel like--

But yeah, I'm slowly trying to realize
that people actually do like the game;

which is kind of a weird thing to say,
but when you're just sitting in front of your computer...

... and you just see the numbers,
it's not the same thing as actually meeting the people.

Do you feel like you'll need to do a couple more games
to really feel confident in your own ability?

Yeah, I think so.

It's kind of weird; when I kind of grew up,
famous people, to me, like John Carmack and stuff,

were not really like,
actual people.

They were like forces of nature, almost,
that just did awesome things.

And now people tell me, like--
not everyone, but some people say, like,

"Yeah, you're the Carmack of this generation. "
And to me, that's--

there's no way that can be true,
'cause that guy is...

... well, obviously, very talented in what he does;
and I just made a game.

And I kind of realize that on the surface
it sounds like the same thing--

he made a game, I made a game--
but it doesn't really feel like it's the same thing.

I kind of feel that all the time,
with the success of Minecraft;

it's kind of hard to fully understand it,
even to this day.

I mean, we're starting to see it because
we get so much feedback

and so many questions from big companies,
and people want to do business with and stuff,

so we're starting to grasp that.

I'm constantly thinking that maybe
this is just a really fragile thing;

that we have this attention now,
but we have no idea where we're gonna be in one year.

I mean, on one hand, it would be kinda cool to have
this kind of run, and then kinda slide into obscurity again.

I'll be like, nobody,
and just do my own thing again.

I think everyone feels
a bit like that, more or less,

and maybe some people don't even know
how to express that feeling.

But, you know, he's very, you know,
aware of his own feelings.

So I think it's just that he knows how to express that,
because I can recognize that from, you know,

when he started a new job, or, you know,
people say you're good and this or that,

and he's like, "Oh, they don't know, you know? "

And really, just, you know, been lucky,
or this or that, you know?

I think that's just human.

Everybody, welcome to an all-new Bonus Round.
I'm Geoff Keighley,

this week, at the Game Developers Conference,
and this time,

we're gonna look
at the independent game scene.

There've been some amazing indie games
have come out over the past few years.

We've got an all-star panel to tell us about
what's going on in the independent games movement.

Although Minecraft,
you're a bit of a rock star right now,

Markus, with the success of Minecraft,
and all your fans out there.

How do you look at the indie movement,
'cause you've really sort of entered the scene here,

you know, in the past year in a big way, with Minecraft.
How do you define indie?

Yeah, for me, I think indie is--
well, there's a lack of a label for it;

it's kind of a concept of people
making games for the sake of making games,

or exploring games
as an art form, perhaps.

I think a lot of the large studios make games
to make money, or make games to make a sequel,

or to make a brand; but to make games
just for the sake of making a game.

Coming from that angle,
I think that's kind of the definition of "indie" for me.

We're gonna get a little philosophical,
because in my opinion, games have the potential to be,

what I call, the preeminent art form
of the 21st century,

sort of in the way that film was in some sense
the preeminent art form of the 20th century.

I figure we're about where film was in 1905;
whereas you think about it, in 1896,

they first filmed Fred Ott sneezing, and like,
"Oh my gosh, it's a guy sneezing, I can play it back! "

But it was a long time between then
and "Birth of a Nation" in 1915 or 1917,

where it's kind of the first quote-unquote,
modern film, where, you know, hey,

they didn't realize early on that you could film a movie
in a different sequence than you showed it;

like the concept of editing;
they had to figure that out.

They couldn't move the--they didn't know
you could move the camera, all of these things.

And so I feel like we're really,
really early in games, but I think they have the potential.

I mean, the way people interact with art entertainment,
whether it's music, or film,

or literature, any of these things,
is primarily at an emotional level.

The emotions that we support as games
is basically power fantasy right now;

whereas if I asked you to like, you know, make a game
about two people falling in love, you'd be like...

... I have no idea how--
there's no way to approach that problem;

we just don't have any idea.
And I think you see this in Minecraft, which is like--

the thing everybody mentions
is the huge component of it,

but then the game play that everyone talks
about is just surviving the first night.

Like, that's the magical thing that people talk about,
and that is a very human-scale thing.

You're not saving the world;
you're just trying not to die.

-It's very official.
-Oh yeah.

-Ready.
-All right, thanks guys.

-Yeah, it was good.
-Awesome.

-What about you guys?
-Yeah, it was good, thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Game Developers Choice
Awards will begin in a few minutes.

We ask that you please
take your seats.

Video games...

... video game award shows.
Which came first?

In the early days of the games industry,
it really felt different than it did now.

Mostly it felt isolated, 'cause the Internet was not around;
so you just knew the people at your company,

and if you're, you know, lucky, you made friends
at the Game Developers Conference;

it was like the only time during the year you'd see
other people who had the same problems as you,

or, you know,
were in the same boat as you were.

So it was a lot more--kind of like islands,
like people making games...

... were on their own island making their game,
and then you put it out there...

... and you'd wait for a magazine review to come in,
and that was your feedback, you know?...

But now it's like
everything is so instant.

You put a game--you can put an unfinished game
up on the Internet, for example.

But that would be crazy;
who would do that?

-Best Downloadable Game goes to Minecraft.
-Thank you.

And the Innovation Award goes to Minecraft.

And the Choice Awards for the Best Debut Game
goes to Minecraft.

Yeah, GDC, I didn't expect us
to win in anything;

I didn't dare, even hoping, that there was just--

well, I kind of had this, "I hope at least, something,
or I'm gonna cry. "

Then we won like, five awards,
which was way beyond what I even dared hoping.

We started figuring it out when
we got to the center front table,

something big was gonna happen,
but I still didn't dare counting on it;

but then we won just a bunch of awards,
and it was just ecstatic, and we didn't know what to do.

It's still, like,
the biggest night of my life.

Please join me in honoring
Creative Director of Microsoft Game Studios Europe,

and co-founder of both Bullfrog Productions
and Lionhead Studios, Peter Molyneux.

I never believed,
never in my wildest dreams did I believe...

... that I would be standing out here
and getting a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The very moment I first saw Minecraft,
the very second I first saw it, it was like a--

it was like, you know,
the world changed for me a little bit.

What I did immediately;
I went 'round to everyone and said,

"Oh, you gotta go and play Minecraft;
you've got to look at this game. "

And a lot people, a lot of my colleagues,
you know, Lionhead and Microsoft,

they looked at it, and--
some people looked at it and said,

"This is ridiculous. Where's the tutorial,
where's the challenges, where's the--? "

You know, there's this list of game must-haves;
and Minecraft broke every single one of those formulas.

You know, it is like--it is, in a way,
a social Lego, when Lego used to be a creative toy;

which I don't think it is so much anymore,
because it's much more prescriptive.

It's really interesting how Lego at the moment
is like traditional games design:

it's buy the box, open the box,
turn to the instruction sheet, make the model,

stick it on the shelf,
buy the next box.

That's exactly like traditional game design, you know:
buy the game, go through the challenges,

finish the challenges, stick it on the shelf,
buy the next game;

where Lego used to be just a big box of bricks,
and you used to take the bricks,

pour them on the carpet, and then make stuff;
and that's exactly what Minecraft is.

There was no instruction booklet;
but that's really what this points to,

is just how conventional game studios, how complacent
they were with the games that they were making.

And we need, this industry desperately needs
things like Minecraft to come along and say,

slap us 'round the face and say,
"Hang on a second. All those things... "

... that you thought were absolutely certain in your life?
They're not certain anymore.

Definitely grown;
I think we all are.

I mean, it's an experience that I think very few people
will ever experience, you know.

There are few companies in the world
that have experienced this kind of growth.

It's very inspiring.

So we're kind of trying to figure out exactly what
we're gonna do with the company now.

Okay, so, we've discussed this before--

I think as soon as--

I sometimes find it hard to concentrate.

I don't think we have the grand master plan
of world domination; this seems fun now, let's go for it.

And I think that's great.

If I would have been Markus,
I would have, you know,

doing blow off hookers' asses;
that's what I've been telling people.

But seeing how he still remains
so humble and grounded in reality,

that's extremely reassuring
for someone like me, you know?

I'm very pleased.

Good.

-Oh, hello Notch.
-Hello.

We had a great party on Thursday,
celebrating two million.

Do you want to sum it up?

I was just gonna ask if it was good,
'cause I don't remember it.

Oh, okay, yeah.
Anyone else?

Cocaine's one helluva drug.

I'm really envious of the new crop
of game-makers out there, like Markus and other people,

who are just doing it themselves; like all by themselves,
with maybe with one or two people on their team;

'cause they keep the cost down, they can self-publish,
and they've just made so much more money.

That's the secret; when you take
someone else's money to make your game,

you have to give them
all your money after you're done.

Not that I'm bitter.

I think we all want to stay small, and we want to
stay in control, and we want to stop the world looking in;

it's very, very, very,
very hard to do so.

I mean, I think the perfect size for me
is once you reach over 20 people,

that's when it gets really tough;
because then you need to have...

... another layer of people
to manage the people that are there....

And when you can all fit in one office,
and you can stick your head up and say,

"Oh, what's that you're working on? " or,
"Look at this everybody" , that's a perfect size.

But once you get over that,
it's really tough.

So if I was doing it all again,
I would say exactly what Markus is saying;

I would say, "I'm gonna stay small. "

I don't want, like, a big office with like, 150 people;
it kind of turns into a 9-5 job.

I would say I'm afraid of doing what Id Software did,
but I'm not gonna say that, Id Software ?

'cause that's rude
against Id Software.

But I mean, their games
aren't as fun as they used to be.

I mean, they look better.

I mean, the MegaTexture stuff is really amazing,
but I'd rather play a fun game.

And I want us to make fun games,
not just big production games.

Ideally for me, it would just be like,
me and a box of Red Bull.

I'm gonna play dark ritual,
get some--two cultists.

And someone could, like, discard--
you could discard this.

Yeah, I will next time, yeah.

-What's the next big event coming up, E3?
-Yeah;

We have the E3,
which is basically,

not for indie game developers at all;
it's just about spending money, and launching titles.

I have to go, apparently.

I mean, it's a cool trip
and I really like going to the E3, but I kinda want to code.

Oh cool! That's why I--
that's why I recognize you.

I was like, do I know him?
I think I know you, what's happening?

To ensure we can accommodate
everyone's carry-on baggage,

please place smaller items
under the seat in front of you...

... and larger items
in the overhead bins above your row....

Yeah, we started the podcast in 2010,
in October, 2010.

This is maybe about a month
after we actually started playing the game.

So in a month's time,
we knew it was something special enough...

... that we wanted to devote our lives to talking about,
and to producing a show....

So we did know it was going to be
something big and something special.

And I forgot what you asked already.

This is for people who don't know;
this is where what we've been doing...

... over the past week
since the last episode....

But I've also been watching my son play Minecraft,
which has been fascinating, because--

Like the Shaft podcast guys, for example, I'm like,
"Wow, this is more than an hour just about Minecraft. "

It still blows my mind; it's like, wow,
they're actually just talking about this game.

It's amazing..

So this is from Nergock who said,
"I have to thank you guys for suggesting...

... listening to a book while playing Minecraft.
It's greatly improved my Minecraft enjoyment... "

And we try to be on time, never skip one;
except we missed one episode...

... because tornadoes ripped up our city;
but that was the one we missed....

And honestly, when that happened,
the community got together, and,

awesome girls, too, Tory Love pulled all this information
from the community and basically--

it was an appreciation show for us, that she gathered
all this material so we didn't have to do anything.

I mean, I'm getting chills
just thinking about it right now;

it's just an amazing community
around the show and around this game.

Community is always going to be, probably,
the most important thing when it comes to Minecraft...

... because that's what makes it
bigger than itself.

It's very cool to see, you know,
people are so involved and really, like,

making something
that's just about this game.

I do think that there is something to be said for the fact
that so many people are excited about the game,

and they are excited to share
their excitement with other people.

And I do think
there's a synergy from that.

I've never seen
anything like this.

It is--it has so much universal appeal
over so many different kinds of people;

I've never seen anything like it.

I mean, Minecraft, because
it's such an open experience, an open world,

kind of naturally lends itself
to be populated by these sub-cultures...

... of mission and creators,
or podcasters, or live-streamers.

Yeah, Yogscast is certainly
one of them, I think.

We met because we both
were in the same World of Warcraft guild.

So we met in a thoroughly nerdy way
and ended up doing a thoroughly nerdy job,

which is, effectively,
playing Minecraft.

-That's our job, isn't it?
-Well, it's not just--video production, and---

but basically we do get paid to play Minecraft.

-Dude, there's something up there in that cave.
-Is there?

Yeah, it's a green thing, look, bouncing.

-Oh, Christ almighty, it's a creeper.
-It's gone.

-Yeah, those are very, very bad.
-It's gone, Simon.

They follow you and they explode;
don't go in towards it; it'll see you.

We don't script anything; we just play the game
and record it and put it on YouTube.

So, a lot of people watch it.

Good morning!
So we hit a million subscribers this morning.

I'm gonna go
and wake Simon up with one of these.

Morning Simon,
I've got you a coffee.

You all right?

But it doesn't pay, you know, super well;
you only get sort of,

nought point nought, nought, nought one cent
per, you know, view.

But because we have a million views on a video,
that actually ends up adding up to enough.

So it is a big audience of people, and I think we probably
do it a bit better than most, which is why we're just--

But we're still modest.

It's kind of like a journey for me,
playing Minecraft and watching...

... how it's changed
over the months and months,

and thinking in a few months' time
how different is it gonna be?

And I guess it is kind of nice to have
almost feel like you're a part of that,

because you've
experienced that as a gamer.

And since you're in debug mode;

you can just change the code and it just
instantly changes, which is very, very efficient.

Yeah, I can do anything; we can make arrows explode
when they hit the ground instead.

Arrow in ground; there we go.

When doing a game, it's more about
what to expect from a game...

... and trying to play around with those expectations;
that's kind of the most fun part.

Let's give it a bigger explosion!

There we go.

Oh, is that thunder?

-I think it's about 9,000.
-9,000?

Or something;
it's insane.

Minecon is basically a celebration
of the launch of Minecraft.

Do you think it's reasonable
time to do it in November?

Yeah, we can--

It would be cool to sort of do a live deployment on stage
when they deploy the one dot o version.

That would be cool.

Yeah, I will get nervous.

We haven't put up the site
where people can register yet,

so we have no idea how many are gonna show up,
and we signed the papers already with the hotel.

I mean, at least a couple of hundred should show up,
I think, but I have no idea.

It is a collaborative medium;
developers and gamers collaborate.

We are makers, we are creators,
and that's why we're here today;

because we're gonna celebrate
that collaboration between developers and gamers.

So I'm very, very grateful for everyone
who's come to join us today,

and I think it is particularly fitting
that our first presenter today is Mojang;

because it's hard to imagine a game that would,
like Minecraft, that would flourish,

because it breaks so many conventions and basically
hands the creative keys over to the gamers.

And that is truly revolutionary.

And so I am very, very pleased to introduce
Markus "Notch" Persson and Lydia Winters,

who are gonna show you
the Minecraft Adventure update.

Please welcome them.

Minecraft is why we do what we do,
because it--

you are literally looking into the future
when you see Minecraft, you know?

Like I said, we've always had these genres,
we always had the traditional stuff,

but this is the future of gaming,
you know?

This collaboration, this emphasis on creativity,
on freedom.

And it's thrilling to be able to be here and say,
"Yes, I was there when it happened. "

He obviously knew he was creating building blocks;
but I don't think anybody could have expected...

... how ready so many millions of people were
to take those building blocks and say,

"Okay, I'm gonna create stuff in the game. "
I don't think anybody could see that coming.

Sorry, that was
really horrible.

-Oh, its okay.
-Its a good thing I left...

... because you would have been
very alarmed......

... that I was gonna die....

The fact in God games
you kind of own the world...

... isnt as important
as owning your own house....

And that idea of building,
and creating,

and almost moding,
as part of the gaming experience,

is why its far better
than a God game,

and a game
that I've done.

Sure..

Youre, uh--

No, for sure.

Its fact..

Because of Minecraft,
I think, it has changed...

... my view of what I do
on a day to day basis.

I still really believe
that I have got one great game.

You know, inside one great game
idea that I can inspire a team...

... to turn into a real
idea in me....

Well, everyone in the studio
is huge, huge fans...

... of Minecraft....

Oh cool!

It is amazing when
you do something like that,

and then it becomes this expression
of everybodys creativity.

It is such a cool place
to build,

and grow a community,
and meet friends.

I wouldnt even call Minecraft
a game anymore.

Its so much further
than that.

Its a platform.

Its a platform for us to develop
our architectural side,

our creative nature.

It lets us be ourselves,
communicate with people,

and create things
that we maybe didnt think...

... we ever could,
but now we can....

Anytime I get on that server,
I get astounded by the imagination,

the creativity of the people
that are on there,

and my jaw just
hits the ground.

I just cant believe
what the people;

A, have the design sense
to accomplish.

I cant do it.

I dont know if its
just me,

but Im looking at this stuff,
and like, Wow!

And Ill tell them.

Ill say, This is fabulous.

This is fantastic.

How do you do this?

Hi there, everybody!

This is Halkun,
and Im gonna demonstrate...

to you how I really dont play
Minecraft like other people.

Now, first thing youre gonna notice
is Im kinda staring at a corner...

of a very,
very deep well.

And its made out
of bedrock,

and its very, very high,
and Im sure youre probably thinking,

Why Halkun, that is a very,
very deep well.

And Im gonna show you
the reason why.

It is currently holding...

... this!...

This is a 1:1 scale model
of the Starship Enterprise.

I just got finished putting
the framework together.

I havent slept yet,
so Im gonna be a little loopy...

... as I show you what
I've got here....

So, as you can see theres
still some scaffolding still up there.

So, why dont we take a walk,
shall we?

I reversed 6502 code
for fun.

So, I have like disassembled
source code...

... from Final Fantasy I.

I have disassembled
source code...

... from ProDOS
for the Apple II that I've taken apart.

And thats what I do,
I find these programs,

and take them apart.

I've been, I've been reverse
engineering applicate software...

... for like ten years.

Im actually active
in a community...

... where we've been disassembling
Final Fantasy VII......

for the last decade.

Pretty much Im all over
the map when it comes...

... to just things....

Intellectual property law,
I do reverse engineering,

I do the marketing.

So, its because I live in
a very tiny apartment,

and Im often bored.

Um, let me see if I can find
my Enterprise.

So were sitting at...

8,984,531,
and I need to update these badly.

What are some of the comments
here that you have?

Nerd!

I need a girlfriend!

What a geek!

The Virgin Diaries,
because evidently...

... Im a virgin, too..

Uh, I dont think you guys
have never really appreciated...

... how absolutely huge
the Enterprise is,

but I dont know,
this is kind of a shock to you.

This thing is fucking enormous.

People who dont play Minecraft
just looked at this,

and go, What on earth
did that nerd do?

And a lot of people,
when they saw this too,

they saw the video,
and they never--

They didnt know when Minecraft was
getting all trendy,

and everyones like,
I dont wanna play.

It sounds like everyones
just getting on the band wagon.

And I remember when someone
saw my video,

and they posted underneath it,
Okay, I get it.

I understand now.

Now I see why this is such
a game that--

why everyones playing
this game.

Before when you would go
on YouTube,

and you saw somebody
who modeled the Enterprise,

youd think,
Wow, thats incredible.

I could never do that,
I dont have the knowledge,

of the modeling software.

Like I cant do that.

But when you see Minecraft,
the Minecraft Enterprise,

youre like,
You couldnt.

Lets be clear.

Like you could never
do that.

But theres a part of you
that thinks,

If I just had the time...

Its sort of democratized,
right?

Because everybody has
the same pieces.

And in this youre making it
out of something.

And theres a being in there
that is doing it.

Right?

So, its much easier,
I think,

to map yourself
to that.

This is Voyager.

Theres the Enterprise E.

There is the Klingon Bird-of-Prey.

So, we can make these ships,
take these blocks,

and put them in this world
where we can build our ships...

... with these blocks,
and then, you know,

wire them up,
give them life,

and see what happens.

But if you have something take it,
and try going in a completely different direction.

Take the seeds of it,
and then see what else you can do.

I dont wanna see bigger
and better,

I wanna see this way
or that way.

Hey guys, I just want
to show you a project...

... I've been working on
in Minecraft....

Its up here.

At least a good view
of it is.

This is a Arithmetic-Logic Unit.

And an ALU is found in every processor
because it does math.

When the Minecraft
Enterprise came out,

the computer came out
at about that same time.

It is 16-bit,
and somewhat slow,

and big,
and unwieldy,

but its implemented
in the video game what do you want?

I have it set up, hopefully,
so that when I add registers,

and ram,
probably not very much ram,

and program counter,
it will be a legit computer.

Okay, so this is the ALU
of a basic computer.

So, this is the output.

These are the inputs.

And these are the controls.

Im gonna do 2+1.

Its gonna be crazy.

Im gonna turn that on
so it adds it,

and we look over here,
theres a huge bus...

... taking all the values
from the end of the ALU,

all the way back over here.

So, bit wise I mean,
we added 2+1,

we get three,
which is one, one...

It can only add, really,
but multiplication...

is just adding over
and over again.

division is subtracting
over and over again,

and subtraction is just
adding a negative number.

If pieced together,
they can do any operation

that a regular computer
can do.

Okay, this has four bytes
of memory.

I would say in Minecraft
you could probably build...

...512 bytes of ram....

Which 256 bytes is the amount
that was in an Atari 2600.

So, that kinda gives you
a feel.

So, you could probably
double that.

So, heres the entire computer.

Here you can see.

You can see the connections,
you can see the cross over.

You get a very visceral way
to appreciate whats going on...

... inside these things
that we cant see anymore.

Theres not just a disconnect
between regular people,

even programmers,
just usually taking on faith...

... that they click a button,
and now all this stuff they wrote...

... can be run.

That this disconnect can even
translates into people...

... who are suppose to know
whats going on...

... is really interesting.

but theres definitely this class
of machines we have now...

... that are tantamount
to magic,

and we just see them go,
and watch them do...

... all these amazing things,
and nod,

and say, Okay, this is where
we are right now.

And know that the chain
of us moving from the present...

... to the future.....

And now theres gonna be
even cooler things.

And thats just kind of where
it stops,

and you dont say,
Okay, how does this work?

What are we really doing?

I hope you guys
check in later...

... to see this once
I have a few other...

... finished chunks done.

Thanks for watching.

Infrastructure is such a key part
of Minecrafts success, I think.

Because its a game
about sharing,

so you just need that infrastructure
in place to share...

... either your creations,
or your things...

... that youve engineered
in game...

... like a color printer
I saw somebody made last week.

To share those ideas,
right?

Those ideas need places
to move around.

Without YouTube,
without Twitter,

message boards,
community sites,

it wouldnt have been
as successful, for sure.

So, Im gonna now show you
some pictures of some...

... of the cooler things we found,
and people have built...

... in Minecraft.

Whoa, the Eiffel Tower!

What?

That is so cool!

How did they do that?

Okay, thats--
Okay, that is a lot of work.

That looks pretty cool.

I would, like,
never thought of that.

Ooh, a castle!

Is that Hogwart's?

It is!

Im smart!

No, youre a nerd!

Its self-perpetuating in that way
of because people create things,

and they spend time
creating things.

They wanna share
those things.

So, automatically more people,
and new people are hearing...

... about that game
in a contextual way.

Theyre not watching an ad,
theyre saying,

Hey, I made this.

You can do this too!

Do you wanna play?

I found out through,
was it Tyco's post...

... on Penny Arcade?

Im not sure,
but I heard about it there,

and my best friend was like,
Hey, its a game where all you do...

... is mine and craft....

And I was like,
Really now?

I definitely wanted to
spread the word too, like.

Yeah, there was an evangelical,
sort of.

It was at the very beginning
of the--

-The big, like--
-The take off of the game, right?

-Yeah.
-So there wasnt a lot...

of material out there
about what it was like...

... to actually play it....

Like this game will suck
you in,

and you are in trouble.

And then you introduced
your son to it,

and every time I would go over
to your house,

he was playing it
the entire time.

Yeah, still is.

Hours.

Every night,
hours.

Hot.

I pictured him sorta getting in there,
and not knowing what to do.

It turns out that wasnt
an issue.

So, wheres youre, uh,
dont you have...

... a train station
in here somewhere?

Oh wow,
thats cool.

I saw the one that--
they had a bunch of music blocks,

and it played the song
from Portal.

Hes my boy.

I love you son.

What?

-What?
-Oh nothing.

You know, its interesting,
because especially as a parent,

you think, Boy, I really need
to limit--

You just hear you have
to limit his time--

You have to limit their time
in video games.

You dont really know why,
and I think thats...

... I think thats just ridiculous now,
because you know,

what is a video game anymore?

When hes been playing
for a couple of hours,

and I come in,
and Im like,

Alright, Gabe, I think
you need to take a break.

And I look,
and hes built a functioning aqueduct.

Thats no joke.

Like he figured out
how to get water...

... from one place to another
by building this contrap--...

Its like Im not gonna tell you
to stop.

You know?
Parenting has changed.

We have, uh,
these nice people.

Theyre from a real
film company...

... making a real movie
about Minecraft....

And theyre just gonna be watching
what we do.

Were gonna be doing
what we normally do.

Were gonna be
playing Minecraft.

Im gonna be--
have activities for you.

You guys are gonna get
to do your own things.

But really just,
were gonna be ourselves today.

Kyle, yes.

I have always been
a gamer.

I still remember the day
my cousin brought over...

... a Pong machine,
and that was sort of...

... like a life-changing moment,
and I kinda grew up...

... with computer games
in my life.

Right now, Im teaching
our Lower School Technology classes.

So, Im mostly working
with first and second grade,

and Im a big believer that
in bringing games into the classroom.

I think it gets the kids really excited
about being here,

being in school,
being in my class.

Do you like school?

Sometimes.

Well, what's your favorite--
do you like the Minecraft stuff?

Yeah, computer is
my favorite subject.

Kids are excited
about games.

This is where they live.

You know, they go home,
they play games,

thats what theyre excited
to talk about with their friends.

Its this generation.

You have a computer,
or a Wii?

Yeah, we have
a Wii,

an XBOX,
A PS3.

My older brother
has a PlayStation.

And they're talking about
doing well in a class,

and leveling up.

I mean this is where
they live.

This is kind of where
their mental head space is.

And when I started playing Minecraft
this past summer,

I just, you know,
there was just such...

... amazing amounts of potential
that I really knew......

... that I had to try
to make it work,

and find a way to bring this
into my classroom.

Im gonna break you guys
into groups.

And each group is gonna
make their own house...

... out of these different materials....

Max is off and running
making some tools.

Guys, Ill make doors
for us.

-In the desert.
-Oh, I see it.

You got it.

You guys like the game?

Yeah.

It is really,
really fun.

Like, its kinda like
a free world.

Its not like New York City
with all the traffic,

and all,
I love it.

Im able to dream up
these different worlds,

and different adventures
that the kids can have...

... that I think theyre gonna
get something out of....

That theyre gonna have--
thats gonna have...

... some lasting value for them....

Well, Minecraft is basically
another version of your life,

except its a magical version.

Lots of great team work today.

And I had a lot of positive feedback.

You know, our network administrator
told me really early on...

... this is one of the coolest
things I've ever seen done......

... in all the years of working
in schools....

Then the teachers who
are not gamers,

yeah, I mean,
I guess they would kind of...

... scratch their heads,
and theyd say thats nice, Joel....

You know, Im glad youre doing
something fun with the kids.

But, once I would get them
in the room for five minutes,

once they would see
just how excited,

and how engaged
the kids were,

you know, almost everyone
of these teachers...

... would walk out of the room
a believer......

... that I was really
on to something here....

Not sure I fully
understand it.

Im not sure I understand it at all,
to be honest with you.

When I first saw this game,
I thought,

Wow, this is really pixelly,
and this reminds me...

... of my Atari 800 days....

And I couldnt believe that the kids
were satisfied with the graphics.

But they dont even seem
to notice that part of it.

Do you like playing Minecraft?

Its awesome!

Its so much fun.

Thats the only part
I dont like.

Listening to everyone
talk about it all the time.

The kids come in,
and you literally...

... have to rip their hands
off of the keyboard.

You don't like listening to everyone
talk about it all the time?

Its annoying.

And I love to talk
about it.

You two still manage to get along...

even though he talks about Minecraft all the time?

-No.
-Yeah.

But lets remember
theres things they can do...

... in Minecraft that they cant
do in the real world.

I mean, I cant drop a bunch of kids
in a forest,

and tell them to build
a shelter in real life.

And even if its not quite
real life,

theyre thinking,
Well, what would I do...

... in this situation?...

What must it be like to build
a castle on top...

... of the mountain,
and try to fortify it....

What must it be like
to explore a jungle.

What must it be like
to farm,

and raise crops.

I mean, these are things
they can do in the game.

And then if a teacher is able
to spend a little time customizing it,

setting up these scenarios,
the potential is limitless.

Well, with the teaching,
were gonna go talk to...

... the Minecraft teacher
in New York....

Okay..

And well see him teaching classes,
and things like that.

I mean is that something
you ever expected...

... would come with the game?...

No..

I think his nickname is Notch.

Oh yeah, Notch.

Nacho,
youre a great man!

Notch. Notch.

I think the person
would be very smart...

... to make Minecraft....

I think he likes adventures.

I actually look forward
to 15 years from now...

... when these kids--
well, not my age necessarily,

Im a bit older than that,
but when theyre grown up,

and to have a conversation
with someone...

... its like,
What, you worked on Minecraft?

Well not really,
but I sat next to the guy who did.

Because I've--
just like youre saying,

some of the games,
you played when you were young,

just, they stick with you.

And its gonna be that
over Minecraft as well.

Its gonna be awesome to hear that
in 15, 20 years talking to people.

And its also gonna be very fun
to see what Minecraft means...

... at that point, so.

Im very much looking forward
to that.

Its gonna be interesting,
because theyre gonna...

... be looking back on it
nostalgically......

in like ten years
from now.

Ah, thats a scary thought.

Yeah, that means,

That means we really need
to do it right.

We have so much to do,
and not much time...

... until the release date....

And I was kind of joking
that the release date...

... that were told is not
really a release date,

its like, well,
its more like an aim.

But Carl didnt agree.

He said, Its going to be released
that day regardless.

My attempt to push it
a little failed.

Hey.

What's up, sir?

How's it going?

Good.

Carl, you look like a rock star, man. Geez.

I don't feel like one.

It's going good.

I'm a bit stressed out.

Definite--the pressure
is increasing in the team.

I would say I need to finish this,
so I'm really focused on it,

so right now it doesn't feel like
we'll ever work on something new,

but I have all these
ideas that I want to try.

And I've actually like spoken to Jens
and he would be willing to take over...

... like the head of Minecraft
and he's really good at it.

So, I feel comfortable that he's someone
who could do a very good job at it,

but right now it feels like I'm gonna
keep working on Minecraft forever.

We'll see.

I'm very excited about it being done
because it's like a milestone, I think,

that would be really worth celebrating.

Like, "Yeah, now you've made
it, this game, now it's finished. "

So, yeah, I don't
think it's sad like that.

I mean, maybe, you know, I don't know how
long this game will live and be popular,

but maybe when it fades,
then you would feel a bit sad like,

"Oh, yeah" , I'd be nostalgic.

You know like, "Oh, I remember when
it was so popular" , you know.

But, no, it definitely
doesn't feel like that.

I think it will keep
gaining, so.

Oh yeah, another bug, the bow doesn't
get damaged when you use it.

We're just taking today
as a final, like, polish day.

We have a few reported crash bugs that
we can't reproduce, so it's like,

we would like to fix them,
but we don't know how.

Yeah.

I'm a bit nervous because, mostly because
there are gonna be, hopefully reviews,

and those are gonna give the game
like a score and they're gonna say,

"No, this game is five percent less good
than the Super Mario Galaxy" or something.

Like here's a bug.

"Redstone torch randomly
burn out and never recover. "

Okay, where do I start?

I have no idea, so.

Oh, so fun this is.

Oh, there we go.

Now that's right, correct.

Oh, damn it.

I'll mark this as
can't reproduce.

So you said you just
sent the game off?

Yeah, I put it on the USB sticks and then
I sent the final like zip file to Tobias,

so he can make
the upload script.

Now it's 20 minutes past 3
and I have one-and-a-half days to go...

... and then we go to Minecon....

So I figured I'd
play with Legos.

It's a bit weird 'cause
I still feel like I probably

should still be polishing stuff
'cause there's stuff to polish,

but I don't want to risk getting new bugs,
so we're not doing that.

And I'm super nervous about the flight,
not nervous, more like giddy or something,

like I can't wait
until the flight goes.

See you guys tomorrow.

Yup, see you then.

So, I think he feels that,
okay I can't do anything more now,

it's done and
I'm going to Vegas.

So, I think that's why
he's giddy and, uh,

and I started to feel that as well,
so probably tomorrow.

I'm gonna lock down the Scrolls
version tomorrow morning...

... and then I'm gonna just kick back
and put my feet up and play some......

... Virtua Tennis 4 and go out
and have a beer with Markus,

and you know, just cool down
before the trip to Vegas.

It took a whole truck.

It's very cool.

I mean, there's been talk
about 5,000 people.

I don't think there's gonna
be that many, but who knows.

Yes.

It doesn't work at all.

But, uh, we only have
a few more minutes left,

so we really do want to thank
all of y'all for coming here,

and this has been the highlight
for us of this past year...

... and what Minecraft
has done for all of us....

Because Minecon is finally
released, it's the end times.

No one thought it
would ever happen.

It's Minecon--sorry,
it's Minecraft.

That's okay.

I'm getting all of
your games wrong.

I've played it
a few times.

I heard you did, yeah.

Yeah.

He's still learning.

Yeah.

I guess just to close out,
I think you're obviously idolized...

... by a lot of, uh--I'm sure
that must make you feel......

... kind of weird at times,
but you're obviously idolized......

... by a lot of indie developers
and people that want to make games....

You know, they look at what you've
done as a kind of success story,

you know, like you went from being
a guy making an indie game...

... to a guy that can have 5,000 people
come out to a convention to see him....

So, do you have any words of advice
to people out there that are,

you know, trying to become,
you know, an indie developer?

I think that the best advice
I can give everyone is,

"Don't listen to advice" , but if you are going to listen to advice,

then making sure you actually
do something is good advice.

If you just sit around planning
something and not doing it,

you're not actually
gonna get anywhere.

Cool, yeah, I think
that's a good..

-Yeah, cool.
-Are we good?

-Yup.
-Great. Awesome.

I'm actually not doing
anything myself,

but maybe I fall on
the stairs or something.

Music please for entry.

This is how it's gonna look--what it's
gonna look like when people are entering.

So they'll be the music on,
the lights will be low like this.

That's impressive.

-He's like a magician.
-That's so Las Vegas.

Everything's gonna get
dark for the HAT Films video.

It's kind of like how I said how I feel
the game deserves a six or a seven.

I do realize it's probably going
to get higher scores than that,

but I don't really dare hope
for that 'cause to me it's a--

There's so much more that
could be done to the game.

It's not really finished yet and I
don't think it's ever going to be.

Yeah, it sounds like
the closing ceremony started.

Yeah.

Well, would you like
to hear him talk?

Yeah!

Okay, so, Notch, how does
this feel to you right now?

No pressure, yeah.

It's very overwhelming.

I mean, the reason I started working
on Minecraft and kept working on it...

... was because of people playing it
and it's the reason we started a company......

... because there were fans, and now
we have like 5,000 people here just for......

... the game, for
Minecraft, and that's......5,000

We are so thankful that you guys traveled
from all over, literally, the world.

We have people from all different
countries here celebrating with us...

... to be part of the official release
and we are so grateful......

... and absolutely humbled
that you would come all this way......

... for this game that this team
has been working on,

but now, for the moment that
you have all been waiting for.

Yeah, 2011 was probably
the weirdest year of my life.

It's a--feels like a blur now
that I think back on it.

So much happened and so
I can't even describe it.

The weirdest year
of my life.

It's really hard,
this summing up things.

You know, it's--'cause there's
so much that has happened...

... and at the same time trying to work and then
of course manage the family back home....

And we had some illness
in the family as well,

we're trying to balance that and it's just,
it was almost too much in one year...

... I have to say.

Let me show
you around.

Watch out.

Let's see.

Yeah, right as we enter, this is where,
sort of, everyone will sit and work.

A bar will be over there.

Next to it will be
a pool table.

Actually, we'll have
the logo on that wall too.

The logo, okay.

Yeah, and the logo
on that wall.

Cool.

Over here is the Marcus'
and Jacobs' room.

They'll have their own
sound-proof room.

Pretty good.

Yeah, it's gonna
be great.

It's really hard to,
really get your head around...

... everything and summarize,
but, you know,

obviously it's been the most
amazing year of my life.

Just going from, you know,
sitting in a shitty apartment,

you know, working on things
that I hate and you know,

absolutely seeing no
future for myself aside...

... from the few fleeting
moments of glory that I had,

you know, posting
some pixel art online,

you know, going from that
to actually, you know, this,

travelling around the world
meeting fans and stuff like that,

it's been a pretty
wild ride.

A lot of things
happened last year.

We recently changed
Minecraft's front page,

so it has my Twitter
account instead of Notch's,

so... one difference.

So yeah, slightly before Minecraft
I asked Jens to take over...

... as the new game developer,
the lead developer of Minecraft......

... and I left the game
and now Jens is doing it.

We, we sat down and made
a plan in the beginning...

... of last year and that is still,
we still use the same plan......

... because we only got
half ways through that list....

I mean, I think we should be
able to do this in half a year,

which means we won't, but at least
that's kind of a base "guesstimate. "

I barely talk to him
at all about Minecraft.

Sometimes I ask him small things,
but he said he didn't want...

... to interfere and he
has definitely not....

Well it's a relief and kind of a curse
'cause I won't ever be able to top that.

It's a bit of a relief not to work
on something that big...

... because I think I've done
a lot of soul searching that...

... that I'd rather work
on something smaller like--

'Cause I made Minecraft
kind of for myself...

... and that's the kind
of games I want to make,

but now there are so many like kids
playing it and parents playing it...

... and I can't really
understand that audience....

So, it feels like there's a huge
responsibility to keep like...

... your child safe and make sure
the parents can actually use it......

... the way they want to use it
with their kids and stuff....

So, I'd rather actually work on something
where I kind of understand the audience more.

So, after Minecraft came out,
the launch was a huge success,

and then he handed the development
off to one of his colleagues.

I began to hear whispers of,
"Oh, he's just counting his money now" ,

or, "He's not really that into
making games anymore. "

And this struck me as strange
because it didn't really seem to fit...

... with the guy I had met a couple of times
and interact with over email or what have you,

and he seemed to me like somebody
who's like, he loved doing this kind of thing.

And it was, it was comforting and it was exciting
to find out that those whispers were wrong...

... when his next game, which I'm still not even
sure how to pronounce, was announced...

... and to find out very quickly thereafter
that it is potentially as insane as......

... Minecraft was conceptually....

Yeah, I kind of burnt out
towards the end of Minecraft,

just the pressure of releasing it and like
I realized that I was gonna move on,

and all that, and then I started getting
really inspired to make games,

started doing the space game and
it feels like the beginning of Minecraft.

It's kind of just--you don't really know
what the game is gonna be.

It's like--it's scary because it could be something
completely different than what you thought...

... and might not be fun at all,
it might be super fun....

So, it's very inspiring.

I'm pretty sure Bethesda doesn't
have a trademark called "Ten to the C. "

Damn it, I pronounced it!

Damn it!

Damn it!

I think I could put this up now
if I wanted to, but it's not really fun yet.

So, once it's kind of at the point where I can--
I would get lost for an hour instead of developing,

then that's probably when
I'm going to release it.

I guess I'm kind of afraid of the fans
being disappointed with the new game.

I mean it's a space game, it's not like a fantasy,
chopping game or whatever.

What the first big chance of success and the
chance of expectation is that when you're...

... the new kid on the block, no one has formed
any expectations from you whatsoever,

and then when you exceeded, way,
exceeded people's expectations,

asking someone to do
that again is really tough.

Usually what happens in a successful
situation is that the person, you know,

the sophomore slump kind
of thing, or like blows it all.

I mean, if this was music, they'd blow it on crack
and hookers but, you know, I don't think--

And he's getting married and like he
doesn't seem like that kind of guy,

but at the same time, like stay focused on the thing
that you're trying to do and don't worry about,

what I call, weather, right, like when you just can't,
you know, you can't control--it's gonna storm,

it's not, you know, whatever,
lightning's gonna strike, sometimes it doesn't.

You know, do all the variables you can control
and that's the quality of the game.

I've often felt creatively, it's key to have
a really bad memory and to forget what...

... you did last and really start off each project
like it's your first one in a way,

and I feel like the trick is to do that almost
every time, just like go back to the beginning...

... and really treat each project like your
first project and start from scratch again...

... and not worry too much about people
are expecting or want from you,

but go back to the same place that gave you
your first idea, you know, you didn't get your...

... first idea by listening to some advice from
a publisher or, you know, you just kind of,

you followed what you love and cared about
and followed what really inspired you and that's...

... where your idea came from and that's
what you should do every time....

Great, sorry about
the coughing..

No, it's fine.

I'm sorry that, uh...

I had a cold and then I talked too much
and don't breathe enough and that's what happens.

We should probably try to wrap up
before we get stampeded.

Okay.

Okay, yeah, I think
we'll have lots of time.

I don't think so, I mean,
I'll talk forever, so like--

You gotta start
with something.

I'd still like you to
show us the game.

You guys should play.

All set?

That's a
clapper board is it?

Yeah.

Wow.

Awesome.

I wasn't even hot,
like it didn't even--

Shut up.

I'm burning up.

I mean it's not like we were
moving around or anything.

I was packed between
you two guys.

Minecraft--wait, it's an M.

Minecraft.

Feel free to use that
as your logo for your movie.

Minecraft--what are
you calling it anyway?

What, the movie?

Yeah.

Minecraft.

Where do you
get your ideas?