Minecraft
Minecraft is a ‘retro’ graphics 1st – 3rd person Indie sandbox game developed by Markus Persson and Mojang AB starting in 2009 and continuing development through the present. Minecraft is essentially a game of digital Legos, allowing players to remove and place 3D cubes, or blocks, in a large environment grid with the goal of freely building just about anything. Minecraft contains several modes of play with varying levels of feel, but for the purpose of this discussion, I will be addressing the feel of Minecraft’s Survival mode.
Mechanics:
- Look/turn
- Walk
- Sprint
- Use Item/punch
- Jump
- Switch Item
- Sneak
- Place Block
- Access Inventory/Crafting
All of these mechanics respond within the window of 100ms, therefore seeming instantaneous. The player has complete control of their character at all times and is never locked out of performing any other action. The attack/use item action plays an incredibly short animation of the player striking out with the item or fist and if held down and targeting a block, this action can occur several times per second allowing the player to build up damage on a block over a period of time in order to break the block, for the illusion of digging or mining. The player is, however, briefly locked out of attacking for a very short window after hitting or attempting to hit anything but a block, presumably to avoid weapon spamming in combat. When a player is interacting with a crafting box, forge or other ‘out of body’ mechanic, they are unable to directly control their character, as the standard keys and buttons used to control the character are used here to manipulate inventory in a UI. Despite the very brief lockout of attacking (<1/4 second) and ‘out of body’ mechanics, all other player mechanics are active and instantaneous at all times, including during animation. This gives Minecraft real-time control.
Simulated space is perhaps the most important single aspect of Minecraft. As a sandbox game that started as a block placing creative environment, the simulated space in minecraft is very rigid in its structure. The environment is essentially a massive 3D grid 127+ blocks high and able to be infinitely long and wide (restricted by server properties). A player moves their character around in this grid and is able to place and destroy blocks to edit his/her environment. Different blocks have different properties as a player navigates through or around them. Some block types include Air, Water, Dirt, Stone, Sand, Ore and player made blocks such as fencing and doors. In this way, Minecraft easily qualifies as having spacial simulation.
It is in the polish effects that Minecraft shows its Indie lineage. Minecraft has a very rustic, retro graphic style. All of the art and textures in Minecraft are reminiscent of 16bit pixel art applied to flat objects. These textured objects are then combined into 3D objects similar to what you would imagine if you could view the thin side of a 16bit sword or shovel. Despite this seeming like a disability, the game plays it off charmingly, allowing a texture api for players to texture their own blocks and characters. Beyond the graphics, there are many simple but effective polish techniques that the game employs to give players a very in-depth game-play experience. As a character walks, the camera bobs, the character’s arm moves and the camera zooms out slightly based on the speed. This allows a player to feel like they are walking, sprinting, or trudging slowly through water. As blocks are broken, they crack and finally shatter with a small particle effect, leaving behind a small sprite that can be collected. These visual polish effects are accompanied by an array of sound effects from the hollow thunk when a stone block is broken and the grainy rasp of shoveling sand to the insistent grunt of a player character getting hit by an attack. A combination of these polish effects is what has become one of the most recognizable things about Minecraft, the Creeper. This monster moves through the simulated environment with a green pixel camo texture and a clear intent. The creeper’s only goal is to stealthily creep close to the player and explode, instantly dealing a large amount of damage and shattering all the blocks in a 6 block radius. One can see how this mechanic fits perfectly into a game where the goal is to freely build structures and customize the environment. Just before exploding, the creeper lets out an audible hiss, reminiscent of a burning fuse which is generally followed by panic and hysteria on the part of the player. It is in this way that Minecraft is able to combine a simple mechanic, simulated world and somewhat rustic polish effects into a little game with big game feel.
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