Notes

Mini-minecraft more than A Carbon Copy

New Zealand is a strong country in music, film, and literature but has had difficulty making an international mark in the video games industry. Apart from the Wellington-based Sidhe Interactive's popular rugby titles and 1995's cult Megadrive classic Super Skidmarks, the list of Kiwi games that have gained international recognition is a short one.



Modern games, which are mass-market and have multimillion-dollar budgets and international publishers backing them, make it almost impossible for new companies to establish themselves. This is particularly the case for console games that are sold through off-the-shelf retailers. With limited choices for local developers are concerned. Programmers with a killer idea have looked towards mobile gaming as a method to break into the industry.



Hawke's Bay developer David Frampton is at the forefront of the new wave of digital entrepreneurs. He's an App Store enthusiast already, having made his mark with Chopper and its imaginatively named sequel Chopper 2. Frampton made headlines earlier in the month when he released an app that received more than a million downloads in three days. It went on to become the number. 1 iPad app worldwide in 15 countries.



The Blockheads does not have any narrative structure, storyline, or overall objective. It's difficult to determine the "point" of the game. There's no princess to save, alien invasion to repel or a plot to unravel. There's no high score or boss to defeat. The game is open-ended and you can explore and create. This blank slate method allows you to explore and create at your own pace.
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Despite the fact that your muted protagonist has no personality it is not long before you feel connected to the cube-headed character. Their mood is an important part of the game.



Explore too much without sleeping or eating and they'll become exhausted and hungry , requiring you to gather resources to build shelter and to grow food. As you explore more of the virtual world, you'll find materials that allow you to create elaborate palaces and more sophisticated tools.



The game is free to play, however, its addictive nature makes it a good fit for the "freemium" model that many mobile games use. If you're patient enough to wait for your blockhead's completion of tasks like mining, building, and sleeping, then you will not need to spend any money. However you can purchase the game's currency, called "time crystals", to speed up the process and make more complicated items.



With all this talk of crafting and mining, it would be impossible to review The Blockheads without not mentioning the elephant in our room, another brainchild of an one-man band indie programmer, Markus "Notch" Persson's extremely successful Minecraft. The two games have several things in similarity, from their zany low-fidelity graphics to the focus on exploration, resource collection, and creative expression.



When the Nelson Mail's Adam Roberts interviewed Frampton earlier this month, online commenters were quick to point out the striking similarities between the two games, suggesting and insinuating that The Blockheads was little more than an "Minecraft copycat".



While it's understandable that people would jump to that conclusion, and there's little doubt that Notch's game served as an an obvious inspiration on some level for Frampton, there's far more to The Blockheads than some of the other copycat cash-in shovelware that finds its way on to the App Store.



It's also unfair and unwise to count on the similarity between two games to prove plagiarism. Video games, more than other forms of entertainment, build on what's been played before.



As technology improves and trends become popular, developers will continue to refine and improve what "works" and draw inspiration from groundbreaking games. Similar to how Space Invaders led to a wave of space shooters Super Mario Bros set the trend for side-scrolling platformers, and Gears of War opened the floodgates of cover-based shooters. the unprecedented success of an indie blockbuster like Minecraft will inevitably create ripples in the industry. It's not plagiarism, it's advancement.



If you're a Minecraft fan and you're a Minecraft fan, then you're bound to enjoy The Blockheads but it's more than a carbon copy. While Minecraft works best with a mouse and keyboard, The Blockheads' 2-D take on the creative sandbox genre is perfectly suited to the mobile format, and its use of touchscreen controls is well-designed and user-friendly.


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