Notes

Mini-minecraft more than A Carbon Copy

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



With contemporary, mass-market games that have multimillion-dollar budgets and the backing of international publishers with deep pockets, it's nearly impossible for start-ups to gain an edge, particularly for console titles released via the off-the-shelf stores. Minecraft servers With limited choices for local developers are concerned. Programmers with an innovative idea have turned to mobile gaming as a method to break into the industry.



At the top of this new wave of Kiwi digital entrepreneurs is Hawke's Bay developer David Frampton, already an App Store enthusiast after making his name with quick-fix hit Chopper and its imaginatively titled sequel Chopper 2, Frampton hit the headlines earlier in the month by releasing a game that racked more than a million downloads within three days of its release and is on the verge of becoming the top iPad app in 15 countries around the globe.



The Blockheads does not have a storyline, narrative structure or even a central objective. It's hard to pinpoint the "point" of The Blockheads. There's no princess to save, alien invasion to repel, or storyline to unravel. There's no high score or boss to beat. The game is open-ended and you can explore and create. This blank, open-ended approach lets you make of it whatever you will, take things at your own pace and let your imagination run wild.



Despite the fact that your muted character isn't a person, you will soon feel a sense of connection to the cube-headed character. Their mood is a crucial aspect of the game.



If they explore too much in a short time, they will not be in a position to sleep or eat enough. This will make them hungry and exhausted. You will need to locate resources to build shelters and food. Beginning with basic hut-like structures as you explore more of the vast virtual world, you'll unearth materials that enable you to build more sophisticated tools and build enormous palaces.



While the game is free to play, its fiendishly addictive nature is perfect for the "freemium" structure that a lot of mobile games have adopted. If you have the patience to wait for your blockhead to complete tasks like building, mining, and sleeping, you'll never have to pay a dime - however, by investing in the game's currency, "time crystals", you can accelerate the process and craft more intricate items.



With all the talk of mining and crafting, it would be impossible to discuss 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 many things in similarity, from their zany, lo-fi graphics, to their emphasis on exploration, resource gathering, and creative expression.



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



While it's understandable that people would jump to that conclusion, and there's no doubt that Notch's game was an obvious inspiration on some level for Frampton There's more to The Blockheads than some of the other copy-cat cash in shovelware that finds its way on to the App Store.



It's also lazy and unfair to rely on the similarities between two games as proof of plagiarism. Video games, more than any other form of entertainment, build on the precedents of previous games.



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



If you're a Minecraft fan and you're a Minecraft fan, then you're bound to love The Blockheads but it's more than a carbon copy. While Minecraft works best with a keyboard and mouse, The Blockheads' 2-D version of the sandbox with a creative twist genre is perfectly suited for the mobile format, and its use of touchscreen controls is well implemented and intuitive.


Here's my website: https://minecraftservers.blog/