Minecraft creator, Markus “Notch” Persson is worried that his future games may seem “a bit pointless and hollow compared to the success of Minecraft.“
“Everyone has at least one good book in them,” goes the popular adage. Ostensibly it’s meant to be encouraging, a reminder that even the most terrible writers can, with effort, produce at least one worthwhile book. However, I’ve always found it kind of grim, some people only get one book, just one. “You want to write more? No, you’ve used up your talent allotment, citizen #4589, and yes, I want fries with that.”
Game developers seem to feel something similar. Talking to Eurogamer at GDC in San Francisco, Notch voiced concerns that he might never match the success of Minecraft, and admitted that he might have preferred success to come later in his career.
“It kind of feels like the level of cultural impact that Minecraft has had will be very difficult to replicate,” he said. “It kind of feels like whatever I do next is never going to be as big. I’m kind of worried about everything feeling a bit pointless and hollow compared to the success of Minecraft.“
Despite the fact Mojang is currently working on Scrolls and made its first foray into publishing with Cobalt, Notch himself hasn’t started any major projects since Minecraft.
“Honestly, it would have been more fun to have the Minecraft success in 15 years rather than have it as I just started to do my own thing,” he continued. “Because it’s going to be anti-climactic. It’s a bit strange because the narrative – we have the big hit up front and just try to replicate it – it becomes a bit sad. You make a huge hit and then you sit around making smaller games – it’s a sad narrative.”
Whether it lives up to its predecessor or not, we should be seeing Notch’s follow-up to Minecraft sometime soon. He mentioned that he’s “probably” going to start work on something new this summer, before dropping a hint that it may be a space game with similarities to Elite.
Source: Eurogamer
Published: Mar 13, 2012 02:23 am