How Minecraft became the biggest video game in the world

A Minecraft Movie – the latest live-action adaptation of a video game and Hollywood’s first proper stab at bringing it to life – opens in Singapore cinemas on April 3.

The film was stuck in “development hell” for almost a decade, with numerous actors, directors, writers and film executives cycling through, including Steve Carell and Shawn Levy.

Join The Straits Times’ correspondent Yamini Chinnuswamy and executive artist Lee Yu Hui on a walkthrough of the game’s pixellated and cubic terrain to find out why it got so popular.

Gameplay

Minecraft is a sandbox game, which means there is no specific end point. Players can choose to play as one of nine official block-like characters. These include Steve and Alex, who were the first and second characters introduced in-game, respectively. They are also Minecraft’s most famous faces. 

The player decides the in-game itinerary, with activities such as mining resources, crafting tools, brewing potions and exploring the environment. Players can play in Minecraft’s own proprietary “world” or in worlds created by other players – or they can create their own.

Every Minecraft world has three dimensions: Overworld (the main playing area), The Nether (a lava-filled underworld) and The End (a void-like space).

In most of Minecraft’s game modes, such as Survival mode, players must try to avoid hostile elements such as Creepers. As their name suggests, Creepers creep up on players and explode, causing damage to their surroundings.

Other hostile elements include piglins, zombies, skeletons and spiders. The game’s biggest hostile element is the Ender Dragon, found in the End dimension.

Milestones 

2009: Minecraft is created by Swedish game developer Markus “Notch” Persson, who cut his teeth at King, the Swedish mobile game company behind Candy Crush Saga and Bubble Witch Saga.

Persson releases a public alpha build of Minecraft online in May 2009. Early adopters can pay a small fee in exchange for testing the game, and are promised free access to the full game upon its release.

2011: Minecraft quickly develops a following, as 4,500 people turn up at the MineCon 2011 event in Las Vegas, United States. Minecraft 1.0.0, the first full version of the game, is released at this event.

2014: Tech giant Microsoft acquires Minecraft’s parent company, Mojang, for US$2.5 billion.

2016: Minecraft: Education Edition is launched after teachers and educators around the world start using Minecraft in their classrooms to gamify lessons.

2020: Minecraft records 126 million monthly players, and total sales to date top 200 million.

2021: Minecraft content collectively amasses one trillion views on YouTube.  

2023: Minecraft becomes the first game to sell 300 million copies. It is also the world’s best-selling video game, according to the Guinness World Records. 

Community

Minecraft has had a dedicated fan community from the very beginning, which has become integral to the game experience.

Over the years, players have created and shared a multitude of their own worlds (or servers), skins and modifications.

The fan community also includes tens of thousands of YouTube vloggers. The most popular among them, such as CaptainSparklez and EthosLab, have made careers out of being Minecraft fans, with millions following their every move. 

Music & aesthetic

Minecraft’s now-iconic art style has become its calling card. It is defined by simplicity, with block-like textures and pixellated artwork reminiscent of 1980s and 1990s video games, such as the original Super Mario Bros (1985) and Pac-Man (1980). 

But video games are a multisensory experience, and from Minecraft’s early days, players have mined and crafted while immersed in melancholic ambient music.

Film adaptation

A Minecraft Movie features four misfits, including Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa), who are accidentally transported into a block-like world full of cubic scenery and creatures.

Expert crafter Steve (Jack Black) takes them on a quest around the Overworld to get them back home. But first, they must stop nefarious piglin forces from the Nether from destroying the Overworld.

Though inspired by a video game, the film uses practical effects to replicate the colour-drenched, right-angled terrain of Minecraft, including:

• > 40 real sets
• > 2,000 sq m artificial grass
• 26 extra-large trees
• 16 large square tree trunks
• 300 square flowers with stalks
• 30 square shrubs 

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