Notch is no longer lead developer on Minecraft

p0ppe 14 years ago |

The title of the blog post "Och med dom orden så passar jag micken" is Swedish for "With those words, I hand over the microphone". Just in case anyone is wondering.

lutorm 14 years ago | |

Actually, it's "Swenglish". Passar != pass, it really means "watch over" or "keep track of".

eCa 14 years ago | | |

Unless of course he meant in the same way that you "passar" a hockey puck, in which case it is only an unusual choice of words.

mmelin 14 years ago | | |

It's a line from the Fattaru song Mina hundar.

unkoman 14 years ago | | |

Swedish rap. That sure was a new experience... http://grooveshark.com/s/Mina+Hundar/2pL3f4?src=5

larrik 14 years ago |

Upvoted, but really should permalink:

http://notch.tumblr.com/post/13633493969/och-med-dom-orden-s...

v21 14 years ago |

I'm glad this is the case. A common trap for indie developers is to make one game, have it be at least partially successful, and then to continue to make that game - making DLC, expansions, porting it to other platforms, making a multiplayer version etc. It makes me sad as a player, because it's done instead of developing something new. It's far better to pass on these porting efforts to other developers and to get to work creating new IP, as Notch is doing.

I'm more familiar with games than with startup culture - does the same thing apply there?

Klinky 14 years ago | |

It makes me sad as a player, because it's done instead of developing something new.

I think this is a problem of attitude. If you are so desperate for something new, why not create it yourself? The indie has every right to do what they feel like with their content, time, energy & money. They're not your monkey to dance & sing whenever you please. If you disagree with how they're spending their time, then spend your time making something you'd rather see.

v21 14 years ago | | |

I am an indie dev, and I do make things myself. But that in no way diminishes the pleasure I get at seeing other people's works, being delighted and surprised by a novel or well-executed bit of game. It's difficult to be delighted and surprised by your own works.

And yeah, they of course have the right to make what they want and I can in no way take that away from them. Remaking the same game might even be worth it, financially. But it doesn't build value like getting going making new IP can, and it doesn't give me something exciting and new to play. I'm allowed to ask, they don't have to give it to me.

Klinky 14 years ago | | |

Everyone likes new shiny things true, but the effort required to create new & shiny things consistently is extremely high, especially for a one man band. You probably know the effort required.

I get the idea that you like to see new concepts, but I don't get why you'd complain about people polishing old ideas. You suggest that it's keeping them from working on new ideas but just because something is new, doesn't mean it's good. Not every new thing someone puts out is gold. If they have a proven winner, then they should push & see how far they can take it.

ori_b 14 years ago | | |

Because they're better at it than me. My interests are in the playing and not in the creation.

And as a customer, I'm more interested in new awesomeness than addaddons.

kiba 14 years ago | |

Don't really care, as there are too many video games in the world that I never played before. Polish existing ones, instead.

windsurfer 14 years ago | | |

Too many food; make existing ones better

Too many websites; make existing ones better

Too many songs; make existing ones better

bct 14 years ago | | |

There's a place for both approaches. I agree with kiba that with video games (and websites, and lots of other software for that matter), novelty is weighted much too heavily.

sukuriant 14 years ago | | |

Companies don't tend to polish them, though. Sure we have a few polished/polishing games for their genres: Half Life, Team Fortress, League of Legends, WoW; but, many companies just rehash sequels to make more and more of the same game.

heyrhett 14 years ago |

Good for him. Notch has earned a well-deserved break.

Some people are better at starting new things, and some people are better at maintaining and expanding on existing things. I'm happy to hear that Notch has some new ideas that he's itching to get started on.

ugh 14 years ago |

Here is an interview with Notch and Jeb about the change: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/38917/Persson_Hands_Minec...

extension 14 years ago | |

I'm very glad to see that the mod API is now top priority. They've made similar claims in the past, but this sounds more serious.

The future of this game is definitely all about mods, custom maps, and new game formats. There is tremendous potential, some of which has already been realized, but only through elaborate unofficial hacks.

Karunamon 14 years ago |

I'm really conflicted on Notch, Minecraft in general, and therefore this announcement.

Let's get the good out of the way first, Minecraft is an awesome game, and Notch (and his team) deserves every bit of kudos they've gotten for it. I bought the game back in alpha, and I've gotten more than my money's worth.

The bad? Lingering (big) problems that aren't being dealt with. SMP is still a mess when it comes to performance. There are a ton of bugs in what is supposed to be a final 1.0 release (Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXO6tYkjYMc)

I don't have to be a full time developer or a company owner to make a judgement call on whether that is a bad thing or not. Minecraft seems to be suffering from the same kind of featuritis that plagued Second Life for so long.

Mojang. Please. Fix old, no new.

patrickod 14 years ago |

Given all that has happened in the last year I think Notch is very much deserving of a break. His work ethic is something to admire and his success well earned. I look forward to seeing what projects he creates with his time in the future.

potch 14 years ago |

Much respect for making it to the 1.0, that shows great dedication on his part. He earned the break, and I look forward to seeing what's next!

AndyKelley 14 years ago |

I expect to see the code base quality increase and number of obscene bugs that make it to production decrease significantly.

shmeeps 14 years ago |

Gave this an upvote, since it's from the official Notch blog instead of what could have been possible conjecture from reddit.

TylerE 14 years ago | |

Please don't let this bit of reddit-stupidity transfer here. "LOl upvotd" posts don't add anything and just clutter the discussion.

jpeterson 14 years ago | | |

Too late. HN has basically become reddit.com/r/programming in the last year or so. The glory days are over. You have to admire how long the quality remained high, though.

freehunter 14 years ago | | |

Even though I had to highlight the text of your comment to read it, you do echo a point that has kind of irritated me somewhat. On a website called "hacker news", 90% (hyperbole) of the links are related to designing flashy GUIs and selling social web startups and whatever the flavor-of-the-week web design trend is. There's very little "do it yourself, do it quickly, do what no one has done before" spirit, it's mostly "do what everyone has done before, but flashier and in a newer language".

Not that it's a bad thing in any way, but the title of "hacker news" is a bit disingenuous when "developer news" might be a little more accurate. I wish I could filter out the programming and startup stuff.

bct 14 years ago | | |

Hacker News was originally called Startup News; that would still be a more accurate title.

pessimizer 14 years ago | | |

What's disingenuous about programming on a site called "Hacker News," and what would be left other than political posts if you took out the startup and programming stuff?

freehunter 14 years ago | | |

It's not just the programming stuff I wish I could filter, it's the worship of Ruby, node.js, CSS, etc. Web languages that really aren't useful in the hacker sense of the word, but rather in the business sense of the word.

My opinion wasn't so much about what would replace those posts, but what not having those posts would attract.

cynest 14 years ago | | |

There are a number of good science posts that make the frontpage. This is originally what kept me on this site.

resnamen 14 years ago | | |

I wish I could filter out the gadget-fanboyism. I guess I couldn't read it, but it's exasperating to see how much animosity is inflamed by such a petty subject.

SquareWheel 14 years ago | | |

I came over from Reddit this last month, the number of memes just become too much for me.

TylerE 14 years ago | | |

May I make the suggestion of installing Reddit Enhancement Suite. Unsubscribe from all the default sub/r's (wtf, offbeat,askreddit, etc), and block all posts from imgur and quickmeme, and things look a lot better.

TillE 14 years ago | | |

Doesn't really help. The Reddit "culture" infects everything, not just the main subs.

I suppose for example /r/gamedev isn't awful, but really, GameDev.net is much bigger and better. There's little reason to bother with Reddit.

SquareWheel 14 years ago | | |

I did all this actually. I blocked imgur, so the majority of the posts were from Tinypic. The whole community has changed.