

The developer of the indie-game Minecraft is doing an AMA on reddit - ulvund
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gjrf4/iama_indie_game_developer_who_made_a_commercially/

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heyitsnick
As a redditer commented; I have never played minecraft for fear of never being
able to put it down. It's fantastic it's been such a success, I think games
like this will always appeal to a certain niche but no one count have
predicted it would have been so successful to such a large audience.

With that said, I just contend myself with watching the odd youtube video. I
dare not get closer.

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TillE
The typical path that many people (myself included) have experienced is: total
obsession for 1-2 weeks, followed by rapidly waning interest.

It's a fantastic game, but you can quickly experience everything it has to
offer, and thereafter you can set your own boundaries quite easily. It's
really just a great big sandbox with no explicit motivating factors. But if
Markus decides to include RPG-like elements some day, we're in big trouble.

~~~
falcolas
> But if Markus decides to include RPG-like elements some day, we're in big
> trouble.

You're probably looking for Wurm Online, then. More advanced than Minecraft,
with the same sandbox multiplayer environment and RPG like elements such as
skills and mobs.

I listened to an interview with the lead Wurm Online developer a month or so
ago on the Massively podcast, and he mentioned that he was originally with the
Minecraft dev team, but split off some years back for wanting to do something
more involved.

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heyitsnick
See I don't even dare _search_ for that.

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ErrantX
He's saying that revenue is in the region $20-30 Million.[1]

That's... crazy. Awesome, but crazy. I knew Minecraft was a success story but
not to that extent!

[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gjrf4/iama_indie_game_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gjrf4/iama_indie_game_developer_who_made_a_commercially/c1o1ox6)

~~~
Peroni
I was blown away too. My favourite line from the entire conversation was: _It
all ends up in an account somewhere, and I try not to look at it._

You have to respect the guys dedication. To not let that massive sum distract
him and still get down to dirty coding is remarkable. More power to him.

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bryanh
A great quote in response to a question about Minecraft's continuous release
schedule: "Developing in the dark is scary and probably wrong."

[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gjrf4/iama_indie_game_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gjrf4/iama_indie_game_developer_who_made_a_commercially/c1o1or0?context=1)

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silverbax88
Last month's Game Developer magazine had a great breakdown on his entire
growth process.

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Sukotto
You can watch a 20 minute mini-documentary about Notch and the Mojang company
here: <http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/minecraft/101/>

(Part of a kickstart project to do a much more involved documentary
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2pp/minecraft-the-
story-...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2pp/minecraft-the-story-of-
mojang) )

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nikcub
An interesting question, and one that is more relevant to this community,
would be to ask about being approached by investors.

How soon it happen, how often, what they said or offered, etc.

There must have been a stampede of VC's and angel investors after the stories
of his success in beta were published.

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drno
As an early player of minecraft I have always had a nagging question to ask:
why did minecraft succeed while second life "failed"? In a sense they offer
similar creative expression but with different gameplay philosophies.

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Apocryphon
Someone should ask if he went to a Montessori school.

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TheAmazingIdiot
Ok, dumb question.

I looked on reddit for it, as well as google. No dice.

What is an AMA in reddit speak?

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heyitsnick
Switch search engines :) It's the first result for searching "reddit what does
AMA mean" on duckduckgo.

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mcrittenden
It's the first result on Google for that query too.

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heyitsnick
Not for me

<http://i.min.us/imFTSK.png>

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mcrittenden
I don't mean that exact link is the first result, I just mean a link which
explains it is the first result.

