Minecraft Hires New Artist, Will Implement Multiplayer Next

[Greg Tito]

Minecraft Hires New Artist, Will Implement Multiplayer Next

The developer of Minecraft reports that he has hired an artist to help prettify the game.

While everyone is busy clicking away building stuff in Minecraft and the game has earned enough money to be called the surprise indie hit of 2010, you might not call it very pretty. The graphics are subpar at best, but that is part of the game's charm. Notch, the creator and chief architect of Minecraft, seems to have taken some of the comments about the graphics to heart, though, and hired an artist to make everything look a little more stylized if not exactly "current-gen." After hinting at the "whose pixel-art "demakes" of famous videogames The Escapist wrote about back in August [http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1441206676/the-halloween-update-is-out].

[gallery=42]

There is no timetable for when Junkboy's art will make it into the game, but I quite like his style and can't wait for Minecraft to get a makeover. Perhaps the NCC-1701D [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103834-Minecraft-Player-Needs-Help-Building-Scale-Star-Trek-Enterprise] will look even sweeter after Junkboy's art goes in.

Notch also reported that he is busy coding "Survival Mode Multiplayer" but there is no word on when it will be implemented in Minecraft. The game has also migrated to new servers, and seems to have fully recovered from the DDOS attack [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104600-Minecraft-Multiplayer-Brought-Down-by-DDoS-Attack] which hampered Minecraft players two weeks ago.

Source: The Word of Notch [http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1452872379/survival-mode-multiplayer-is-priority-1]

Permalink

 

[subject_87]

While his artwork is awesome, I just hope that the general style and feel of Minecraft's are direction will remain unchanged.

 

[socialtangent]

Interesting, to say the least.

I'm wondering what Minecraft will look like with this art style. Hopefully there'll be a screenshot or a preview of some kind soon.

 

[Kajt]

My reaction:

Junkboy? Freakin' sweet. Can't wait.

 

[cobrausn]

Looks very promising. Hopefully he can keep the 'low-res' charm.

 

[Rakkana]

But... I like it the way it is...

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Welll, this is strange. I was just reading this on his blog when you posted it. Clearly, great minds think alike.

I wanna see what this guy's gonna bring to Minecraft, his past art looks good enough to make me happy.

 

[Plurralbles]

I actually liked that the graphics weren't demanding in any way whatsoever so I hope he keeps the, "fast" graphics setting to a very bare state like it is. I really dont' want to be stuck at, "Tiny" draw distance all the time.

 

[Woodsey]

Sub-par? I thought it was quite pretty in a funny kinda way.

 

[Beltom]

This blokes artwork looks really good, hopefully his joining the Minecraft team will get us all some interesting new textures. Some of the current ones are a bit bland.
By the way, if anyone here wants to play Minecraft with fellow Escapists, there's a usergroup here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/chat/Minecraft-Appreciation-Club

 

[Amalith]

You know you've got it made when all of your blog posts are being reworded and written as news.

Anyway, that artists stuff is pretty sweet, so I'm glad to see him be added onto the minecraft team.

 

[Samah]

Sounds nice, as long as he puts in an option to use the original artwork. I like the blockiness.

 

[Thorvan]

Sub-par? I thought it was quite pretty in a funny kinda way.

Yeah, I love the current art style. Vistas actually look really impressive now, especially with the new biome textures. I'm complaining that there's a new artist, it's a fantastic thing, but I hope that the current style is retained as much as possible.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Two thoughts:

1) Hiring a pixel artist was an excellent idea.

2) Since texture packs already exist, presumably someone out there would make a "Classic" texture pack the minute the graphics got a major overhaul.

 

[Irridium]

There's a reason Minecraft looks the way it looks. Don't be fooled, you need a pretty beefy computer to play Minecraft. He just put all that processing power into something other then graphics.

Hell, Dwarf Fortress is fucking ascii, and will bring any modern computer to it?s knees.

Point is, don't worry so much about the graphics. They're fine. If you try to improve them, there's a chance you could cause computers to catch fire or something.

Then again I have no idea how Notch handles things, or what he plans to do, or anything really. Just my concerns over the matter.

 

[Jennacide]

Then again I have no idea how Notch handles things, or what he plans to do, or anything really. Just my concerns over the matter.

If his posts on /v/ are anything to go by, he does 2-3 hours of work, then 7-8 hours of playing with his Lego sets.

Multiplayer needs love badly. It is the better part of the game IMO, not just creating cool crap, but letting others see it and seeing what others too have done.

 

[Charli]

I just love hearing about how busy this guy is doing what he loves.
It's almost a little heartwarming tale really.

Developers who take longer than this guy to make/improve upon a stellar game can now all hang their heads in shame. I think only several MMO's and multiplayer games with hundreds of people at the helm pump cool stuff like this out with any speed.

 

[samsonguy920]

There's a reason Minecraft looks the way it looks. Don't be fooled, you need a pretty beefy computer to play Minecraft. He just put all that processing power into something other then graphics.

Hell, Dwarf Fortress is fucking ascii, and will bring any modern computer to it?s knees.

Point is, don't worry so much about the graphics. They're fine. If you try to improve them, there's a chance you could cause computers to catch fire or something.

Then again I have no idea how Notch handles things, or what he plans to do, or anything really. Just my concerns over the matter.

I was just thinking that myself but after perusing Junkboy's work I think there is room for improvement without killing the performance.

 

[Jesus Phish]

But... I like it the way it is...

I always thought that was one of the appealing factors of the game.

 

[luckycharms8282]

Urghh! I want to play Minecraft so badly. Looks like a lot of fun