Back in July I got this interview with Notch and posted it on the MineCraft forums. Needless to say, this was back before I knew about FacePunch: the MineCraft forums are rubbish, by the by.
Anyway, I thought I would share it with you guys because you are the superior MineCraft community.
Q: What inspired you to create MineCraft?
A: I left my day job as a flash game programmer, and wanted to do something accessible and fun. I was playing Dwarf Fortress at the time, and got the idea to do a similar game, except with an interface similar to that in Rollercoaster Tycoon. I was implementing an experimental first person mode when I found Infiniminer via the Tigsource forums, and I fell in love with the visual style.
Q: Did you expect all of this success to come from it?
A: I really didn't know how big the game could be, it was a bit of an experiment to see what was possible. But this success really is much more than I ever dared hope for.
Q: How is working on MineCraft different than your old job programming flash games?
A: It's much more free since I'm my own boss. I get up late in the mornings (about half past ten), and I get to do whatever I feel like the most. When I first started, I thought it'd be less work, but I ended up putting in more hours of work than I used to do when I was employed.
Q: How does it feel having a fiancé who is so supportive of, and even plays your game?
A: It feels great! She's always played my games, and have liked several of them. Sometimes I feel like we talk too much about the game, though, I don't want it to take over our lives.
Q: Do you plan on adding MineCraft to some kind of "social-gaming" platform like Steam?
A: I hope so, yes. Having it somewhere where people actively go to find games to buy would probably be great for sales, not to mention I'm a huge fan of the Steam platform.
Q: Any word of MineCraft coming to consoles?
A: That's unlikely at this point. Partly because porting the game would be a huge job, and partly because the extremely dynamic nature of the game makes it use quite a lot of memory, something most consoles lack (for whatever reason). But I am considering doing a limited Android version in the future.
Q: You update MineCraft all the time, and you are very active in the community. Has this taken a toll on your social life at all?
A: I think working from home took a larger toll on my social life than the frequent updates. I find it much easier to do things on the weekends now that I work on the game full time, but I rarely meet anyone during the weekdays. I do try to convince people to have lunch with me, though.
Q: How do you feel about the sudden coverage from Valve?
A: I still feel strange. Team Fortress 2 is one of my all time favorite games, and the idea that the developers there play my game makes me feel all fuzzy inside. The game has gotten a huge boost in sales and internet talk now, and I'm almost scared to see what's going to happen.
Q: What direction do you plan on taking the game after Survival Multiplayer is finished?
A: After survival mode multiplayer, I'm going to spend some time polishing the game and keeping track of what people actually do in multiplayer. A potentially huge thing will be the server-side scripting support so people can write advanced mods or custom servers. Other than that, I will add more content to the existing areas (more enemies, more farming options, more block types).
Q: What do you do when you're not working on MineCraft?
A: I intentionally try to not think about minecraft.. Board games, movies, weekend plans. That stuff. It's a bit too easy to get work and free time mixed up when you run your own company.. Or at least it is for me.
Q: Any advice on growing and maintaining such a luscious beard?
A: I suspect most people do what I did, and just start with pure laziness.
Anyway; discuss it, or something.
Original thread: [url]http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21298[/url]
All of those but the beard one, and the one about EZ were cliche and asked a hundred times.
[quote]Q: You update MineCraft all the time[/quote]
lol
Should have asked him how it feels to take a vacation from a vacation, and where/what his favorite place/time to not work on Minecraft is.
[QUOTE=MedicWine;28448080]All of those but the beard one, and the one about EZ were cliche and asked a hundred times.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Aperture fan;28448355]Should have asked him how it feels to take a vacation from take a vacation, and where/what his favorite place/time to not work on Minecraft is.[/QUOTE]
Keep in mind, this interview was back when the game was just gaining popularity. He regularly updated it, and put out his Friday updates consistently. The only other interview at the time was the one from PC Gamer.
idk, this interview could have been better imo, should have asked questions relating to the difference between alpha and beta accounts, or go even more in depth and talk about the minecraft engine mechanics
[QUOTE=Krysonian;28448410]Keep in mind, this interview was back when the game was just gaining popularity.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=dude2193;28448643]idk, this interview could have been better imo, should have asked questions relating to the difference between alpha and beta accounts, or go even more in depth and talk about the minecraft engine mechanics[/QUOTE]
If Alpha was even out in July, it was in it's very early stages. There was no Beta back then, at all.
i didn't know that one of notch's favorite games is tf2
I was cleaning out my gmail a few days ago and found an email I sent to Notch ages ago pertaining to launcher commandline arguments so I could have it autologin/autojoin servers. When I realized that I'd been using something I suggested (new launcher is awesome), I felt a little fuzzy.
If I could do an interview like this now, I'd ask him mostly about the company, what it's like to have other people to work with and even knowing there's a second project in the same room as yours, if it's given him any more free time, if he feels it's taken a toll on any aspect of development (Oh hello shoddily coded beds fancy seeing you here! And is that a wooden halfblock over there being made of stone too? Oh my!) etc.
I'd probably also ask him if it felt bad to go bald, cause it's happening to me. By the time I'm 25 (six years from now) my hairline will look like his now; a nice U shape. If I grow a massive beard in that time I'll just tell people my hair was running away from my beard.
Limited android version! I love this guy
[QUOTE=Krysonian;28447954]
Q: Any advice on growing and maintaining such a luscious beard?
A: I suspect most people do what I did, and just start with pure laziness.
[/QUOTE]
It's probably the same way how the Super Meat Boy developer got his beard.
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