General

[usagi_tetsu]

Ran across an indie game that is much like Dwarf Fortress - the graphics aren't so great, but it's totally open to do whatever you want it to do - and figured I'd share it as I know more than a few of you on here are DF fans. That game is Minecraft, and yes, I freely admit that I get many of my cool "finds" from the guys over at Penny Arcade, which is where I got this one as well.

The game itself (which you can find here) is basically a freeform world where you... well, you do whatever you want to. You dig up sand and dirt to build walls. Gather leaves from trees to plant more trees. Cut down wood from trees to make wooden objects like a workbench, shovels, and picks. Use a pick to dig up stone to make better picks and stone walls. You kill cows for leather to make armor, and pigs for bacon to heal yourself, and chickens for feathers to make arrows. It's very much like DF in this sense except much more simplified (killing a chicken in DF would net you meat for food, and feathers and bones for various crafts) and instead of simply setting a task and waiting for a beardie to come rushing up to do it, you control everything through a first-person avatar.

Oh, and apparently at night, zombies and skeletons and other nasty things start appearing, and they're trying to kill you, so you better build that first bit of protection with a quickness.

I haven't played it myself yet, though I have plans to do so this upcoming weekend when I'll be on my underpowered netbook and trapped with my in-laws in Branson, MO (the go karts will receive a visit from me, but I forsee a lot of sitting in the hotel and soaking up the free wifi). I have watched a tutorial video on YouTube (I can't find it at work as I can't see YT at work, but I seem to remember it being by someone called seasnapper - here's a search for tutorial vids) and what I saw was interesting enough that I'll be downloading it (and donating money when the site comes back up).

Take a look and tell me what you think.

[Prepaid Lenin]

I heard about this from a friend a couple months ago. I haven't tried it, and I probably won't unless there is a good geology mod so I can dig for ores.

It does have quite a bit of potential though.

[russc]

Apparently it was all made by one guy, and he's sold over 100,000 copies at $10 each.

[mcnchez]

Great game. Roommate has it. And you can dig for ores(although not much variety). Basicly you dig to get better ores/materials so your weapons/tools last longer. wood<stone<steel<diamond(might be another one or two I'm forgetting) Its pretty fun.

[Tenet]

Originally Posted by russc

Apparently it was all made by one guy, and he's sold over 100,000 copies at $10 each.

Working on a Friday update, crying over paypal : The Word of Notch

Paypal froze 600,000 Euro in his account as the sales started spiking, money he planned to invest in growing his business. Moral of the story - use alternatives like Google Checkout whenever you can.
Paypal Sucks - unregulated treacherous scum.

I played it a bit - great concept! Definitely worth giving him money to expand on it.

[LoopyDood]

Minecraft is great - there's a free weekend going on right now.
Oh, and it really sucks when you die and have to run around trying to find all your stuff within five minutes.

[ApoC_101]

YES!!! I knew you were gonna say minecraft. love this game. we play it on LAN here (my sister does anyways, im too busy for video games)

[desertT1]

Originally Posted by ApoC_101

YES!!! I knew you were gonna say minecraft. love this game. we play it on LAN here (my sister does anyways, im too busy for video games)

Psssh, whatever. Like you have anything going on.

[mikeds80]

Minecraft!!!!! I love this game so much. Paypal can't keep up with the demand and has started to lag behind with all the purchases. As a few have stated you mine for various ores and use them to build things like tools, armor, weapons, mine carts, tracks, ovens. Then you use these items and the various block types to build castles or what ever the heck you want. Right now I have a castle at my spawn area, and one about 5 minutes in real time away. I am connecting them with an underground minecart subway and its going to be so rad. The game world generates randomly as you explore and has the capacity to be up to 8 times the surface of the Earth I believe. Also, monsters spawn at night and in darkness so you need to keep living areas well illuminated. Minecraft is in Aplha right now so it isn't technically a finished game. The developer, Notch, releases a new update every friday that fixes bugs and adds new features. He has said that he wants to add things like goblin villages, dragons and many other awesome things in the future.

The minecraft reddit is a particularly great place to waste time and find out more.
Minecraft Subreddit

We should set up a MCB server as it looks like there are a few others here who play.

[usagi_tetsu]

Still have yet to play it, though I've watched more vids on YT, and it definitely looks like I'll be getting some play time out of it real soon. Of course, the more I watch it, the more I think this guy should hook up with the Brothers DF and collaborate on something together. Kind of like a DF that you can move from the top-down view into a first-person view on any of your beardies and control them directly while still leaving the rest of the colony following your task list. I also would like to see the item creation from Minecraft transferred over. Hell, even if the MC guy made a graphical interface for DF so you could swing a camera through the world, that would be awesome.

Until that day, however, I'm looking forward to corrupting the wife with this one, as well as spending more than a few hours to see what the world will give me.