DGC Ep 414: Minecraft (part four)

Dev Game Club

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we conclude our series on Minecraft. We talk about our stories, multiplayer, and other topics, before turning to our takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played: A few more hours of Minecraft

Issues covered: the upcoming charity event, Tim not knowing where Site D is, milestones for Tim, an epic story of loss with Mors, having high stakes and risk, Brett makes a long deep dive into an enormous open cavern, the procedural elements of exploration, connected caverns, Lost Lake's skill and visiting his place, the causeway that takes you to Lost Lake, automating systems, never finding an emerald, ad campaigns from the 1950s, a game developer muses about his existence in the universe, terrain modeling and erosion, not being able to tell that something wasn't hand-modeled, changes in the algorithm over time, getting lost in narrow caverns, simple goals that are obvious needs for survival, the excellence of the second-to-second loop of mining and picking up, height modeling for terrain with height maps vs voxels, player goals and having the ability to make them as specific as you want, leaving off the limits in a block game, trading verisimilitude for expressivity, allowing the player to impact everything, simple creativity, continuing the server.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Lost Lake, Trespasser, Phil Salvador, Video Game History Foundation, mors_d, Buck Rogers, Disneyland, Star Trek, Burma Shave, Mad Men, Dwight Eisenhower, Fallout 3, Skyrim, Oblivion, mysterydip, Valheim, Lego, Ravenloft, Picross, Terraria, Final Fantasy VI, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time: End of year review!

Links: Defeating Games for Charity Video Game History Foundation Interview with Phil Salvador

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