Markus Persson - minecraft.fandom.com
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| — Notch on January 6, 2020[1] |
Markus Alexej Persson, more commonly known under the alias Notch, is the creator of Minecraft and one of the founders of Mojang Studios.
Biography[]
Persson started programming at the age of seven, using his father's Commodore 128. He produced his first game (a text-adventure) at the age of eight, with the help of type-in programs. In 2005 he started working as a game developer for King.com,[3] which he left in 2009 to work as a programmer at Jalbum. He is also one of the founders of Wurm Online.[4] After Minecraft sales grew he moved from full-time to part-time at Jalbum and then eventually left to focus full-time on Minecraft in June 2010; many of the original Mojang employees (including former CEO Carl Manneh) were also ex-Jalbum employees. After the full release of Minecraft (1.0.0), Persson transferred creative authority of the game's development to Jens Bergensten.[5]
Persson sold Mojang and all of its assets to Microsoft on September 15, 2014. In a lengthy blog post, Notch states "I love games and I love to program, but I don't make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don't try to change the world." He then goes on to say that "I've become a symbol. I don't want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don't understand, that I don't want to work on."[6]
Persson left Mojang on November 6, 2014, along with the other founders. He wrote that "as soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I'll probably abandon it immediately."[6]
Persson has not been involved with Minecraft since selling Mojang to Microsoft, and the company has since disassociated with him, with a spokesperson for Microsoft stating that "[Persson's] comments and opinions do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang and are not representative of 'Minecraft'."[7]
Outside of work Persson frequently takes part in competitions, including Ludum Dare, LD12 and the Java 4k Game Programming Contest.
Persson got engaged to Elin Zetterstrand during a vacation in Indonesia,[8][9] and married her on August 13, 2011. The two separated on August 15, 2012.[10] Her brother, Kristoffer, is the artist whose paintings appear in the game.
Leaving Mojang[]
This letter, made by Notch, announces his departure from Mojang.[11]
"I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either. It’s certainly flattering, and to gradually get thrust into some kind of public spotlight is interesting.
A relatively long time ago, I decided to step down from Minecraft development. Jens was the perfect person to take over leading it, and I wanted to try to do new things. At first, I failed by trying to make something big again, but since I decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges, I’ve had so much fun with work. I wasn’t exactly sure how I fit into Mojang where people did actual work, but since people said I was important for the culture, I stayed.
I was at home with a bad cold a couple of weeks ago when the internet exploded with hate against me over some kind of EULA situation that I had nothing to do with. I was confused. I didn’t understand. I tweeted this in frustration. Later on, I watched the "This is Phil Fish" video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had. I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.
As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.
Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don’t expect to get away from negative comments by doing this, but at least now I won’t feel a responsibility to read them.
I’m aware this goes against a lot of what I’ve said in public. I have no good response to that. I’m also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I’m not. I’m a person, and I’m right there struggling with you.
I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can’t be responsible for something this big. In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it’s belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change.
It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity."
Games[]
Notch has released much of his work, including, but not limited to:[12]
- Droj, a multiplayer game.
- DachonB, a gravity based shooter.
- Wurm Online, an MMO featuring sandbox elements similar to Minecraft.
- LogicHex, a hexagonal logic gate builder.
- Infinite Mario Bros, a Super Mario clone featuring an endlessly-long level.
- Takns, a strategy game with tanks.
- Blast Passage, an 8-Bit mashup between Bomberman and Gauntlet.
- TowerFail, a failed attempt at a ludum dare game.
- TinyCham, a dungeon crawler with a 40x30 pixel resolution.
- Eye of the Onlooker II - The Legend of Tinymoon, a sequel to TinyCham.
- Road, a racing game.
- Minecraft, a block game.
- Jack Guzi, a platformer game about a deranged man cleaning his bathroom.
- Muh, a rhythm game.
- Launch, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
- Her, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
- Anttack, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
- Sunshine Bubbles, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
- CatRace, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
- 15m, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
- Herp Fortress, a Team Fortress 2 demake.
- Drop, a typing game that increases in speed as you play.
- Shambles, a hectic shooter greatly inspired by Doom.
- Cliffhorse, an open-ended game in which you play as a horse that can scale cliffs.
Java 4k Games:
- Sonic Racer 4k, a racing game with stolen sprites.
- Dungeon4k, a dungeon exploration game.
- Hunters4k, a first person shooter.
- Miners4k, a game kind of inspired by Lemmings and Diggers.
- Dachon4k, a 4k remake of DachonB.
- l4krits, a Luxor clone.
- t4kns, a real time strategy game.
- Left 4k Dead, a zombie shooter game inspired by Left 4 Dead.
- Left 4k Dead 2, a zombie shooter game inspired by Left 4 Dead 2.
- MEG4kMAN, a Mega Man clone featuring old-school graphics.
- Minecraft 4k, Minecraft in less than 4 KB for a Java 4k competition.
- VVVV, a VVVVVV demake.
Ludum Dare Games:
- Breaking the Tower, a slow-paced strategy game.
- Bunny Press, a violent puzzle game made for Ludum Dare 14.
- The Europa Arcology Incident, an RPG-style game Notch made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 16.
- Metagun, a puzzle game Notch made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 18.
- Prelude of the Chambered, an escape game Notch made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 21.
- Minicraft, a top-down Zelda-esque game with elements from Minecraft, made for Ludum Dare 22.
- Last Minute Christmas Chopping, in which you play as Santa collecting wood to build a sleigh.
- Drowning in Problems, a clicker game that gets progressively more complicated.
2.5D Engines:
- Flashmaze, a first person shooter prototype in flash.
- Flash doom level renderer.
- Dungeon master type game engine in Java.
- Legend of the Chambered, a dungeon crawler containing many textures that were reused in Minecraft.
- Legend of the Chambered 2, an updated version of Legend of the Chambered.
- City, an engine and walking test with walls.
- HL2RPG, a Java Dungeon Master like prototype which uses Half-Life 2 assets.
Notch also has a soundcloud page which includes 53 tracks in total. He would sometimes use his music on his old YouTube channel Nizzotch.
Unreleased[]
BitSeven Productions:
Information from this set of images,[13] verified through a 2011 article on Engadget[14]:
- 3D1, a free-roaming engine based on Wolfenstein.
- Ruby, a free-scrolling engine inspired by JRPGs.
- ISOM, an isometric renderer test which included a random terrain generator.
- Turbo, an "over-the top side scrolling shooter".
- IQ Ball 2, a sequel to IQ Ball, where the object of the game is to get a ball safely to the goal, and in which all balls are moved when a directional key is pressed.
- HEDE, a platformer that involved shooting slimes with a gun.
- HEDE 2, the sequel to HEDE, albeit top-down instead of a platformer.
- Rubylands x, a tile based roguelike.
- RUBYLAND, a "first person tile based dungeon crawler".
- Howl, "a Megaman-type game".
- STRAT, inspired by Dune 2.
Other:
- Rubylands, a fantasy group manager.
- RubyDung, a Dwarf Fortress-inspired game containing textures that were reused in Minecraft.
- Zombie Town, a GTA: Chinatown Wars-inspired game containing models that were reused in Minecraft.
- Legend of the Chambered - Book 1, an unfinished TinyGame2010 submission.
- The Tiny Vikings, another unfinished TinyGame2010 submission.
- Super Me4k Boy, a super meat boy demake.
- Brickcraft, a sandbox game developed in collaboration with the LEGO group.
- Santa vs Cthulhu, a real time strategy game where you play as either Santa or Cthulhu.
- Minitale, a sequel to Minicraft.
- 0x10c, a space sandbox game featuring programmable spacecraft.
Gallery[]
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Notch on his phone.
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Notch wearing his iconic black fedora.
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Notch smiling.
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Notch with his fans at MinecraftCon 2010.
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Notch using his computer.
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Notch (left) and Seananners (right) at the Machinima Realm Minecraft Interview; February 11, 2011.
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Notch unboxing his new hat.
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At MINECON 2011.
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Notch at the 2016 Game Developers Conference.
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Notch's skin in Minecraft.
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Notch sneaking around in Minecraft.
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Notch wearing his Mojang cape.
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Notch's one-of-a-kind hat in the game Team Fortress 2, given to him by the developers.
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Notch in a cartoon style.
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Notch's Xmas 2011 Twitter icon.
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Notch icon on Adweek's The Top 10 Technologists.
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Notch at the Game Developers Conference 2011
Games[]
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3D1
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Turbo
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IQ Ball 2
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Ruby
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Fight screen in Ruby
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Hede
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Terrain in Hede
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Attacking in Hede
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Rubyland
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Rubylands X
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Gameplay of Rubylands X
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ISOM
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Howl
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Strat
Trivia[]
- On June 1, 2011, Notch posted on Twitter that he was 25 years old.[15] 25 is 32, which was his age at the time.
- Notch programmed the Minecraft splash screen to display "Happy Birthday, Notch!" all day on June 1. This was removed in Java Edition 1.8.5.
See also[]
- Kristoffer - Former brother-in-law
- The Word of Notch - Former blog
- Nizzotch - Former YouTube channel
External links[]
References[]
- ↑ "Imagine countless wiki editors all using each others work as basis for their own, reasoning what must be true from what they already assume is. Wouldn't that make for a weird reality?" – @notch (Markus Persson) on X, January 6, 2020
- ↑ "Turning 30 is scary." (archived) – The Word of Notch, May 27, 2009.
- ↑ "Interview: Markus 'Notch' Persson Talks Making Minecraft" by Alex Handy – Gamasutra, 23 March 2010.
- ↑ "Minecraft Mastermind Markus Persson To Receive Bafta Special Award" by Kristoff Clark – Gamasutra, 5 March 2012.
- ↑ "Notch steps down as lead developer on Minecraft to focus on 'new project'" by Christopher Grant – Joystiq, 2 December 2011.
- ↑ a b I'm leaving Mojang - Notch.net; September 15, 2014
- ↑ "‘Minecraft’ Creator Excluded From Anniversary Due to ‘Comments and Opinions’ (EXCLUSIVE)" by Brian Crecente – Variety, April 19, 2019.
- ↑ "We actually got engaged in your country :D Indonesia is very beautiful!" - ez on Twitter; June 7, 2011
- ↑ "Illness!" (archived) – The Word of Notch, September 30, 2009.
- ↑ "As of today, I am single. #mixedemotions" – @notch (Markus Persson) on X, August 15, 2012
- ↑ https://genius.com/Markus-persson-im-leaving-mojang-annotated?bagon=1
- ↑ https://theintraclinic.com/archive/
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20110320152953/http://imgur.com/a/B5WkP
- ↑ https://www.engadget.com/2011-03-17-minecraft-creator-provides-a-walkthrough-of-his-earlier-works.html
- ↑ "It's my birthday, and I'm turning 2^5 today! ez got me saké (for later) and breakfast (for now). :D <3" – @notch (Markus Persson) on X, June 1, 2011






























