Reminder time! As we mentioned in a previous post, Jinx are running a Minecraft-themed t-shirt competition with loads of amazing prizes up for grabs. Get all the details on Jinx.com.
The closing date for submissions has been extended to June 3, 2013, 11:59 PM PDT, so there’s plenty of time for you to get designing, and win one of these prizes:
5 Grand Prize Winners each get:
$500 Cash
iPad Mini
Minecraft Pocket Edition
5 Winning Design Contest Tees
J!NX Minecraft Prize Package:
1 Minecraft Lego Set
6 Minecraft Tees of Choice
1 Minecraft Poster of Choice
10 Runner Up Winners get:
$100 J!NX Minecraft Gift Code
1 Winning Design Arcade Tee of Choice
2 Minecraft Tees of Choice
Remember, this is a themed competition – it’s all about the “Unsung Heroes of Minecraft” – so you’ll need to think carefully about your entry before submitting. It should be mostly concerned with Ghasts, Squids, Wolves, Enderdragons, Ocelots, Blazes, Sheep, Iron Golems or Mooshrooms. You can still include the more prominent members of the Minecraft cast in your design, but the littler guys should be the main subject of the image.
The good chaps at J!NX are back with another competition! This time they’re looking for t-shirt illustrations that celebrate the “Unsung Heroes of Minecraft.” Forget about Creepers and Steve for this one: it’s about ocelots, iron golems, and sheep; the smaller guys that sometimes get forgotten.
You’ll need to submit your entry before June 4th, and follow the guidelines listed on Jinx.com to qualify. Do that successfully and you could be in the running for these generous prizes:
5 Grand Prize Winners will each get:
$500 Cash
iPad Mini
Minecraft Pocket Edition
5 Winning Design Contest Tees
J!NX Minecraft Prize Package:
1 Minecraft Lego Set
6 Minecraft Tees of Choice
1 Minecraft Poster of Choice
10 Runner Up Winners will be awarded with:
$100 J!NX Minecraft Gift Code
1 Winning Design Arcade Tee of Choice
2 Minecraft Tees of Choice
That’s it for now. Check Jinx.com for the details, and get creative! Have a good day!
First, we are very happy to announce that Minecraft – Pocket Edition has sold more than 10 million copies as of yesterday. We are very thankful to all the support that we have gotten and people playing and talking about our game.
So…I know what you are thinking. “Yeah, 10m is cool but where is the next update?” We have been working hard on restructuring the backend of a lot of things for Minecraft – Pocket Edition to make future updates smoother. For instance, you can now change options without jumping back to the main menu. What you can also notice is that we have in one of our menues (more to come in the future) an experimental title where we will put in features that will work for more high end devices. The reason to put in in experimental is because we first want to test out features before making them default on.
One other big thing we have been working on is Minecraft Realms. You can read what it is here. Short story: Minecraft Realms is a cloud service that lets players play together in a more convenient manner :) No need to be online at the same time to build on your project.The basic functions for Realms are in place but there is some tweaking to be done. In the first phase of the Pocket Realms we are going to limit it to the amount of servers that people are able to create. We won’t charge you for anything and it is basically first-come first-serve. We want to make sure things work before releasing it to everyone :)
When will I get the update?
The plan is to have it out by the end of May. We hope that we won’t run into some nasty bugs with the work we have currently done, but I will keep you posted on how it goes :)
Minecraft Papercraft Studio just got cuter! You might remember us mentioning the app a few months ago: it gives you the chance to print out a template of your avatar skin before crafting it into a real-life model. Rewarding stuff for crafty Minecrafters.
Now Papercraft Studio includes templates for 18 mobs, giving you the chance to create an exotic diorama with your favourite Minecraft friends/enemies. They’ve also patched in support for armour, and tweaked the menus to make things a bit easier to use.
To celebrate the update, the nice chaps at 57digital have knocked $1 off the price of their apps for the next week. That includes Papercraft Studio, Skin Studio, and Minecraft Explorer Pro. All apps currently cost $1.99 USD/€1,79 EUR/£1.49 GBP.
Oh, and here’s a gif of a papercraft sheep for your viewing pleasure. Click it for the relevant app store link. Have a great weekend!
We have a double feature for you today. Not only are we releasing a 1.5.2 pre-release but there’s also another weekly snapshot for 1.6 to get your hands on!
First up, the 1.5.2 pre-release. We’ve decided to put out a small bug fix update to address some minor issues that players are having in 1.5.1, and you can test it out before it goes live! A full list of fixes are as follows:
Next up, we have the snapshot! Not too much has changed on the surface since 13w17a as most of our efforts are focused on the launcher currently, but there’s a few cool things you’ll want to check out:
Added a new “Hardened Clay” block
Added extra tooltip info in the search tab for the creative inventory
Made deserts more deserty
Zombies made slightly more sociable
Bug fixes!
You’ll need to (re-)download the new launcher to grab the snapshot.
Update (23rd): Released ‘b’ snapshot for crash fixes!
Hey hey!
It’s time for us to release the first snapshot from the development of 1.6. This version of Minecraft comes with huge changes to the base technology of the game. For instance, starting from Minecraft 1.6, we will build the game for Java 6 instead of Java 5. We are also aiming to raise the required OpenGL version to 2.0 (from 1.2 / 1.3, that Minecraft 1.5 and prior versions are using). Additionally we are working on a new launcher that will support these libraries, and also come with a bunch of new features such as version changing, detailed game settings, and so on.
It will obviously take a few more weeks to get everything in place, so please let us hear your opinions on the new technology and launcher. Send tweets to either @Dinnerbone, @_grum, or @jeb_, or make a post on r/minecraftsuggestions.
This snapshot in bullet point form:
Added horses, based on the work of John Olarte (DrZhark), of Mo’ Creatures fame
Added hay bales
Added leashes
Added carpets
The “Respiration” enchantment now also helps seeing underwater
To get the snapshot, use the new launcher available in the link below. To return to 1.5.1, simply start the old launcher and play as normal.
Minecraft PC edition is about to hit 10,000,000 sales. I don’t know about you guys, but we’re really excited about this major milestone in Minecraft history. We decided that this would be the perfect time to announce our next upcoming title, “Minecraft 2″.
Hopefully releasing within the next two months, this 2-years-in-development game will be bringing blocky simulation games to the next level. Whilst based off the original Minecraft engine, this new version completely overhauls major parts of the game and contains many weeks worth of new content and blocks. Currently in closed beta stage, we have secretly been working with a select few members of the community to participate and trial run some specific features from the new version. Neither Mojang nor Minecraft would be where it is today without its community, so we felt it fitting that we let them make the trailer videos and announcements for us, which are visible below.
Whilst we aren’t nearly finished with the 2.0 update, we do have a partial changelog of what we’ve done so far. There’s much more to come, this is only the beginning!
Gameplay
Added new Super Hostile game mode, for a much more challenging Survival experience.
Difficulty setting is now per-world and may never be changed once set.
Added new graphics setting “Ultra Realistic” with new patent-pending experimental 4D-rendering.
Added new chase-style 3D camera perspective.
Animals
Added new realistic food/hunger system to animals.
Overfeeding animals may have a negative effect on gameplay.
Added a new “Horse” animal, with two different breeds to choose from.
Each animal now has a gender and personality, introducing new farming mechanics.
Added a new rare breed of chicken known as a “Diamond Chicken”.
May lay diamonds or lapis instead of laying eggs.
May also blow up from too much pressure. Handle with care.
Added new friendly Pink Wither, which is the complete opposite of a wither.
Shoots out Love, which heals the nearby land and causes things to grow faster.
Known bug: Having both a Pink Wither and a Wither in your world at the same time may cause up to a 200% increase in framerate. Will be fixed for launch.
All animals may be fed Golden Apples to unleash their hidden magical properties (see new Magic section).
Chickens are now classified as a Monster and are no longer a friendly Animal.
Monsters
Chickens do not appreciate being looked at and may get upset.
Attacking a lone chicken may summon additional chickens to its defense.
Zombie Pigmen now spawn with battlesigns and no longer use swords.
Fixed a bug causing Skeletons to miss their targets on occasion.
Added new Redstone Bug monster (see Redstone section).
Blocks
Furnaces have a new “heat” mechanic.
Heat needs to be regulated in furnaces or they will blow up.
Torches now burn out after a period of time, but may be relit with flint and steel.
Added new TNT slab, known as an Etho Slab.
Renamed Droppers to floppers, by popular community demand.
Droppers were deemed too powerful and go against our original vision of the game.
Floppers now turn everything that passes through them into raw fish (see Fishing section).
Added six (6) new decoration blocks:
Mud.
Hay bales.
Lapis Lazuli.
Slime blocks.
Added new compressed storage blocks for commonly mined ores:
Coal Block.
Lapis Lazuli Block.
Redstone Block Block.
Lapis may now be used for new Lapis furniture.
Added dyed glass.
Walking over many blocks will gradually wear them down, creating many new block variants such as Cracked Stone and Muddy Grass.
Redstone
Removed all BUD behaviour, and added safeguards so that it may never come back.
Made redstone bugs spawn actual Redstone Bugs to assist with debugging.
Added new Quantum Entangled redstone, obtained by mixing 1 redstone, 1 diamond and 3 lapis.
One entangled redstone dust will connect to another pair elsewhere.
No current way of specifying the connection, may in fact connect to another player’s world.
Added new BUD blocks.
Magic
Added new Magic and Luck levels per player.
Finding a Rainbow after rain passes will be the primary way of obtaining Magic.
Finding a green-tinted horse will be the primary way of obtaining Luck.
Added new spell system, costing magic to perform a spell.
Spells may backfire, depending on Luck.
Examples of new spells include:
Turn any item into Fish.
Turn current biome into another biome (bug: currently only turns into ocean).
Ability to remove gravity from other creatures/players in the world.
Fishing
Overhauled fishing mechanics.
New special types of fish may be found in various different biomes.
Fish may become scared if too much noise is made nearby.
Added 28 new achievements for fishing.
Rare chance for extra items to drop when fishing, such as armor and maps.
Removed fishing.
Having a fish in your possession will drain your health by 1 each second, to help phase out fishing.
Combat
Removed crossbows.
To deter cheating players on PvP servers, the PvP system has been completely redesigned.
Players may no longer attack other players directly, but must recruit an army of Monsters and Animals.
Each monster/animal has different strengths, weaknesses and abilities whilst attacking or defending in PvP combat.
New turn-based combat system will help create epic battles that may last hours at a time.
World generation & terrain
Added many new mysterious adventuring locations.
Added 6 new biomes.
Reimplemented the Farlands.
Going near the farlands will forcefully enable 3d anaglyph.
Known bug: Teleporting towards the farlands may send you half way in the opposite direction.
Added dozens of new village building templates.
Flattened all terrain out slightly, with the exception of the hills biome to make it seem bigger by contrast.
