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Minecraft's success surprises the indie gaming world

By Nick Mutschler

On May 1, 2011

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Indie video games are rarely a huge success. They typically grow a niche crowd and maintain a small but loyal fanbase. Small time developer Markus Perssons has begun to change this pattern though with the release of his first game, Minecraft, which is solely developed by him. The computer game has currently sold over 1.7 million copies since its release on May 17, 2009.

The game is only available on Perssons website and is sold for $21. The game places the user in an old-school, pixelated world. The game focuses on player creativity, giving players unlimited power to build structures in a Lego style format. Players use square blocks of materials like dirt, gravel, and clay to construct caves, towers, and fortresses. Other than building to to your hearts content, the goal is to avoid being killed by creatures that come out after the sun goes down.

"The game is great but really overwhelming. There is no end, and really no objective. Its all on the user to play it as they see fit," said Lane Johnson, a 16-year-old student at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville.

Persson never expected to make a living off Minecraft, or that it would grow into the success it is today. Once he was able to sell 15 copies a day, it was enough for him to make a living, Persson said in an interview with Businessweek. He has certainly topped the mere 15 copies a day. Minecraft now sells approximately 7000 copies daily.

Minecraft has earned avid reviews from critics. The gaming website, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, named Minecraft "Game of the Year" for 2010 and website Gamasutra named it eighth best game of the year for 2010.

"The game is pure creativity with almost no limitations. There are so many different building blocks that the variation in structures is crazy," said Analise Amaro, an 18-year-old from Gaithursburg.

Persson has now started a new gaming company in Stockholm called Mojang. He and his newly formed seven employee team is further developing Minecraft, They are also working on a new game which he describes as a mix of the tabletop game Risk, and the collectable card game Magic the Gathering.

"I can definitely see why he (Perssons) would be looking to create a strategy game for his next project. People will now flock to anything he makes because of the success of Minecraft. Usually online card games look to microtransactions to obtain new cards and abilities. In other words, people will buy digital cards to continue to be competitive," said Andrew Tran, a Masters student at Carnegie Mellon University.

Mojang is planning to bring Minecraft to the iPhone and Android phones sometime this year, according to their website.