Minecraft documentary arriving early December
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
2 Player Productions aiming to release "Minecraft: The Story of Mojang" on December 7; to be available on DVD and digitally.
Gamers eager to learn more about one of the independent development scene's biggest success stories may want to make some time in early December. That's when Minecraft: The Story of Mojang will release on DVD and digitally, director Paul Owens told Eurogamer.
Owens said the film is expected to land December 7, but that date is not finalized. The documentary began its life as a Kickstarter project from 2 Player Productions in February 2011 and surpassed its $150,000 target, raking in a total of $210,297 when it closed in March of that year.
2 Player Productions is also working on a documentary concerning Mojang's new game Scrolls, as well as a feature-length film with Double Fine about its upcoming Kickstarter-funded adventure game.
Minecraft: The Story of Mojang follows Notch and documents the challenges he faced during the company's first year of existence. It addresses the massive success of Minecraft, and also features insight from journalists and industry professionals.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
24 comments
That is not a very flattering shot of the reverend designer himself, antiquated water heater a fixture as it is of what appears to be a run-down old apartment...
1 Like It's amazing how something small turned out into a big success. I like how the results were. Keep up the great work.
3 Like ooooh godly facepalm. Everyone is like erhmahgerd indie stuff gotta make merchandise and movies and sh*t. The story goes like this: failed "developer" wants to make a game. Finds infiniminer, likes the idea, gets the source code, modifies it and releases it as a simplistic game a few weeks later.
Gets money, money makes stuff better, so the game is slowly improved, while being fed with money. The game sells a few million copies. End of story.
Why the damn documentary?
2 Like @grgcucu What happened, all your friends leave you to play Minecraft?
It's not who does it first: it's who does it better. Notch didn't rip off Inifininer any more than people have been ripping off Super Mario Bros for decades. Take your hate somewhere else.
@FarmFreshDX i wasn't bashing minecraft. I was bashing the fact that they made a documentary on this guy
Gaming, and pop culture in general, needs movies like these. Just to show the raw creativity that goes into game creation AND the struggles of indie devs. Not every game dev is some multi-billion dollar corporation with share-holders and lobbyists.
2 Like @nate1222 I understand what youre saying but we are way past the point where gaming needs a spotlight to get to the people (an industry of about 1 billion costumers). Do indie artist deserve more stage time? Hell yeah. Does a documentary about them crying and living with there mother really forward their interests? You tell me, would you like to buy a product out of pity or cause its good? Large companies like Valve are starting to take the indie market seriously, does it really help to see these guys in pajamas having fits?I completely agree that the indie market is beautiful today, but these documentary are usually not that interested in the gaming pan but in the humane one where creators are depicted as young, restless and inexperienced.Personally I would love to see a series of docs where developers talk about how they got in the business technically - that would be amazing.
2 Like On some grounds, I agree with you. Indie Game The Movie featured rather stereotypical "gamers" with rather unlikable personalities*. I'm aware that not every indie dev is like that, but they seemed to go outa their way to select those precise types. Which is why I feel we need more movies with -less 'typically socially inept'- devs featured in them.
And I buy out of interest.I own Braid (DRM-free, via Gamersgate) simply because it's good. Same for Mutant Mudds (DRM-free, via GOG). Super Meat Boy looks good, but I'm holding off. And the recently issues regarding FEZ has me waiting a bit.
*"When he touched the world...it shattered" = power fantasy. Dude was an all-too-typical infantile nerd. And the FEZ dev's dissing of Japanese games put me off pretty bad. Despite their creativity, these are people I wouldn't like if I knew them.
Eddie, the project with Double Fine is a documentary series not a feature-length film. They have already released five episodes of it to the backers. It is episodic with each one being in the range of 30 minutes (one of them was a double episode clocking in closer to 45 minutes).
1 Like if this movie only focuses on the technical aspect of starting a business in the gaming industry it would be very interesting. If they are just gonna cry for half of the movie like Indie Game then pass.
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