Editorial: Attack of the (Minecraft) Clones

Infiniminer, the game that inspired Notch to make Minecraft.

Many people play so-called 'Minecraft clone' video games. This genre of video games was created by Infiniminer, a game that inspired Notch to develop Minecraft. The goal of this game was to dig and find precious metals and minerals, then return to the surface to add points to your team (it was designed to play with other people). Not surprisingly, more people found it more enjoyable to build things than actually play the game. Zachtronics, developer of Infiniminer, stopped working on the game less than a month after it's first release in April 2009. Notch decided to design a game similar to Infiniminer, but more designed for creating  objects. And so the game we call Minecraft was born.

Fast forward two years later to Minecon and the release of Minecraft 1.0. By this time, many game companies and individuals have created games 'inspired' by Minecraft. The definition of 'inspired' varies greatly, because some games are more original than others. For example, a video game that has Minecraft textures and in-game music stolen from the Inception soundtrack clearly isn't very original. But some games have enough original content to the point where they are identified as a different game, and not a 'Minecraft Clone'.

So, let's take a look at a few games inspired by Minecraft. First up is Minetest-c55, a game that at first glance looks like Minecraft, but different. The textures are different, the background is different, and the interface is different. This game is also still in development, like Minecraft is. Another game is Cubeworld, a game similar to Minecraft, but also not. It's online and a 'Free-to-play' game, which Notch has clearly stated he hates. Another is Detonate, a game that you build and destroy. Like Minecraft, you can build almost anything you want, but then you watch it blow up. I have only scratched the surface of games that resemble Minecraft, and you should use Google if you want to find more (you can start here).