Editiorial: Attack of the Clones

Minecraft is without a doubt one of the most influential indie video games ever created. And as with nearly every great game, there are plenty of rip-offs and clones that other developers have made. Although some of them add features that Minecraft doesn't have, and are unique games with their own design, there's no denying that there are thousands of games built around the concept of surviving in a world with blocks.

Minecraft itself isn't original, as a matter of fact it's the result of about four different video games. In 2009, game developer Zachary Barth created a game based on the ideas and design of Infinifrag, Team Fortress (the original Quake mod, not the full game), and Motherload by XGen Studios. He named his new game Infiniminer, and was a game that the player had to dig tunnels through randomly generated maps collecting resources. Sound familiar?

Infiniminer was originally going to be a competitive game, where your team competed with another for the world's resources. However, most players were more interested in building structures, and Zachary focused on the survival aspect. The game was written in a combination of C# and Microsoft .NET, and due to the developer incorrectly securing the code in the released version, the entire game's source code was leaked online. Less than a month afterwards, Zach discontinued development of the game while other developers created mods and hacked clients. The source code is currently available at the developer's Google Code site. The game eventually faded away in popularity, but the developer has stated that he thinks Minecraft is "awesome."

Notch was heavily inspired by Infiniminer, and initially created Minecraft as an infiniminer clone. The game grew popularity, and the rest is history. Minecraft grew farther than Infiniminer ever has, and has inspired countless games. Minecraft clones usually can be divided into two 'sections', those that copy the entire gameplay of Minecraft, and those that only mimic the blocky design. Games that fall into the first category include games like SurvivialCraft, BlockScape, and Terraria. Games that fall into the second category include Ace of Spades, Blockade Runner, and Guncraft.

Although a good number of Minecraft 'clones' are very good games and add a unique twist to the blocky realms, there are many more that are terrible copies that pale in comparison to Minecraft. These are especially apparent on mobile app stores, and on consoles like the Xbox 360 and PS3 before Minecraft was released for those platforms. So before you go to say that Minecraft is an original game, remember Infiniminer and the games that inspired it.