Minecraft: Story Mode is the Minecraft movie that never happened

When it seemed Mojang was winding down for the upcoming holiday season, they threw a curveball that no one saw coming. They announced that Telltale Games, a fellow indie game publisher, was developing a spin-off of Minecraft called Minecraft: Story Mode. While not the best name (plenty of people have already confused it for a future Minecraft PC update), it was a clear sign that Mojang was heading in a different direction - most likely influenced by their new owner.

But first, what is Telltale? It's a game studio founded in 2004 from employees of the former LucasArts Studios. Their format of games is different from most of the games industry - they specialize in licensing other companies' movies/TV shows/games and creating spin-off 'episodes' from them. Episodes are essentially interactive stories - almost entirely linear with no ability to split off from the main course of events. That might sound odd - because it is. But they are one of the few companies to pull it off in the games industry.

https://youtu.be/n7boDIPaiEo

TellTale Games has made spin-off games of many well-known movies, TV shows, and games. Their most popular series include The Walking Dead, Back to the Future: The Game,  The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands (seen above), and more. As a matter of fact, they have only published one game with completely original characters - 'Texas Hold'em', their first game that only served as a test for their rendering engine.

Now with the director, and finally Warner Bros, out of making a Minecraft feature-length movie, its up to Telltale to figure out how to make a story out of punching trees and killing walking piles of leaves. I'm eager to see where they take it.