"After our experiences with HoloLens, we were incredibly keen to bring Minecraft to the real world - not just to your table, but to your street corner, your park, the water fountain, and allow people to be completely immersed with it," said Olafsson. It wasn't until the latest generation of mobile devices widely supported AR capabilities, 60fps, good tracking, and the ability to play without overheating the phone in a few minutes, that something like that prototype became viable in the form of Minecraft Earth. That prototype, and the HoloLens in general, never made it to the mainstream. They were then able to manipulate the world and view it from numerous different angles. At E3 2015, Microsoft showed off a demo of HoloLens during its stage presentation in which one person played Minecraft normally using the lens, and the other was able to see an augmented reality version of the world the first player was in on the table in front of them. On the technical side, Minecraft Earth is the natural offshoot of another prototype we've already seen. Minecraft Earth effectively has two origins: a conceptual, and a technical. Olafsson (left) and Zahn (right) stand by a pre-made Build Plate But it's also part-AR adventure game and part-creative space, where players can take the found Tappables and build them into Minecraft creations anywhere: on the table in front of them, in their living room, or even in the middle of a public park.Īt a hands-on preview last month, I spoke with game director Torfi Olafsson and briefly with principal program manager Jessica Zahn on the game's inspirations, technological challenges, monetization concerns, and the global spirit the team at Mojang wants to infuse into Minecraft's foray onto mobile devices. It contains some similar elements, such as exploring the real world and collecting in-game items that correspond to real spaces ("Tappables," which contain recognizable Minecraft blocks and items). It's a dance that probably looked to outside observers not unlike (but perhaps more ridiculous than) the odd movements of crowds chasing virtual monsters during the overwhelmingly popular launch of Pokémon Go.īut Minecraft Earth, despite at first glance looking a bit like Pokémon Go in that it's a location-based, AR-using adventure, is something entirely different. If you happened to pass by a certain park in Seattle last month, you might have seen myself, a few Minecraft representatives, and a few other journalists awkwardly pacing, crouching, and waving our phones close to the ground or in circles around us.
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