Read Minecraft's Earliest Plans Shared 9 Years Ago Today

Minecraft celebrates its nine-year anniversary today, and a look at the earliest plans for the [...]

Minecraft
(Photo: Mojang)

Minecraft celebrates its nine-year anniversary today, and a look at the earliest plans for the building game show just how far it's come.

Nine years ago today on May 17, 2009, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson took to the TIGForums to share the alpha version of the building game that's now become a household name. Notch shared a link on the forums that led to a Minecraft applet as he shared some warnings about the game and listed off some of the inspirations for the blocky building game.

"It's an alpha version, so there might be crashes. You can read some background and insight on my blog available from the game page," Notch wrote on the forums. "The main inspiration for this game is Infiniminer, but it's going to move in a more Dwarf Fortress way, gameplay wise."

Others tried out the applet and responded to Notch with what could be considered some of the earliest reviews of Minecraft. One of the first replies commented on the sense of exploration that came with Minecraft with a user saying that they dug through the ground and suddenly ended up in a cave. They also asked about the possibility of including a multiplayer component, a question that was perfectly reasonable back then but almost seems absurd to think of now seeing how interconnected the Minecraft community is with the game on every platform imaginable.

Notch replied once again in the post with a breakdown of what he'd like to see added in the game. Both Creative and Survival mode were included in the earliest plans, the two core modes that have stood the test of time as the main options that every Minecraft players has to choose between. Below are all the different game modes that Notch originally planned for the game:

Creative mode

  • You've got infinite materials and build without any delay. Can be played both as singleplayer and as multi player.
  • You can share the maps with other players somehow. Perhaps just share the actual .level file manually?

Survival mode

  • Singleplayer / cooperative. You have a health bar and need to eat in order to keep healthy. You have to gather the materials you wish to use, and construction takes time. Mining through stone is slower than through dirt.
  • Monsters, animals, play on levels made in Creative mode, or play on random levels.
  • Does this mode need a goal?

Team survival mode

  • Same as Survival mode, except players are divided into two or more teams.

Fortress mode

  • After having built a level in Creative or Survival mode, you and your friends connect to another fortress made by some other people. The map gets bigger so it fits both maps, and you play a game on this map. Perhaps Capture the Flag, perhaps something else.

Minecraft has already gone far beyond these game modes in the past nine years with the game just recently getting the first phase of its Update Aquatic content that revitalizes the game's oceans and aquatic life. It's broken records and found its way into most gamers' collections in the past nine years and doesn't look as though it's going anywhere anytime soon, so we'll look forward to revisiting Notch's earliest notes for more years to come.

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