0x10c, a new game by Notch

[CeeKay]

after winning a BAFTA this weekend, Notch did an interview with the BBC where he revealed his next game:

“I think I’m going to make a space game, where you’re a guy on a spaceship and you have adventures in space.”

granted, he has also said he has 3 projects in the works, so that could change, plus someone else is already doing a Minecraft-in-Space game, so maybe it will be less 'build your world' and more flight sim/actiony.

[Sparhawk]

Oh dear lord...

The learning curve will be more difficult than that other guys space game...

[CeeKay]

Notch speaks a little bit more about the space game.

While he’s still deciding exactly what he wants to work on, he told us that he’d quite like to do a sandbox space trading game like Elite, “except done right.”

Notch is aiming for something with a bit more character than the classic trading sim. Instead of being the spaceship, you’d be a character inside the spaceship. “I want the space game that’s more like Firefly,” he said. “I want to run around on my ship and have to put out a fire. Like, oh crap, the cooling system failed, I have to put out the fire here.”

“The goal is to do it the same way I did Minecraft,” he added. “Just basically have me work on it for a while, and then we’ll add people as needed, and try to charge as soon as possible, because it’s probably going to be open ended sandbox game as well, so it doesn’t need to be completed before people can play it.”

we should also have a name soon, he's being careful this time 

[Razgon]

His new game is called " Elder Paper Space Fighter"

[Purge]

His new game is called " Elder Paper Space Fighter"

Wing Commandeer : Massive Starcrafting Effect

[Destructor]

His new game is called " Elder Paper Space Fighter"

Wing Commandeer : Massive Starcrafting Effect

Master of Space: Tie Orion Fighter Quest.

[TiLT]

He should make some kind of jousting game called "Dragoon Age".

[CeeKay]

Mars Effect!

Spoiler for Hiden:

April Fools!

[CeeKay]

OK, official site is up: http://0x10c.com/

[Caine]

probably not the best name.  sounds like a windows error message

[CeeKay]

first screenie:



check out that FPS!

[CeeKay]

even more screenshots:

[EngineNo9]

Clearly it's way too early to be releasing screenshots.  That looks like just throwing random crap in a DirectX SDK demo or something.

[raydude]

Has anyone else noticed that he's putting a lot of effort into this DPU-16 computer? An emulated 16-bit CPU that can be programmed via assembly language from which you can create higher-level languages? I guess that's fun but I would hope there is a way to import code that other people have created so I don't have to do that myself.

[CeeKay]

Has anyone else noticed that he's putting a lot of effort into this DPU-16 computer? An emulated 16-bit CPU that can be programmed via assembly language from which you can create higher-level languages? I guess that's fun but I would hope there is a way to import code that other people have created so I don't have to do that myself.

yeah, having to type in programs and do the hit or miss style of programming doesn't sound too fun.

[CeeKay]

trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PlfRh9Tqeec

[Tals]

Has anyone else noticed that he's putting a lot of effort into this DPU-16 computer? An emulated 16-bit CPU that can be programmed via assembly language from which you can create higher-level languages? I guess that's fun but I would hope there is a way to import code that other people have created so I don't have to do that myself.

This is the part of the game I don't get. I love the space stuff but the processor aspect sounds like it could take over the game which would be bad IMHO.

[Turtle]

Eh, it's a programmer's kind of game really.

[Tals]

Eh, it's a programmer's kind of game really.

I'm missing something really fundamental here

Hi, I'm Notch, and this is my new game. It's going to be a space game, and it's quite ambitious!

I had always viewed the programming aspect to be side entertainment but if it's the game and the space game is tacked on I'm out of here

[Clanwolfer]

I like it.

His whole point doesn't seem to be that it's a game about controlling a spaceship - instead, it's that you play a guy, who's stuck ON a spaceship. You got sent out into a universe with a ship that could only do so much, and now there are limited and dwindling resources to boot. So it's thematically almost the opposite of Minecraft - where there you had an abundance of everything and if it was gone you just had to go find more, here you'll have a scarcity of everything and how well you use it will probably be determining your success.

The computer is a key part of that - he wants it to be more realistic, harder science fiction, and so it's no so realistic to have the guy you're playing always sitting at an old-school joystick just controlling things every hour of every day. Instead, you'll probably have some baseline programs, but they won't be very good or efficient, just enough to scrape by - so real success will come to the folks who are either talented (by making their ships work better, and increasing their margins for error) or clever (putting together programs/algorithms in a new way to do things with their resources nobody else is) or just plain stubborn (by staying logged in as many hours as possible and letting their computer handle/screw up a bare minimum).

At least - that's how I'm filtering Notch's comments into my perfect universe. 

[Rumpy]

Eh, it's a programmer's kind of game really.

I'm missing something really fundamental here

Hi, I'm Notch, and this is my new game. It's going to be a space game, and it's quite ambitious!

I had always viewed the programming aspect to be side entertainment but if it's the game and the space game is tacked on I'm out of here

Yeah, I'm worried that the programming part of it might be too much. It's likely to be very much the opposite of Minecraft, where this is very much a niche game, weighed down by its complexity. And while the processor is very neat and very innovative, I do have to wonder how much of a game there will be.

[Isgrimnur]

There are some programmers that don't look forward to the idea of doing the same thing we do for work when we get home.

[raydude]

There are some programmers that don't look forward to the idea of doing the same thing we do for work when we get home.

I was about to chime in that I sort of fall into that group. But then I thought - what if Notch also modeled ship sensors such that we could program the computer to take readings of a planet to find out its material composition, atmosphere, and whether it contained biological life? That would be pretty cool, and would at least give me some insight into what the guys who write instrument flight software code have to deal with.

[Isgrimnur]

Yeah, I can see something like that having a bit of appeal. I'll wait and see what the consensus is after its been out a while.

[CeeKay]

development is now on hold.

"It's just some kind of weird creative block that's been going on for too long," Persson said, "and [0x10c] is going to be put on ice until we can fix that. I'm very excited about the actual game. We have two prototypes going on now. It's not really fun yet, but it feels like it could be fun because there's nothing to do in there yet."

[msduncan]

I have never been excited or impressed with this game under development.     Minecraft even now is an incomplete game with no goals that happens to be fun.    This game will turn out to be an incomplete game with no goals that is NOT fun.

Lightening in a bottle is what Notch caught, and good for him!     My prediction is that he will never catch it in a bottle again.

[Turtle]

I still don't consider minecraft all that good of a game. It got people's attention early, but its poor gameplay is a clear indicator that you don't let programmers do all the game design, it seems like his entire company is made of programmers doing game design.

It's why they thought that Scrolls was going to be a good idea, when really it's just another CCG.

Thankfully, Notch has just a small team and earned plenty of money to keep going on whatever projects he wants, so good on him.