Notch steps down as lead developer on Minecraft to focus on 'new project'

by Christopher Grant on Dec 2nd 2011 10:05AM

You know Notch. He's the behatted Swedish developer that eats, breathes, and sleeps Minecraft, right? Well ... he was. Now Mr. Markus "Notch" Persson is relinquishing lead development duties on the massively successful indie game so he can invest his time as head honcho at his growing development house Mojang.

So who's going to take over that high-profile (don't mess up!) spot while Notch starts "work on some new project"? Meet cat-lover Jens Bergensten (pictured), who's no stranger to Minecraft. "We've been working together on Minecraft for a year now, and I'm amazed at how much in synch we two are when it comes to how to design the game," Notch wrote on his Tumblr. "And when we don't agree, we discuss it and something much better comes out at a result. He's truly a great person to work with, and I feel very confident handing over the leadership of Minecraft to him."

In fact, Notch is so confident he's going to take a break for "rest." With the first MineCon convention over, a 1.0 version of Minecraft released, and some four million plus paying users (!) we think he's earned it. But not you, Bergensten. Back to work!

Source: notch.tumblr.com

Tags: jens-bergentsen, mac, Markus-Persson, Minecraft, mojang, Mojang-Specifications, notch, pc

Reader Comments (58)

He looks like a domesticated Aphex Twin.

Man, Notch really worked hard to earn this vacation, what with all the vacationing he'd been doing prior. His vacations must really be stressful if they make him need to step down to take more vacations.

@Copybass Ah jeez zombies

Wow, nice hyperbole there. Clearly taking vacations he deserved after making a massively-successful game is a horrible crime!

@Copybass Ah jeez zombies

Oh, come now.

And what's up with all the negative energy coming from you lately, yo?

@ouenwoof

Notch really did go overboard with the vacations, Minecraft players joke a lot about it.

It's pretty irksome considering the number of half implemented features in the final version, not counting all the promised features that didn't make it into the game.

There is a strong sentiment among many players (myself included) that the way Minecraft was handled was a big waste of potential.

@Shadowbender

I've been watching the world of gaming come crashing down around me, and it's getting a little tiring. I've always been pretty negative, but when every developer is making awful decisions, or ruining their long running series, I get even more negative.

I don't want to see the second crash of gaming come around, but with eternal shovelware being the priority of many companies, and nobody to buy that shovelware, it's getting hard to not see it as the future of gaming.

@Copybass Ah jeez zombies LOL The only way the video game industry would crash if the world economy crashes.

....Which probably will happen. If it doesn't, someone taking extra vacations after making a super successful game will do nothing.

@hami83

The only issue being that he never actually finished the game. Release had very few of the features it was supposed to, and was pushed out on schedule because of Minecon. Notch was constantly on vacation, and kept posting on tumblr and twitter about how hard everything was on him, while Jeb did all the hard work.

But now Notch is off working on a whole new game, without Minecraft being NEARLY complete for release, with NPCs doing nothing in the game...

But Scrolls is still on the way, meaning he's putting out a THIRD project without getting a single one of them working.

That my friend, is shovelware.

@Copybass Ah jeez zombies

I think this may be the most imaginative era in video games we've had yet. When you start seeing GOTY awards roll out again, you'll be reminded that this is a splendid time to be living in, trust me.

@Shadowbender
what are you talking about, not one single game was good this year. now im not saying every game was bad but to say they are good is pretty insulting compared to games released in the past

@Copybass Ah jeez zombies

Hey, leave Scrolls out of this! I thought it was pretty clear from Day 1 that Notch himself had nothing to do with Scrolls. It's the other developers (not Notch, not Jens) at Mojang working on that.

@Arashikou

Oh yeah, I forgot Jeb and Notch aren't working on Scrolls, Bethesda is.

@sydweis

Your kidding right? Portal 2, LA Noire, Ratchet and Clank all for 1, Skyrim, Skyward sword. GTFO if you think there were no "good" games this year.

@sydweis
That's crazy talk!

@Syndicated01

He thinks LA Noire is good! Hah!

I'd quip with a 'laughingcolephelps.jpeg', but we all know Cole Phelps never laughs. Ever.

Deus Ex: HR really surprised me with how good it is, though.

So, you guys don't think we're on the way to a gaming crash when we have an entire console, called the Wii that is pushing out endless waves of shovelware?

@Copybass Ah jeez zombies

No... I dont think so, nor do I think the Wii is indicative of the gaming industry on the whole (though I do understand Micro and Sony both wish their respective consoles were as successful).

PC Gaming isn't pushing out shovelware, Indie games are doing fantastic, with minecraft as an example. This past 3 months: skyrim, bf3, sr3, Batman, etc. I love the current gaming industry...

That picture tells me in no uncertain terms that this man is a god amongst game designers.

He truly created an iconic piece of gaming.

@Alex Oglitchkin

It'll probably work properly now.

@Shadowbender
People don't really think this right? Other than the Notch Defense Force, that is

Well good for him; hope his next project is as successful. Also, I hope this doesn't slow down dev time

Vacations!

I'm a bit disappointed with how Minecraft turned out, but let's hope this guy can match Notch's initial sprints and get Minecraft back on track.

For some reason, I think the cat is the real mastermind behind all this.

@Dashx747
That's what I thought when I first saw the pic. I know our cats basically rule the house. Clever creatures...

That cat is staring into my sooouuuul. And it is daaaark. @_@

Anyway, congrats to Notch for a much needed rest. Usually, these 'sabbaticals' bring about a refreshed and 'new' IP concepts in functionality and gameplay. So I'm definitely welcoming his return, too.

Looks like an image from a fundraiser.

Now that Notch is out of the way can we actually finish the features that are there before adding new ones? Like make the NPCs actually do something.

Lol, glad to see the people whining that "The games not done Notch is still working on it!" was wrong.

Can't wait to be downvoted for saying Minecraft is a bad game

@Sift I don't disagree but I'll downvote you for being a dick about it.

With all respect to Notch for the creation of Minecraft, he's become less and less committed to the game to the point of neglecting it for large periods during it's development in favor of new projects.

Jeb seems to be more committed to Minecraft, so hopefully we'll see more consistent attention given to the game's development.

YESSSSS THANK GOD. Jeb is the one who was working on all the interesting new content and not the arbitrary experience orb stuff.

This here's a story about Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue...

@(Unverified)

Haha

As good as Notch was for Minecraft, I think Jeb's contributions have been better. I look forward to where MC goes with him at the helm.

@Ad134
Agreed, sometimes decisions like this are for the overall good of the game and community. Im sure though the next game Notch creates will be just as successfull.

@That One Guy

I used to like the Arrow to the Knee meme, but then I took an arrow to the knee.

@That One Guy

I used to like Minecraft, but then I took a flint+stick+feather to the knee.

@Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En

I used to have to use Flint+Stick+Feather to make my arrows, but then I realized that the mods make minecraft a complete game.

Now I use Gunpowder+Stick+Feather, and watch as my explosive arrows light up the night.

Notch totally deserves a vacation. Oh wait.

http://i53.tinypic.com/r73yps.png

@Suffca

That only goes to March, you know it's December, right?

@Suffca

See this people? This is the project calendar of a fifty-million dollar company.

@TraceurRyuk Part III

Also, posted updates are an inaccurate way of assessing development time. If a developer posts that they have updated a feature, it is incorrect to assume that it is the only thing they have been working on since the last time an update was listed. Often there will be several features in development at once, and the priority/focus switches based on what needs the attention first and/or what they feel like working on at the time.

@Arturis

Well, we still don't have NPCs working, though mod developers had pretty NPCs, including children, different nationalities (That build different buildings), speech bubbles, and economies right down to NPCs building buildings using items sold to them, and selling items they farmed themselves, years ago.

Even if they DID spend a large amount of time on the game... How can it be that smaller unpaid groups are putting in less time and getting better results?

@Copybass Ah jeez zombies

Oh, I should have pointed out, I'm just as disheartened with the "1.0.0" version of MineCraft as everyone else is, I was only calling attention to the questionable legitimacy of that specific calendar image as proof of a lack of development.

I guess what I'm saying is, it is entirely possible that Notch was incredibly busy for all that non-vacationing time, we just have no proof that it was on anything Minecraft related.

Will there actually be a difference? It's not like jeb had to wade through some approval process anyways

@Fugaku

Will minecraft's development see any changes? No. Because Jeb was already going all the work anyways; and a lot of what he did involved removing Notch's code, and replacing it with clean code.

From what I gathered at Minecon, Jeb seems to have been the one primarily working on the game for a while now. Notch also mentioned that Jeb was better at working with procedurally generated content, which is pretty much the whole game. He also seems like a super nice guy.

Such a great success story. Hats off to that guy.

To the people complaining: you paid some $15 years ago for a game that's been updated with tons of content to no additional cost to you at all. Stop whining.

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Minecraft

Notch steps down as lead developer on Minecraft to focus on 'new project'

Reader Comments (58)

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:11AM Pure Black World Tendency said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:13AM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:21AM ouenwoof said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:24AM Shadowbender said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:35AM Luciano said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:40AM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:48AM hami83 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:50AM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:52AM Shadowbender said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 1:08PM sydweis said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:02PM Arashikou said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:15PM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:47PM Syndicated01 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:52PM Duke said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 4:08PM Haizeus said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 4:10PM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 7:50PM Knoxrun said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:13AM TC said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:20AM Shadowbender said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:41AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:56PM Cave Johnson said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:21AM Fugaku said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:21AM Luciano said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:23AM Dashx747 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:53PM Duke said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:24AM foxhound said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:26AM Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:28AM TraceurRyuk Part III said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:30AM Sift said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:32AM Once known as Shadsy said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:30AM Ceridith said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:32AM Once known as Shadsy said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:37AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:40AM Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:39AM Ad134 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 11:01AM puerrican85 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:52AM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 11:10AM Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 11:14AM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 11:21AM Suffca said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 11:48AM TraceurRyuk Part III said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 11:51AM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 12:13PM Arturis said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 12:31PM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 12:59PM Arturis said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 12:31PM Fugaku said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 12:37PM Copybass Ah jeez zombies said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 1:10PM lsrs said

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Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 1:53PM ouenwoof said

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