Minecraft Dev Looks Towards Multiplayer, Narrative in Future Releases

Minecraft is certainly doing very well for developer Markus Persson, whose hit success was netting him some pretty crazy money, especially for a small indie developer.

Speaking in an interview with Develop, Persson (aka Notch) gave a small glimpse into the future of the game, hinting at multiplayer and a full narrative when it gets released fully.

Asked how he would keep people engaged over time, Persson replied: Once we get the company up and running, we can hopefully ramp up development speed a bit, and get the multiplayer mode fully functioning.”

He recently founded a development studio and was in the process of bringing extra staff onboard. He said that they will be splitting the team, with some continuing work on Minecraft and others pushing forward with a new, unannounced project. “Everyone in the company will be involved in both projects to some degree, and once they’re both complete the plan is to move on to a third game as a team,” said Persson.

“Once that’s in place, I think there’s a huge potential in competitive multiplayer modes like capture the flag and so on, which should keep people – including myself – interested for a long time,” he said.

He touched upon the single player portion of the game, saying: “For the single player game and co-op game, I plan on adding some kind of overarching narrative to the game to drive the player forward and provide a sense of direction, and add many more new features, like monster towns and alchemy.”

He also spoke about opening up the development process, showing players what’s happening and having a “much more personal relationship with the players instead of just developing the game behind closed doors for two years, then hoping it’s good.”

The whole interview is quite interesting, so I suggest you take a read.