Mojang Studios on their Minecraft YouTube channel has been releasing a series called How We Make Minecraft: A Guide to Ripping it Off. In this series, there have been a total of two different episodes. This series is both informational and comical, meaning players can both.
The first episode focused on how Mobs are created in Minecraft; this episode creates the new mob called Mobbo. This episode saw how Mojang Studios developers take careful consideration of the effects that this mob will have on the player’s experience.
The second episode focuses on developing a crafting system that excites players to craft new and more expensive items instead of staying at the same level of tools. This episode focuses heavily on how the Minecraft crafting system was developed and what logic was implemented into Minecraft.
The third episode focuses on the aesthetic changes that have taken place in Minecraft’s development. The narrator goes on to say that Minecraft’s look is a combination of 3D games with the more common pixel indie games.
The second step that the narrator goes over is consistency; this is showcased in the strider that, while having gone through countless design changes, has always been designed to look like he belongs in the Nether.
An interesting fact that the narrator states is that while concept art is important, the developers at Mojang Studios take the concept art as more of a blueprint rather than a hard set guide that they must follow.
This different mindset allows them to make changes to the mob without having to worry if it follows the original concept art for the new mob.
The third step showcased in this episode is called, “Keep Trying New Looks!” This step showcases how, while staying consistent is very important, changing up the colors and the designs are very important. This is, so the mobs all don’t have the same color scheme or 3D model.
Step four is called Regin it in within the Cube. This step shows how while the designers could go crazy within the 256 pixels, they keep the designs both simple and complex when compared to other games that have a pixelated design.
This episode looks fantastic, and any developer planning to release a game should watch through this series to get a better sense of how Minecraft is made.