Markus Persson has achieved so much recently. As the creator of Minecraft he has blown away the games industry with a simple games concept that has captured the imagination of millions. Since being released on the PC, Minecraft has made its way onto smartphones and will shortly be on Xbox Live.

We were privileged to get a few minutes to speak with Persson after winning the Special Award, which recognises a game that has made an impact on the industry.

(M= Media, MP= Markus Persson)

M: Congratulations on your award. How do you feel?

MP: Yes! I am super happy. I am very honoured.

M: You’ve made a game which has one of the biggest followings in the industry at the moment. What do you put down the success of the game to?

MP: I think the fans, because the fans talk about the game a lot. So the build their own community based on that and it just grows organically. It’s Youtube and forums and everywhere. People are just talking about the game.

M: Obviously you’ve created something that has really captured imaginations. Do you put that down to just the community going off and having fun with these ‘Lego blocks’ you’ve given them?

MP: Yeah. Minecraft is more than just us. It is the community doing like, at least, half the work. It’s more their game than our game. We try to keep the creative control of like the broad things, like, we don’t add guns or blood. The community are the ones that make it their own.

M: We’ve seen people make working computers and calculators that do real maths. Did you ever envision people making this stuff when you were working on Minecraft?

MP: No. I am very impressed with what people have made. In fact I did predict the computer. By then I was so used to people blowing my mind. So when I added the redstone that’s needed to make a computer, I told my wife “someone’s going to make a computer”. It took a month, but they did.

M: What was the time when you saw someone’s creation and you felt that you had made something big.

MP: There’s so many of them. From day one, it’s been like, people really like this and are doing stuff that I’m not doing yet. The computer was one that was major. Someone actually did it.

M: Do you play Minecraft?

MP: Yeah. Not the way I intend people to play it though. I will play it for far too long. So I will play it and just explore. I will just run around and go through caves and stuff like that.

M: Are there any future plans for ports?

MP: We’re making it for Xbox.

M: Very nice to meet you and congratulations on your award.

Remember we interviewed a whole load of people. Read more from Portal 2, Arkham City and  Modern Warfare 3′s creators here.

 

Related posts: