Gadgetory

I'm TC Sadiq with the verge and I'm here at GDC 2013 I'm sitting on a white couch somewhere in the future the future of gaming I'm joined by markus persson but you might know better as not the creator of Minecraft thanks for joining us oh that was so GDC is a lot about the future of gaming you know you had EA introduced battlefield 4 here this week which was unusual but the story has really been a lot about indie games free games casual games what do you think that says about the industry in 2013 that's such a focus I think it's it's a it's to me it gives me hope for the future because kind of gaming goes in trends and for a bit worth - long stretch there was a focus on the huge productions of kind of play ones games that they only played one time and they had huge budgets and now that the games are getting a little bit smaller young I think there we can get some more experimental games going you you're you got minecraft on the Xbox 360 which was kind of a feat do you think minecraft would have existed at all if you had tried to go directly to console from the beginning no definitely not it's the game was kind of - out there - to be kind of friend want to ever like bet on like that um you know obviously Xbox Playstation Nintendo aren't the only platforms coming out Booya for example which you're gonna have your name etched on when it comes out it's gonna be is getting a lot of momentum why did you back that project basically because I think they're more consoles - better because if there's more competition then it might get more open seems like coals are getting more open which is really cool and yeah you've been kind of a big presence on Kickstarter you know funding great projects what do you think about Kickstarter in terms of the future of game development do you think it's the industry is going to shift towards that kind of model being the primary way that games get funded and developed I cannot hope not because it's very frontloader the consumers take all the risk which is not really nice to consumers I think the main benefits is that smaller studios who want to do something slightly larger can get some initial funding and that we can have larger studios develop Gamze internally without having get publisher money so they can focus more on actual quality of the game so it's more directed to the fans of the genre you are minecraft obviously started on the PC and you've made some disparaging comments about where Windows is headed Windows 8 in particular and infamously you refused to certify minecraft for Windows 8 so what do you think about valve steam box and kind of the push towards Linux as a as a gaming operating system I have like this yearly ritual cannabidiol try to install Linux to try to use it it never really takes and it never really works for me some reason I think if lame excuse to the point where it's actually like more consumer-friendly than Windows and that would be really really good are you gonna continue to develop for Windows then and the meantime and not focus on Linux at all or are you gonna try to do things in parallel I think we're gonna try to make sure that what we do is kind of cross-platform so that they get a kind of desktop version it's like Linux Windows and Mac there's also a lot of excitement you know beyond consoles about new ways of interacting with with games you know new peripherals we have leap motion coming out we have new virtual reality stuff Gabe Newell has talked a lot about biometric feedback and what are you as a developer most excited about what you want to get your hands on for me right now it's the oculus rift definitely it's I kind of was one of those kids growing up to hope that VR would become a thing and then you have to try that we're shooting dinosaurs gamed was up it was really horrible dental nightmare yes but what oculist actually kind of passed the threshold of being not good to actually being good we're kind of the more use the MOR versus immersive gets and you you were one of the first to receive an early kid right now so you've been playing around with it a lot yeah I mean minecraft is coming to the rip sooner that's that's a up to jam so try to leave those decision saying but I have been trying to play around with make adding oculus rift support to the Java native libraries but I've kind of been too lazy to actually do there actually have a lifting of it but it's kind of a pet project in office at the moment Mojang is big now minecraft is huge do you still feel like an indie developer no not in the service it depends on what you mean by in the developer I mean we are independent they own that we tried to make the games we want to make for the sake of making fun games and not necessarily just to make a profit but where for me in the game developer more meals like the garage developer someone sitting at home just making games that are pure passion and in that sense of no we're not really in there so garage developers that are working now I mean knowing what you know what would you tell them if they're starting out today they're making the next Minecraft from their from their bedroom I think it's just make games for yourself and try to have a critical eye to what you do so don't just make something and kind of pat yourself on the back but actually try to look at what it is and how it works and why it doesn't work and what works and iterate on that but if you yourself genuinely liked the game that there's gonna be other people who liked it as well thank you so much Marcus Becky