This is something that's been brewing in my head for a while and I hope I can get some feedback here before posting it anywhere else. It's a multi-part essay on what I would like to see in a Minecraft sequel, if one ever gets made.
FYI, the main reason I'm doing this is that sometimes I get an idea stuck in my head and obsess over it until I get it out on paper, so to speak. But I would welcome any constructive criticism or suggestions.
Minecraft 2 Manifesto Intro
I have a problem, although I'm being mostly facetious when I say that. When I'm playing a video game that I enjoy, but that I feel could be better in some way, I begin to construct a better version of it in my head. I have no coding or game development experience, so I have no way of transforming my ideas into reality, but I can't stop thinking about it. Often I can no longer enjoy the game like I once did because I'm comparing to the better version that exists only in my head. Minecraft is one of those games.
I've decided to put my thoughts on the subject into words, to give them form, of a sort, in the hope that doing so will allow my brain to move on to other more productive pursuits. And maybe, just maybe, the right person will read this and put my ideas into action, either in a Minecraft sequel, or some other similar sandbox adventure game.
This is my Minecraft 2 Manifesto.
Minecraft 2 Manifesto
Minecraft is fun, immersive, and has massive replayability, with the right amount of challenge to be accessible to new players and engaging to veterans. What's more, its simple yet highly varied system of collecting raw resources and using them to craft tools and build structures makes it valuable as an educational tool.
Minecraft is a great game, but it could be even better.
I propose a number of changes and additions that I think would elevate Minecraft from a great game to one of the greatest games of all time. These changes focus on improving gameplay experience by adding greater gameplay variety while maintaining an easily manageable interface and inventory system, improving aesthetics through greater environmental variety, and improving educational value by making the overworld environments, basic raw materials, and in-game physics better reflect the real world.
Toward that end, I propose the following principles on which changes and additions should be made:
• Basic resources in the overworld should better reflect the diversity and range of real-world raw materials.
• Furnace interface should be retooled to allow materials to be combined to make new materials.
• Most, if not all, raw materials should have a use beyond the purely decorative, preferably multiple uses.
• Resources that are the most difficult or dangerous to acquire should have greater utility, to better reward players for hard work and risk-taking.
• Unnecessary inventory clutter should be avoided.
• Graphics and game physics should be upgraded, without sacrificing the simplified, blocky aesthetic that makes Minecraft so charming.
Many of these changes could be implemented as a Mincraft mod, but others are more fundamental to the game's mechanics, which is why I am proposing that they be implemented in the form of a sequel.