The Sandbox Game of Minecraft

For more than 15 years, Minecraft has lured whole armies of gamers into a world of blocks that can be broken, crafted and placed to reshape the landscape and build fantastical creations. It’s sometimes called a “sandbox” game, because it invites players to use their imagination and face daring adventures.

The game was created by Markus Persson, a 29-year-old Swedish games developer from a working-class family in Stockholm. He started working on Minecraft in 2009 as a side project, but it became so successful that he quit his day job to focus on Mojang Studios. The studio eventually sold the game to Microsoft for $2.5 billion.

Minecraft has two main modes – creative mode and survival mode. In creative mode, players have unlimited resources and immortality; they can build anything they want, and can reshape the world to their liking. They can also teleport to new areas and change the time of day to experience different seasons and weather patterns. But in survival mode, you’re limited by food and water, and there are hostile creatures (called “mobs”) that can spawn to attack you. You can’t respawn in the same place, so you must travel to different regions of your world map in order to find new biomes and collect new materials.

The gameplay in Minecraft is simple but hypnotizing. Players begin the game by punching trees until they break and drop wood, which can then be crafted into wooden tools that make it easier to gather other types of blocks. Each block takes longer to break than its predecessor, which encourages players to upgrade their tools. Once you have enough of a specific material, a crafting square appears in your inventory screen with four wood planks in it – drag those over to your toolbar and you’ve got yourself some building materials.

With the addition of more animals, ruins and biomes to the game, the world of Minecraft is endlessly absorbing. Many of these new features are introduced with updates that push the boundaries of what’s possible in the game. But its sandbox essence remains at the heart of what keeps people coming back, and even buying their own servers to play the game on their own.

For example, Irish YouTuber and Twitch streamer Daniel “RTGame” Condren has a personal Minecraft server with more than 1.2 million subscribers. He’s a prolific builder in the game and uses his platform to raise funds for charities, including Direct Relief and PAWS. He says he believes Minecraft’s longevity is down to its flexibility and that it offers more than Grand Theft Auto or Doom, the games he played as a kid. “Minecraft feels more educational,” he said. “It’s a blank canvas for creativity.” And he thinks it will continue to attract gamers for years to come. “As long as it stays fresh, and the people keep bringing their own unique style to it.”