0x10c
| 0x10c | |
|---|---|
| File:0x10c-logo.png | |
| Developer(s) | Mojang |
| Designer(s) | Markus "Notch" Persson |
| Genre(s) | Sandbox |
0x10c (stylized as 0x10c) is a sandbox-type game currently under development by Markus "Notch" Persson of Mojang.[1] It was announced via Twitter by Notch on April 3, 2012.[2]
Although it is not immediately obvious how to pronounce the game's name and a large variety of suggestions have been proposed, the creator of the game has made it clear in his Twitter feed how he says it: "I say 'ten to the see', but people can pronounce it however they want".[3]
0x10c is currently in the pre-alpha stage and not much has been seen of it other than a few live stream demonstrations[4], a list of features on the official website, and a working reference implementation of one of the computer emulators used within the in-game universe[5]. The features list include a fully working virtual computer, random encounters, an advanced economy system, and also single and multiplayer modes in a consistent universe, or "Multiverse".[1]
Backstory and setting
The game takes place in a parallel universe where the Space Race never ended. In 1988, a deep sleep cell was released which was compatible with the popular 16-bit computers of the time. However, it used the "big endian" convention for storing numbers while the DCPU-16 computer in space ships called for the incompatible "little endian" convention. In computer programming terms, this means that the hexadecimal number 0x0000 0000 0000 0001 (or simply 1 in familiar decimal notation) would be misinterpreted as 0x0001 0000 0000 0000 (or 16 to the 12th power). This disastrous bug meant that space travelers who requested a one-year hibernation would instead sleep for 281,474,976,710,656 years. For this reason, the game begins in the year 281,474,976,712,644 AD when the first "lost people" are finally waking up to a dying old universe "with all remote galaxies forever lost to red shift, star formation long since ended, and massive black holes dominating the galaxy".[1]
Game history
In December, 2011, Markus "Notch" Persson announced[6] that he was going to be stepping down as the lead developer of Minecraft, and that he would be working on another project. Mojang CEO Carl Manneh said in an interview with Edge Online that Mojang was committed to supporting a new project that Notch was developing along with another game created by other developers in their company.[7] After winning a special award from BAFTA in March, 2012, Notch revealed that there were three different projects he was developing, but he had yet to come to a decision in terms of which one he was committed to working on.[8] A few days later in an interview with PC Gamer magazine, Notch announced that he was working on a space-themed game that was inspired by the television show Firefly and the video game called Elite.[9]
The first details of this game were released in an April Fool's parody website called "Mars Effect", a play off of the game Mass Effect and alluding to the lawsuit by Bethesda Softworks over trademark infringement.[10] A few days later Notch announced on Twitter that he had chosen a real name for the game and that he had made some progress on its development.
Gameplay
The list of planned features include seamless engineering, space battles, space-to-planet transitions, mining and trading, and an open universe with both single-player and multiplayer variants.[1][11]
DCPU-16
In the game, each space ship will be controlled by a virtual 16-bit computer called a DCPU-16, and the players will be able to modify its programming. This will be "a fully functioning emulated 16 bit CPU",[1] for which the formal specifications have been released: it has 0x10000 words of RAM (64 kilowords at 16 bits, or 128 KiB), eight registers, a program counter, stack pointer, and overflow.[12]
Pricing
0x10c is expected to be the first Mojang game with a monthly fee for online play in multiplayer mode (but no recurring fee for single player mode). Developer Notch says that this is because of the cost to "emulate all computers and physics even when players aren't logged in."[1] It was revealed via Twitter that the pricing will be similar to Minecraft, with alpha costing less than beta, and beta costing less than the full release.[13][14][15]
References
- ^ a b c d e f official website 0x10c
- ^ Knapp, Alex (2012-04-03). "Mojang Registers Website For Its New Game '0x10c'". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
- ^ Persson, Markus (April 18, 2012). "i say "ten to the see", but people can pronounce it however they want". Twitter. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
- ^ Persson, Markus. "making teh gaimz". Retrieved May 29, 2012.
- ^ Persson, Markus (April 25, 2012). ""DCPU TEST"". Mojang. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
- ^ Markus "Notch" Persson (December 2, 2011). "Och med dom orden så passar jag micken". tumblr.com. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
- ^ Nathan Brown (January 13, 2012). "Mojang working on three new games". Edge Online. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
- ^ "Video: Minecraft boss talks three projects, BAFTA thrill". VG247. March 18, 2011. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
- ^ Tom Senior (March 21 2012). "Notch wants to make a Firefly-inspired sandbox space game like Elite "except done right"". PC Gamer. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Jordan Mallory (April 1, 2012). "Notch's new space game is called ... Mars Effect?! [April Fools!]". Joystiq. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
- ^ Tom Senior (April 12, 2012). "0x10c screenshots show early build, shadows, shapes that aren't cubes and TF2 soldier". PC Gamer. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
- ^ "DCPU-16 specifications". Retrieved 2012-04-18.
- ^ "Gameranxs article on price model". Gameranx.com. 2012-04-12. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
- ^ Liebl, Matt. "Gamezone article". Gamezone article. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
- ^ "0x10c command (Unofficial site)". 0x10command.com. 2012-04-11. Retrieved 2012-04-18.