Recognize theambition of a game is not difficult, especially if, as in this case, we are talking about Minecraft Earth, a title that wants take the world we live in and reshape it in Minecraft key.
Fun and creativity: these are the two pillars of Minecraft Earth, ready to bring the magic in everyday life of your days.
In development for about 1 and a half years, his first semi-public exploit was a closed beta with limited functionality, so much so that it only included the most basic gameplay mechanics, namely the collection of resources and the construction of structures.
The beta allowed players to roam the world to collect so-called "tappables"(Trees, rocks, chests, mobs), which provided both resources and experiences, which could be used to build on"buildplates" the virtual game area to be fixed on a table or any surface. Once the construction was finished, you could take it to real size to be able to explore it.
Now, in the Early Access phase, crafting and smelting will be introduced, but above all the "Adventures" areas present in the world on very normal builplates but which, once selected, give way to a sort of self-contained micro-mission, in full scale, in the place where you will be, be it a park or the 59th floor of a building.
On the buildplate structures do not just rise, but can hide a'underground enormity who just waits to be discovered, perhaps by physically carrying the phone under the table to reveal a complex system of mines.
The essential part of Minecraft Earth is sharing the experience, and to do so, just use a simple QR code to group around the same buildplate and start building… or destroying. We are talking about having fun, basically.
Once everyone has switched to full-scale exploration mode, you have the real edge of Minecraft Earth, and theimmersiveness is extended byautomatic “elimination” of the other players on the screen, in their place an icon representing what they are holding in their hand. Turning upward, the ceiling is replaced by the structures that are physically above it in the map, a truly surprising illusion in its simplicity.
If, on the other hand, we are outside, it will come into operation Azure Spatial Anchors that, as the name suggests, still the virtual world using real objects and spaces as dimensional markers to better fix the buildplates in the axes and, in general, the virtuality of the whole. The really absurd thing in its enormity is that this system, using the visual feedback obtained from the cameras of all Minecraft Earth users in the area, it will be much more reliable than a GPS could ever be, see for example Pokémon GO.
Adventures are focused on teamwork and there is room for a minimum of specialization: for example, a user can always keep the bow ready to defend his companions while they get resources, while another Adventure will need 4 people on 4 pressure platforms to access a new area.
They are the Adventures dedicated to combat those that most highlight the limits of using a smartphone as the only window on the virtual world of Minecraft Earth, especially when, thanks to the confined spaces, the attacks of enemies from all sides are less observable and predictable; should it happen, the death of all players in the Adventure it will remove everything that we have placed on our hotbar (a sort of object bar on the base of the screen) and the entire contents of our deposit.
The potential of Minecraft Earth is truly endless: just imagine you are walking in a big city, stop, turn on the app and observe the top ten of buildings placed above that particular symbolic building, that famous square, that ancient tower; a macro-intensity in perfect contrast with the symbolic personal macro-value of the structure that perhaps was created in the garden behind the house, our undisputed empire.
Imagine, yes ... because basically, when Minecraft Earth is what its creators want it to be, the only limit will be your imagination.
► Minecraft Earth is an AR-Sandbox type game developed and published by Mojang for Android and iOS, The release is planned: TBA
