Notch Wants To Make a Firefly-Inspired Sandbox Space Game

[Lazybones]

http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/03/23/215244/notch-wants-to-make-a-firefly-inspired-sandbox-space-game

"After stepping back as lead designer of Minecraft earlier this year, Notch has been considering what to do next. ... While he's still deciding exactly what he wants to work on, he told us that he'd quite like to do a sandbox space trading game like Elite, 'except done right.' Notch is aiming for something with a bit more character than the classic trading sim. Instead of being the spaceship, you'd be a character inside the spaceship. 'I want the space game that's more like Firefly,' he said. 'I want to run around on my ship and have to put out a fire. Like, oh crap, the cooling system failed, I have to put out the fire here.' He hasn't decided to make the game yet, and doesn't mind if someone else takes up the reins. 'If someone steals the idea before me, that's totally fine. I just want to play that game,' he said."

[Tom]

Done right? ABBHAHAHAHHAHAH*cough**cough**cough**cough**cough*

Yeah no. He couldn't code himself out of a box. *cough*

[Mr. Analog]

When programmers say "done right" they usually mean "my way"

Which fits Notch/Jeb pretty well

[Darren Dirt]

http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2743671&cid=39457055

zomg A Surprise Appearance By Bruce Webster!

Anyone who played Sundog: Frozen Legacy likely has a soft spot in their heart to this day.

All those 'shunts' in your engines and weapons etc before you could afford to buy all new parts. Forgetting to refuel before lifting off or setting warp. Haggling with the bar tenders until you pissed them off.

And incredibly efficient coding too! 720k floppy disk, randomly generated world each new game, had custom popup window functionality, visual inventory, in-space battles vs. pirates, amazing fun timesink!

Ah the fond memories of traveling freely on planet surfaces before you find the city scanner gadget. Falling asleep due to exhaustion -- in game, not RL! -- and being mugged, then deciding to go on a little 'mugger-hunting' session just for fun!

Sundog designers + kickstarter = oh the cool game that we might get!

[Lazybones]

Done right? ABBHAHAHAHHAHAH*cough**cough**cough**cough**cough*

Yeah no. He couldn't code himself out of a box. *cough*

No one cares it if it is junk in a box as long as they enjoy it.

My laughable coding managed to kill off several other competing plugins for trillian at one point because it worked, had a better ui and I was delivering functionality faster than anyone else.

Then the framework I was using didn't get updated between API changes and I was stuck.

Don't care how it was built but if it is fun.

[Tom]

Done right? ABBHAHAHAHHAHAH*cough**cough**cough**cough**cough*

Yeah no. He couldn't code himself out of a box. *cough*

No one cares it if it is junk in a box as long as they enjoy it.

My laughable coding managed to kill off several other competing plugins for trillian at one point because it worked, had a better ui and I was delivering functionality faster than anyone else.

Then the framework I was using didn't get updated between API changes and I was stuck.

Don't care how it was built but if it is fun.

It could have been a lot better if notch was.

[Darren Dirt]

Don't care how it was built but if it is fun.

It could have been a lot better if notch was.

You are both correct! FUN is primary, but horrible coding = issues that eventually arise that get in the way of the fun, at the very least a difficult in scaling, or additions to the "world" that the masses have fallen in love with, and at worst a complete drop of support of an ugly project that nobody wants to maintain anymore.

[Mr. Analog]

Well it's the old chestnut of "it works"

I have been gobsmacked by some of the horrid systems I've had to work with , but they do what people want so they don't really care that it's all made from bailing twine and spit

The only people who care about elegance and maintainability are coders like us.

[Tom]

Well it's the old chestnut of "it works"

Maybe. It might just /barely/ work now. But for a long time it was the most buggy, crashy, horrible piece of crap you've ever seen.

I have been gobsmacked by some of the horrid systems I've had to work with , but they do what people want so they don't really care that it's all made from bailing twine and spit

The only people who care about elegance and maintainability are coders like us.

@%&# maintainability and elegance in this case. I'd settle for them fixing real serious bugs once in a while. People have been complaining non stop since multiplayer came out that it was a horribly laggy POS. And still nothing. In fact, any time they do a little bit of work on making it a tiny bit better, they go an add something that makes it worse than it was before (leaf decay for one pretty much caused a lot of problems for a long time).

Its funny too. Most times when they do fix a bug, its one that people were depending on for doing cool things. One that didn't fit with Notch's personal "vision" of the game. Forget real bugs like crashes, lag and memory over-use.. Lets make the game less fun to play!

Their way of development reminds me of a recent ad for a perl job I saw.

http://perlhacks.com/2012/03/you-must-hate-version-control-systems/ <-- blog on it
http://jobs.perl.org/job/11650 <-- actual job ad

[Thorin]

http://perlhacks.com/2012/03/you-must-hate-version-control-systems/ <-- blog on it
http://jobs.perl.org/job/11650 <-- actual job ad

OH  MY  GOD !!

Well, I've seen people who think and talk like that and I've never wanted to work with them.  No version control?  Oopsie, I deleted the production server's root folder by accident, where's the backup?  What do you mean, no backup?  Oh, that sucks.

[Lazybones]

Hell, even when I was messing with iOS development ALONE I used version control to allow me to step back though mistakes and even remember what I was doing last!

[Mr. Analog]

I version control my artwork let alone code!

[Darren Dirt]

http://holophrasticenterprises.com coolish logo at least. sure sounds like awinner of a jorb oops I mean 'career'! Dang, Ottawa/GTA locals only 

[Darren Dirt]

hey Tom, here ya go ... Coding with Notch (from Minecraft: The Story of Mojang) now you can go nuts with your critiquicizing of the modern age Lord Notchish...

(I wonder if Tom had the chance he would do something similar to Notch in-game? )

[Thorin]

He needs unit tests