This week Dinnerbone (Nathan Adams) has arrived to the Mojang office in Stockholm. He’ll be working full-time on Minecraft here, and has already got a flying start! We managed to do a lot of fixing and tweaking for this week’s snapshot, and have finally decided to lock down on a proper release date for Minecraft 1.3: August 1, 2012.

A week prior to releasing, we’ll post a “release candidate” that is likely to be identical to the actual release. This version is intended to give server admins and modders a little more time to prepare for the new Minecraft version.

Minecraft 1.3 consists of a huge number of changes, and some of them are changes to the fundamental game engine. The most dramatic change is that we’ve kicked out single-player, and made it a shell on top of multi-player. There are two major benefits to this: first, it’s required for the modding api if we don’t want to have multiple implementations of every mod, and second, if we fix a bug in single-player, we know the bug is fixed in multi-player, too. Previously we had to fix bugs both in relation to single-player and multi-player.

Here’s a compact list of what the update will bring…

Minecraft 1.3: The Good

Lots and lots of bug fixes and new features. Players who mainly play in multi-player on servers should enjoy a smoother and more stable experience, as this has been our focus of the development. We’ve looked over the network packets and added encryption to prevent session stealing. Dinnerbone has updated the chatting screen, to allow for easier editing and clickable links.

The single/multi-player merge has added the possibility to share your single-player worlds with friends who are on the same local network. It has also enabled players to use multi-player-like commands in single-player (such as /gamemode and /give), but only if cheats are enabled.

We’ve added emeralds, emerald ore and a trading system that makes it possible to buy items from villagers. Villagers will add and remove items depending on what you buy.

We’ve added the possibility write in books and leave stories for other people.

We’ve added new terrain features, and you can choose to begin the game with a “bonus chest,” to get you started quicker.

We’ve added tripwire, so you can create new traps and contraptions.

We’ve also added new stairs, new half-slabs, cocoa plants and tweaked dispensers, leaves, cauldrons, levers, gravel, pressure plates, cookies, buckets, boats, minecarts, ice, furnaces… Plus you get magic orbs from mining and smelting (and not just killing monsters)!

Minecraft 1.3: The Bad

Since single-player has been turned into a shell on top of a background server, the game’s resource requirements have increased. When playing single-player, the game needs to be able to both simulate and emulate the world, which take many more CPU cycles. We’re working on optimizing rendering, but those improvements will not be included until Minecraft 1.4.

Minecraft 1.3: The Ugly

A couple of problems and expected features have been pushed to Minecraft 1.4. The most notable problem is the lighting issues causing black regions in the terrain. We’re looking into ways to solve this, but lighting is a very expensive calculation and we are struggling with finding a solution that doesn’t hurt framerate.

And the most notable missing feature is the modding API. Throwing out single-player was the first step in order to make the API possible, and that’s done now. We decided to release 1.3 without the API, because otherwise it would be an even longer wait for a Minecraft update.

We’ve also added an extremely basic version of “adventure mode.” We’ll work more on this in future updates.

To Summarize

The time between Minecraft 1.2.5 and 1.3 has been the longest update interval yet, and that was because we changed so much in the game engine. I (jeb_) was a little scared to push it to the public, but waiting even longer is not a solution.

If you want to get the whole Minecraft 1.3 change log, I suggest you read redstonehelper’s great summary here: http://www.reddit.com/r/edstonehelper/comments/p6lol/planned_for_the_next_update/

Snapshot 12w27a

• Bug fixes!
• Optimizations!
• Please check your piston contraptions. Most we’ve tested still work fine, but some require changes to repeater delays and similar. Overall, pistons should have fewer bugs, but will appear to update slightly slower.

Get the snapshot here:

• Client: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w27a/minecraft.jar
• Server: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w27a/minecraft_server.jar (or EXE)

If you havent downloaded Minecraft you can grab it here: www.minecraft.net/download

// The Minecraft Team

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Our Facebook page has been crying all day from neglect. I looked over it and realized… IT HAS NO COVER PHOTO.

It’s sooooooooo naked….

Every month we are going to ask for custom made cover photos. We will choose one to be featured on the Minecraft Facebook page each month. The bottom of the photo will let everyone know who created the artwork.

The theme for July is Minecraft Summer Picnic!

Make sure to do custom artwork if you want to be considered.

How to Submit:

- Go to the new Hej Mojang Submission page.
- On the right hand side click the ‘Submit Photo’ link.
- Photo MUST be 851 pixels by 315 pixels (the cover photo dimensions)
- Make sure to include your email address and name.
- In the text area – write what name you would like to be displayed on the artwork if yours is chosen. You can include one link to either your twitter account, youtube, FB, etc.
- You have until Tuesday, July 10th @ 11am EST.

PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT SCREENSHOTS. This MUST be original artwork with the theme Minecraft Summer Picnic!

A winner will be chosen based on creativity, sticking with the theme, and overall awesomeness!

For those of you who aren’t artists, don’t worry there will be different non-artsy things coming up in the near future!

Working on a fun video for next week’s chunk.

Have a great day!

Lydia

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Hi Guys,

Everything is finally all figured out and I am in Sweden for good now. What that means for you is MUCH better content since I am actually in the Mojang office. Many of you have been asking about the new office. Yesterday was the first time I was able to see it and WOW is all I can say. The design team we hired and our very own Junkboy did an absolutely outstanding job making everything look perfect. There’s still some construction going on and things are being added, but it’s already completely impressive.

I’ll be starting up the Weekly Chunk videos in the office where you will get an inside scoop on each member of the Mojang Team. Also, there will be lots more tweeting from the @MojangTeam account. Make sure to follow what’s going on with the Mojangstas there.

The Mojang Office Snapshot :)

Weekly Snapshot

This week’s snapshot has a very simple change log:

• Bug fixes!

Especially one big performance bug was found and fixed, but also a lot of smaller ones. The release of Minecraft 1.3 is getting closer, but we still need to test more before it’s ready.

Get the snapshot here:

• Client: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w26a/minecraft.jar
• Server: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w26a/minecraft_server.jar (or EXE)

Make sure to check back EVERY Wednesday for a new Weekly Chunk.

-Lydia

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We’re still focusing on bug fixing so we eventually can release the 1.3 patch. The biggest problem right now is that since the game is hosting a server in the background, the game requires more hardware resources than before. We’re trying to figure out a way to solve that, but here’s a weekly snapshot for now:

• Added a menu with options for opening your single-player world
• The multi-player menu now scans for LAN servers (single-player worlds)
• Villagers will remove trade options after the option has been used 3-15 times
• Added wooden stairs for the remaining three wood types
• Corrected Ender Chest storage (no longer whiped on respawning)
• A lot of smaller changes and fixes

Get the snapshot here:

• Client: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w25a/minecraft.jar
• Server: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w25a/minecraft_server.jar (or EXE)

If you havent downloaded Minecraft you can grab it here: www.minecraft.net/download

// The Minecraft Team

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This has been a busy week! We’ve moved to our new office, it looks great but is still far from finished. We were still able to squeeze in some work on Minecraft, so here’s the new snapshot:

• You can now use “/publish” to open your single-player game for LAN friends to join. This is still very much work in progress, so it lacks some necessary settings such as what game mode your friends will get, and if they should be able to use cheats or not. Also, the “/publish” command is temporary, you can’t even access it if you haven’t enabled cheats =)
• The Ender Chest has been changed to have an inventory per player and not per world. Also, knocking down the chest will break it into 8 obsidian, unless you have Silk Touch.
• The texture pack folder button now works on Mac
• A lot of smaller changes and fixes

Get the snapshot here:

• Client: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w24a/minecraft.jar
• Server: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w24a/minecraft_server.jar (or EXE)

If you havent downloaded Minecraft you can grab it here: www.minecraft.net/download

// The Minecraft Team

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We’ve been getting tons of questions about MineCon. So I wanted to give a quick update.

- MineCon will most definitely be THIS year and it will be in Europe.
- I’m headed to a secret location next week to check it out and hopefully sign papers for the location and date. WOOHOO!
- After everything is confirmed we will be giving you ALL the details.

Another frequent question has been about Mojang going to PAX Prime. I’m excited to tell you that we will be exhibiting there again this year!

Today’s challenge is something different. While I was in Washington, DC I went to see an exhibit featuring Minecraft at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It’s an amazing exhibit called the Art of Gaming. If you are in DC this summer make sure to check it out! It’s running until September.

If you end up going take a photo there and tweet it at my personal account. I’d love to see it!

Have a wonderful week!

Lydia

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So here’s the new snapshot! This week got interrupted by the Swedish National Day, and we are focusing on finishing up stuff in order to release Minecraft 1.3. Also, we’re moving to our new office! Pics should be on this blog soon. So, in other words, this snapshot doesn’t have as many news as the previous weeks’, but here you go:

• Enchantment levels are slightly exponential again
• Added Ender Portal frame to creative inventory
• A lot of smaller changes and fixes

Get the snapshot here:

• Client: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w23b/minecraft.jar
• Server: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w23b/minecraft_server.jar (or EXE)

If you havent downloaded Minecraft you can grab it here: www.minecraft.net/download

UPDATE: There was a bug that caused the game to crash when you “instant-destroyed” blocks with tools. For example when shearing leaves or removing crops with a hoe. This has been fixed, so the links above point to version “12w23b.”

// The Minecraft Team

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Hi Guys!

This week I wanted to give you a run down of some fun Mojang things that happened this weekend. First of all on Friday, Notch had a great birthday party at a fun Stockholm club. The Mojanstas had a great night of celebrating an amazing guy!

Talk about an ice sculpture…

Saturday night it was time for the deadmau5 concert in Stockholm. deadmau5 is a big Minecraft fan and even was kind enough to have all of the Mojangstas back stage before the event.

Jens wore a creeper deadmau5 head the entire show. Even though it was rainy and really cold, it was absolutely awesome.

Multiple times in the show, deadmau5 had Minecraft graphics up on the screens. He had both grass blocks and a segment with a bunch of pigs in minecarts.

The Weekly Chunk videos won’t be weekly until I head back to the office, but every Wednesday there will be a post on here.

This week’s challenge is pretty easy… Play Minecraft. Next week the first community member will be interviewed on here (and they will be giving you a challenge).

Have a wonderful week!

-Lydia

Follow what the Mojangstas are up to:
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Snapshot time! Quick overview of changes:

• Trading with villagers has been updated
• Enchantment system has been rebalanced
• A new Redstone-activating block
• Better Creative inventory
• Pausing should work in single-player now
• Some minor terrain changes
• Added an “adventure” game mode (/gamemode 2), but requires more work
• A lot of smaller changes and fixes

Get the snapshot here:

• Client: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w22a/minecraft.jar
• Server: http://assets.minecraft.net/12w22a/minecraft_server.jar (or EXE)

If you havent downloaded Minecraft you can grab it here: www.minecraft.net/download

I recently received an angry email about these snapshots. The complaint was that we just upload these JAR files with absolutely no information on how they are supposed to be used. This is true, and is somewhat of a legacy from how the snapshotting was started: to give previews of possibly broken features. Expert users could satisfy their curiosity, and we received invaluable feedback on work in progress.

The snapshots have gained popularity over time, though, so this information needs to be restated. The snapshots can potentially destroy your save games, even though we try our best not to do that. Only use them if you know what you are doing. To “install” a snapshot, you download the JAR file and replace the one located in your “application data” folder. The easiest way to find that folder is to start the game, select “texture packs” and click on the “open texture pack folder” button. It will locate “.minecraft/texturepacks”, and the JAR file should be placed in “.minecraft/bin”.

To UNINSTALL the snapshot, start the launcher (Minecraft.exe on Windows) and click the “options” button. Then click on “force update” and login as usual. The launcher will then download the official JAR file for you. Note that save games created in the snapshot may not work (and probably doesn’t) in the official version of the game.

// The Minecraft Team

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