Sup Notch Why Guncraft Acquired A Sales Space Next To Minecrafts At PAX

Exato Games co-founder John Getty makes no apologies concerning the inspiration behind Guncraft. Sure, it's based mostly on Minecraft. Downside?

Getty can afford to be flippant about Guncraft's origins because his game, whereas it resembles Minecraft, makes use of entirely completely different mechanics and goals, and it merely isn't a rip-off, he says. Guncraft spawned while Getty and his companion Alex Schlee were working on another game, Progenitor.

"Our artist and former programmer had been having a talk about how Minecraft isn't goal-oriented enough," Getty recalls. "They thought that it would be superior if it was like an FPS, which is an objective-driven style, where you can additionally make use of the degrees you intricately design. Additionally they thought it can be superior to have the ability to blow the crap out of stated degree, with out getting banned from a server for trolling somebody's masterpiece.

"I overheard the dialog and thought it was an awesome concept. After every week of drawing up some preliminary game-design documents, I pitched it to my associate, we each decided it was too good to cross up, and we postponed Progenitor in favor of Guncraft."

Guncraft is now a Kickstarter success story, raising greater than $16,000 in March to proceed development, and it's heading to PAX Prime in Seattle this week - in fact, it is heading to a really particular place on PAX's show ground. Guncraft has a booth proper next to Minecraft's.

Getty and Schlee engineered this placement on purpose. They've tried to contact Minecraft creator Notch and the staff at his development studio, Mojang, however they've largely been ignored. Guncraft's strategic placement is partly an attempt to get Notch's consideration, and perhaps even his feedback.

Mostly, Guncraft will likely be subsequent to Minecraft to show players the differences between the 2 video games, reasonably than to focus on the similarities.

"Our predominant goal of getting a booth next to Mojang is to provide an open discussion board for comparison."

- John Getty, Exato Games

"Our main purpose of getting a sales space subsequent to Mojang is to offer an open discussion board for comparability," Getty says. "We would like to indicate the individuals exactly how completely different we're from Minecraft. We've all the time needed an avenue to voice our opinions about 'rip-offs' and the way we aren't one. Just as Notch borrowed from Infiniminer, we borrowed a few of the construction and aesthetic elements of Minecraft and put our personal distinctive spin on them."

Putting Guncraft next to Minecraft - Exato didn't attempt to differentiate the name, even - is a dangerous move. Getty hopes it's precisely this that will get Mojang speaking to him.

"We do also want to speak with Mojang, so that's one other cause we're neighbors. I actually hope nobody thinks our major function is to mooch off Minecraft, but I am certain there will likely be some that do," Getty says. "We do have one Television that shall be pointing immediately towards their sales space. MINECRAFT SERVER LISTS I am half tempted to play our Minecraft parody trailer on repeat, so they can see Crafty, our signature character, blow up Steve's head over and over again."

Guncraft can also be commonly compared to Ace of Spades, which payments itself as a cross between Minecraft and Group Fortress 2. Getty responds to criticism as politely as doable, even when he disagrees essentially with the feedback. i'm bonnie and you are

"I simply discover it ironic that folks complain about our graphics but play Minecraft religiously, or inform us we are a rip-off of Minecraft when our core gameplay ideas are polar opposites of each other," Getty says. "We share the same tech, that's it. Even our comparison to Ace of Spades is vague, at best. It's like evaluating Halo to Name of Responsibility."

Whether Exato's efforts at PAX earn it a pat on the again from Mojang or offended backlash from hundreds of potential fans, Getty has one peace offering that's virtually guaranteed to work.

"Notch, come have a beer with us," Getty says.