Minecraft

Minecraft is a 2009 sandbox indie and arcade video game created by Swedish programmer Markus "Notch" Persson, maintained by Mojang AB, and part of Microsoft Studios. It draws heavy inspiration from Infiniminer.

From its creation, Minecraft was initially exclusively developed by Notch until Jens "Jeb" Bergensten started working with him, and has since become head of development. Music for the game has been composed by Daniel "C418" Rosenfeld, and paintings are by Kristoffer Zetterstrand. The game was initially released as Minecraft Classic on May 17, 2009, and was officially released as Minecraft 1.0 on November 18, 2011. It has since been released to mobile devices and consoles. In November 2014, Minecraft and all of Mojang's assets were acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion USD.

Minecraft has just over 26 million copies sold on PC.Sales statistics on minecraft.net

Gameplay
A player has a hunger bar and a health bar. The hunger bar, if full, can slowly recharge the health bar, but not vice-versa. If either of the bars reaches zero, a player is at the risk of death, either from starvation, lack of health, or other instances of death. The hunger bar normally decreases slowly. However, activities such as sprinting or mining can lower the bar faster than usual. Usually, foods such as Porkchops and Steak can fill the hunger bar back to healthy levels, and it can be acquired by simply punching the animal to death.

But for long-term survival, a player is recommended to take or build a shelter. Building a shelter is a critical first part to exploring a world. Shelters are important, as they can protect a player from hostile mobs, and they can serve the same purpose as a home in real life. Most shelters take the form of houses such as to the right. Houses are often favored because of their simplicity, as well as the short amount of time necessary to build them. A player usually starts mining after a house is made. Mining is a very important part of Minecraft, hence the name.

Menu
Upon starting the game, the user is greeted with a login screen. To play, the user has to input his or her login information: This includes a username, or if the user has signed up for a Mojang account, that user's email as well as the user's password. After logging in, the user is greeted with the Minecraft Launcher. TheMinecraft Launcher allows for customizability and modifications in Minecraft. It also displays news about Minecraft updates and bug fixes. The launcher will lead the user to the main menu screen. The menu screen is composed of buttons, and text that allows for easy access to Minecraft's features. The four menu features include: A player first spawns in the Overworld. The overworld consists of Biomes, such as extreme hills, or the Ocean biome. The overworld is intended to generally resemble the terrain of Earth's Lithosphere. Although the overworld often tends to be littered with impossible, gravity-defying natural structures.
 * Singleplayer: Allows the user to create custom worlds, and load previously created world.
 * Multiplayer: Allows the user to interact with other users via custom Minecraft servers, or interact using Minecraft's built-in LAN feature (which allows single-player worlds to be played with other users via a local area network).
 * Minecraft Realms: Allows the user to play custom, miniature Minecraft servers, often created with the intention of playing a mini-game. An invitation is required from the owner.
 * Options: Allows the user to customize Minecraft's in-game features.

Upon Spawning, a player is free to explore the overworld. However without equipment, such as a Sword, or sustenance such as porkchops, a player is limited in how far they can trek.

Game Modes
There are five different Game modes in Minecraft:
 * 1) Survival - a player is required to gather food and other materials to survive.
 * 2) Creative - a player can place any type of block, has no health, and cannot die. a player also has the ability to fly.
 * 3) Spectator - a player is invisible and can move through blocks. a player can even choose to see the world through a mob's eyes.
 * 4) Hardcore - a player has only one life and when he/she dies, a player can choose to spectate the world, or to delete the Minecraft world.
 * 5) Adventure - Gameplay has the same properties as survival, but players can only mine blocks with proper Tools.

Mining
Mining is a key part of Minecraft's gameplay. In fact, the name "Minecraft" is (obviously) derived from the words "mine" and "craft". Mining is important to experience the full extent of what Minecraft has to offer. Mining is also important for long-term survival, as one needs metal ores to craft armor, better swords, and much more. However, the metal ore is only usually found underground. As most of Minecraft centers around the mining experience. Mining is necessary to acquire the resources needed to build portals that can access the Nether, a hellish world, and to fully explore the expanse of Minecraft. There are many ways to go about mining in Minecraft. Some ways are more common than others. Below listed are two strategies Minecraft players commonly use, please note these don't cover all the tactics.

Mining tactics
Cave Mining: This is one of the most commonly used mining tactics used by players. Usually, cave mining is the easiest, as it requires minimal effort for a player, and entrances to caves are usually found all over the surface. Cave mining usually consists of picking blocks off the walls of the cave, coal, and iron are the most common ores, but if the cave goes deep enough, gold ore can be found. Cave mining is also slightly dangerous as the average sized cave has multiple openings and one cave might lead to other caves or ravines. Players can easily get lost in a labyrinth of caves and ravines. It is very easy to die and lose items forever without a way to find them. This can be avoided if a player sets landmarks.

Strip Mining: Strip mining is often used to find valuable ores like diamonds, as it is easier than hollowing out an entire chunk. Strip mining, however, requires plenty of resources such as stone or iron to build pickaxes, and plenty of patience. Usually a player mines underground then when he or she reaches bedrock starts strip mining. A player usually mines in one straight line, stripping through the ground, hence the name strip mining. Usually, these lines are separated by a one block wall, though that's not often the case. Strip mining is not recommended for mining common ores like coal or iron. It is recommended that for major strip mining operations to bring plenty of torches to serve the purpose of preventing hostile mobs from spawning, and to create a guide way in case a player is lost. It is also recommended that if a player is mining between the 0 and 16th layer that he or she bring a bucket of water, as oftentimes a player might run into a lake of lava. It's good to bring a furnace and a crafting table, so a player can smelt items and craft new items without having to run back up to the surface in order to get them.

Surface Mining:  Typically only useful in extreme hills biomes, where Coal and other ores are often exposed on the surface.

Java Edition
The original platform for Minecraft that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and started through the launcher. The game was made publicly available on May 17, 2009 as Classic.

Minecraft was officially released for PC on November 18, 2011, as Minecraft 1.0.

Bedrock Edition
The Bedrock Edition refers to the multi-platform family of editions of Minecraft developed by Mojang and Microsoft Studios. Prior to this term, this entire product was referred to as "Pocket Edition", "MCPE", or "Pocket/Windows 10 Edition".
 * An Android version was released on August 16, 2011.
 * An iOS version was released on November 16, 2011.
 * A Fire OS version was released on April 2, 2014.
 * An Xbox One version was released on September 5, 2014.
 * A Windows Phone version was released on December 10, 2014.
 * A Windows 10 version was released on July 29, 2015.
 * A Samsung Gear VR edition was released on April 27, 2016.
 * An edition for the Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV was released on December 19, 2016.
 * A Nintendo Switch version was released on May 11, 2017.

Legacy Console Editions
The Legacy Console Editions of Minecraft refer to the console editions that are not part of the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition of the game.
 * An Xbox 360 version was released on May 9, 2012.
 * An Xbox One version was realeased on May 22, 2014.
 * A PlayStation 3 version was released on December 17, 2013.
 * A PlayStation 4 version was released on September 4, 2014.
 * A PlayStation Vita version was released on October 14, 2014.
 * A Wii U version was released on December 17, 2015.
 * A Nintendo Switch version was released on May 11, 2017.

Education Edition
An Minecraft: Education Edition was released on November 1, 2016, for macOS and Windows 10.

Other Versions of Minecraft

 * Raspberry Pi Edition (for Raspberry Pi)
 * Minecraft 4k (for PC, made in a competition)
 * Minecraft: Chinese Edition (a Chinese localized edition developed by NetEase and Mojang AB)
 * Pocket Edition 3D (for old Nokia phones, an unofficial port)

Trivia

 * Since 18 April 2013, a special downloadable launcher is now required to play the game. The game can no longer be played in a browser.
 * Minecraft was originally called "Cave Game."mcspotlight's archive of Notch's video Notch soon changed it to Minecraft: Order of the Stone because "Minecraft" sounded cool and he liked the webcomic "Order of the Stick."[https://notch.tumblr.com/post/107676487/minecraft-order-of-the-stone Minecraft: Order of the Stone - Notch on Tumblr
 * The PC Gamer Demo (a demo of Minecraft Beta 1.3 bundled with the June 2011 issue of PC Gamer's magazine) had some exclusive features not available in other demos. One of the exclusive features was a cow branded with the PC Gamer logo.
 * As of February, Minecraft has 122 million sales across all of its platforms."Hurrah!" (Jeb on Twitter)
 * There is a 1 in 10,000 chance that Minecraft on the opening screen will be misspelled "Minceraft.""Minceraft, a post mortem" (Notch on Twitter)
 * Minecraft's price has risen over the years, originally being US$20.00. It is now US$26.95.
 * Since the release of 1.12.2-pre1, the Java Edition of Minecraft has the subtitle Java Edition underneath its logo to separate it from the Bedrock Edition, which had been renamed to just Minecraft.
 * As of the release of 1.13, there is a new title screen background with many of the structures, mobs, and blocks added in Update Aquatic, along with 3 new songs by C418.