A Brief History of Minecraft

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Minecraft is a fairly popular game. Just about everyone knows about the likes of Steve or Alex and their adventures on the overworld, in the Nether or in the End. Minecraft has near-endless possibilities of play, from simple building with Creative Mode to gearing up to fight a dragon on Survival (or even vice versa if you’re feeling particularly challenged or bored). However just like everyone else, Minecraft didn’t start as one of the biggest sandbox gaming franchises spanning multiple consoles. It was once a little indie game with littler content and just as much heart as its present-day self.

The Java edition was first launched some time in 2010, first named Minecraft Infdev (before being changed to Alpha v1.0.0 following the release of Alpha v1.0.1). It was about as bare-bones Minecraft as you could get. There was no hunger bar in Survival mode, consumables didn’t stack…It didn’t take much for newer versions to make it pale in comparison. The world was still huge, however; leaving much up for imagination. Later updates would add more life with hostile mob sounds, more believable mob behaviour, different biomes and worlds; and (even later) different types and living styles of villagers, making the world seem more open.

It didn’t take long for YouTubers to pick up the game and use it for content. Even before the sudden explosion of Minecraft Youtubers coming to the popular eye in 2020, Minecraft was milked for all its entertainment value was worth. Mods were made for it as early as 2010, the earliest speedrun found is dated 2012 and kids just about everywhere were making YouTube accounts and bullshitting totally real sightings of Herobrine or other “secrets”. This explosion of activity on the web likely served to make it more popular and Minecraft was just about set for life. Who needs advertising when the player base can practically do it for you?

A Minecraft player looks out over a mixture of grass, sand and water biomes. On the left is a full line of hearts, on the right is a rectangle-shaped arm.

The mobs also have their own history. Just about everyone has heard about how the creeper came to be, but there are more curiosities than that.

Sheep and pigs were the first passive mobs, to no one’s surprise. In the very first version of Minecraft, sheep were incredibly easy to shear, as brought up above. (You could also make armour out of their wool, which makes no sense whatsoever, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Zombies, skeletons, spiders and creepers were also pretty close to the beginning, coming in Java 0.24 Survival_Test. Endermen came in a later Adventure update, giving players a humanoid sort of friendly companion (so long as no eye contact was made), albeit one with zombie placeholder sounds. The vwoops we are now familiar with were added later.
After them came the Ender dragon, then the Nether with all it’s lovely little creatures, then the Witch and Zombie Villagers in what’s titled the Pretty Scary Update, then the pillagers in the overarching Village And Pillage update.

The Ender dragon even brought her own world with her. The End was added in the same update she was, giving a hollow-feeling alternative to the incoming Nether. Three times the worlds, all the more fun!

But there aren’t only passive mobs and aggressive mobs. There are also the fan-favourite wolves who debuted in Version 1.4. The wolves have a lot of history in their own right; starting from artificially idiotic damage sponges to path-finding, loyal fighters in their own right. Wolves are one of a players’ best friends aside from the pickaxe and the sword, attacking anyone the player hits (and even whoever hits the player themselves, like an guard/attack dog).

A blocky-textured wolf wearing a red collar, sitting on flat grass.

Minecraft is still going through updates to this day. The development team is still looking for new ways to send chills down players spines or make them go “aaaaaw!”. The game shows no signs of ever being fully completed as more intelligent, creative or threatening mobs and areas get added, tinkered with and moved around from area to area.

An Umbreon caught mid-snore. Its mouth is open, showing its two little fangs.

Kate Bell is an avid fan of horror, trying to take in as much as they can without getting grossed out by gore. They are also a bit of a history buff, picking apart elements of animation history and the two world wars to garner as much knowledge as possible (good or bad). The history of video games has often been fascinating to them and they hope to learn as much as they can right along with you, the reader.

Kate lives in the country on a hobby farm, having daily battles with shitty wifi and shittier patience. Their sanity anchor? Hope…And loud music.