- Markus Persson
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Markus Persson 
Markus Persson at GDCBorn June 1, 1979 [1] Nationality Swedish Other names Notch (online alias) Known for Creating Minecraft, founding Mojang AB. Spouse Elin "ez" Zetterstrand[2] Website mojang.com/notch
notch.tumblr.comMarkus Alexej Persson (commonly known as "Notch") is a Swedish indie game developer and founder of Mojang AB.[3] He is best known for creating the sandbox building game Minecraft.
Contents
Biography
Persson began programming on a Commodore 128 home computer at the age of seven. Having experimented with various type-in programs he produced his first game at the age of eight, a text-based adventure game.[4] Professionally he had worked as a game developer for King.com for over four years[3] until 2009.[4] Afterwards he worked as a programmer for Jalbum.[3] He is also one of the founders of Wurm Online,[5] although he no longer works on this game.[3] Outside of work, he has made seven games for competitions[3] for the Java 4K Game Programming Contest such as "Left 4K Dead" and "Mega 4K Man".[6] He has also entered the Ludum Dare competition. He is involved in making a movie called "Minecraft: The story of Mojang".
Games
Minecraft
Main article: MinecraftPersson's most popular creation is the survival sandbox game Minecraft, which has moved into Beta as of December 20, 2010. Persson quit his job as a game developer to work on Minecraft full-time, until it is completed on November 11th, 2011. In early 2011 Mojang AB sold their one millionth copy of the game, several months later their second, and several more their third. He has recently hired several new staff members to the Minecraft team. A Pocket Edition for Android Phones has been released. An Xbox 360 edition of Minecraft is in development and is scheduled to be released in the Winter of 2011.
Scrolls
Persson and Jakob Porser came up with the idea for Scrolls including elements from board games and collectible card games.[7] Persson noted he will not be actively involved in development of the game and that Porser will be developing it.[8]
Persson revealed on his tumblr blog on the 5th August 2011 that he was being sued by a Swedish lawyer firm representing Bethesda Softworks over the trademarked name of Scrolls claiming it conflicted with their The Elder Scrolls series of games.[9]
On 17 August 2011 Persson challenged Bethesda to a Quake 3 tournament to decide the outcome of the naming dispute.[10] However, the proposed solution was not answered.
On 27 September 2011 Persson confirmed the lawsuit was going to court in a tumblr post.[11] Some clarification was made that it is ZeniMax Media, the company owning Bethesda Softworks, who are pushing for the lawsuit.[12][13]
Ludum Dare entries
Persson has also participated in several Ludum Dare 48-hour game making competitions.
Breaking the Tower
Breaking the Tower was a game Persson created for the entry to the Ludum Dare #12 competition.[14] The game was written in 2 days.[15] The game takes place on a small island, where the player must gather resources, construct buildings, and train soldiers in order to destroy a large tower on this island. The game received brief gaming media attention.[16][17]
Metagun
Metagun is a 2D platformer created for Ludum Dare #18.[18]
Prelude of the Chambered
Prelude of the Chambered is a game Persson created for the entry to the Ludum Dare #21 competition.[19][non-primary source needed] The game has been written in just 2 days. Prelude of the Chambered is a short first-person dungeon crawler videogame entirely written in Java.
Personal life
Markus A. Persson lives in the Södermalm section of Stockholm, Sweden. He is a member of the Swedish chapter of Mensa and also makes electronica music under the name "Markus Alexei".[3]
He has criticized both piracy[20] as well as the stance of large game companies on piracy[21] and he is a member of the Swedish Pirate Party.[22]
References
- ^ "Turning 30 is scary. : The Word of Notch". http://notch.tumblr.com/post/113753678/turning-30-is-scary. Retrieved 2011-02-22.
- ^ http://notch.tumblr.com/post/8829997577/wedding-weekend
- ^ a b c d e f "Notch!". http://www.mojang.com/notch/. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
- ^ a b Handy, Alex (2010-03-23). "Interview: Markus 'Notch' Persson Talks Making Minecraft". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27719/Interview_Markus_Notch_Persson_Talks_Making_Minecraft.php. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
- ^ McDougal, Jaz (2010-07-29). "Community heroes: Notch, for Minecraft". PC Gamer. http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/07/29/community-heroes-notch-for-minecraft/. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
- ^ Notch's biography
- ^ Jakob Porser. http://www.scrolls.com/ Accessed 2011-04-03
- ^ Markuss Persson.http://notch.tumblr.com/post/3597302583/ah-i-forgot Accessed 2011-04-03
- ^ Markuss Persson. http://notch.tumblr.com/post/8519901309/bethesda-are-suing-us-heres-the-full-story/ Accessed 2011-08-06
- ^ Markuss Perrson. http://notch.tumblr.com/post/9038258448/hey-bethesda-lets-settle-this/ Accessed 2011-08-17
- ^ Markuss Persson. http://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/118644693801250816 Accessed 2011-09-27
- ^ http://www.minecraftforum.net/news/246-releasing-the-game-releasing-legal-documents/ Accessed 2011-09-30
- ^ Markuss Perrson. http://notch.tumblr.com/post/10814623188/the-eventual-release-and-the-legal-documents Accessed 2011-09-30
- ^ Breaking the Tower
- ^ YouTube - Creating Breaking the Tower
- ^ Breaking The Tower | Rock, Paper, Shotgun
- ^ IndieGames.com - The Weblog
- ^ http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/08/26/person-shooter-metagun/
- ^ Prelude of the Chambered
- ^ "I am an indie game developer who made a commercially successful game". reddit. April 2011. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/gjrf4/iama_indie_game_developer_who_made_a_commercially/c1o1s34. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
- ^ "Notch on piracy: "if a pirated game is a lost sale, should bad reviews be illegal?"". PC Gamer. March 2, 2011. http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/02/notch-on-piracy-if-a-pirated-game-is-a-lost-sale-should-bad-reviews-be-illegal/. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
- ^ "Piracy is Theft? Ridiculous. Lost Sales? They Don't Exist, Says Minecraft Creator". TorrentFreak. March 3, 2011. http://torrentfreak.com/piracy-is-theft-ridiculous-lost-sales-they-dont-exist-says-minecraft-creator-110303/. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
External links
Categories:- Living people
- People from Stockholm
- Swedish computer programmers
- Video game designers
- Video game programmers
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