Giving life to a game that is notorious for not having any real plot or development within the story, Telltale did an incredible job capturing the world of Minecraft . They gave insight into the inhabitants of whatever world Minecraft takes place in and what they do when they aren’t building or crafting. Inhabitants don’t go around killing every zombie and spider in sight and in fact aren’t actually set on mining for the greatest minerals to build the biggest buildings and the greatest weapons, which makes sense. With the decision-based mechanics of the episode, you give Jesse the opportunity to make his,(or her) own decisions that will essentially shape his personality as well as the way that others perceive him. Though a good majority of the decisions only result in “She/He will remember that,” some are detrimental decisions that can make or break your situation. Regardless of how you play the episode, it offers a lot more than just being a TV show that you play and allows players the chance to create the story that they couldn’t play before. For being only the first episode in this five episode series, the series gets off to an incredible start.
If someone has utterly exhausted the secrets of Minecraft Dungeons and is now looking for a fresh dungeon crawler or rogue-like fix, then they can rest easy in knowing that they have options. Some of the recommended games like Minecraft Dungeons also have similar ESRB rati
From the same people that brought us Game of Thrones and Tales From the Borderlands comes their newest decision based game, Minecraft: Story Mode. Telltale Games is notorious for their rigorous storytelling and memorable characters and this time is no different. You play as Jesse, regardless of which gender you choose at the beginning, who is on a mission to create the greatest build at EnderCon, (Enderman Convention if you didn’t catch on). The winner gets to meet the great Gabriel of the Order of the Stone, a group of people who slayed the Ender Dragon years ago but have disbanded since. Of course, the episode would be nothing without some kind of story of revenge that spirals the characters into an adventure that they would have never seen themselves in. Someone sets out to create a Wither, a huge monster that sets out to consume everything, leaving you and your friends to seek out the Order of the Stone. You are accompanied by your friends Olivia, confidant and trusty, Axel, large and loyal, and Reuben, a pig. Telltale hit the nail on the head this time with a different, family-friendly take on one of their main installments. No prior knowledge of the original building game is needed, but it would help if you had some basic terminology.
Clocking in at roughly two hours, this episode is one of the longer Telltale episodes right behind the first episode of Tales from the Borderlands. Even though it’s generally long for an episode, it doesn’t mean that time was wasted. With every passing second, new lore is learned about this rendition of the Minecraft Online guide world and how characters perceive the strange world around them. Who knew that people were pretty used to the idea of killing a dragon from another dimension and hosting a convention in honor of the heroes who slew it?
Galactic Café went a step further with their Stanley Parable demo, creating new content not just for the free demo on steam, but for various venues that showcased the game. While all offered a short bit of meta-commentary on the nature of demos (pretty much the only way you could convey the core concept of the game without spoiling it), each was tailored to a specific scenario. The demo at PAX took some lighthearted jabs at Octodad (which was just across from it in the Indie Megabooth), and at one point made the player stand up and apologize to the audience for playing the demo so poorly. A special version made for Game Grumps addressed Danny and Ross by name. In this case, the demos were an unbridled success, building enough hype for the small indie game to garner 100,000 sales in 3 days.
What do I mean by that? In game development terms, a “vertical slice,” is a gameplay segment of finished or near-finished quality that showcases all the planned features of a game to potential investors. At the start of a project, these are a massive sink for time and effort, since they essentially involve doing all the hard parts of finishing a game to complete one 10-minute section. Generally, they’re seen as a bad practice. However, toward the end of development, it’s a lot easier to pull assets together for a vertical slice. Of course, if you’re shopping your game around to publishers at that stage, you’re probably in a lot of trouble, but a standalone “vertical slice” can also serve as a strong alternative to a traditional demo.
Minecraft: Story Mode strays from the more mature content that Telltale normally associates themselves with and manages to create a fun, family-friendly world for one with no real story. The episode is expertly done and gives players a perfect standalone game to the critically acclaimed game from Mojang. With the new lore introduced in the first episode, it’s hard to believe what other new content will be available to us in the coming episodes. By focusing on a new concept that strays from their normally mature games, this episode paves the way for what is hopefully a great series from a great developer.
