Minecraft: The Story of Mojang

2012
Minecraft: The Story of Mojang
7.1| 1h44m| en| More Info
Released: 23 December 2012 Released
Producted By: 2 Player Productions
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.minecraftstoryofmojang.com
Synopsis

Minecraft: The Story of Mojang is a feature-length documentary that follows the young company over the course of its first year as their profile expanded across the world stage and into the homes of millions of gamers. Featuring insights from industry icons (Peter Molyneux, Tim Schafer), journalists (Geoff Keighley, Stephen Totilo), tastemakers (Gabe & Tycho of Penny Arcade), and players profoundly impacted by the game (Yogscast, The Shaft, Minecraft Teacher), the film serves as a time capsule for one of this generation's most unorthodox success stories. Minecraft: The Story of Mojang is the second feature from game culture archivists 2 Player Productions (Reformat the Planet, Penny Arcade: The Series - Season 1, Double Fine Adventure!). Funded through crowdsourcing site Kickstarter.com, the production spanned nearly two years in locations across North America and Europe.

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Reviews

fartnutsaywhat I would say that overall, I found this 1 hour and 47 minute documentary to be annoying and less informative than a Wikipedia page I could read in 10 minutes The scenes with the kids and the lets-players felt unnecessary and detracted from the original purpose of the documentary, which seemed like it was to provide insight on the development of Minecraft. I get that those scenes were present to show the wide range of appeal that Minecraft has, but there were so many of them that it started to feel like the filmmakers just wanted to make the documentary last longer than an hour and were running out of interview material. There were also a lot of times when an interviewer asked Notch the same type of question and received the same kind of answer from Notch each time. The type of question I'm referring to is along the lines of: "did you ever expect Minecraft to become so popular?", or "did you ever expect that ______ would happen because of Minecraft?", with Notch basically giving the same answer of "no" each time. This probably sounds like nitpicking, but it happens so often that I couldn't not mention it. My verdict is that I don't think this should have been almost two hours long, because the content added to fill for time is just that, filler. I'd give it a 5/10, with it's only saving graces being the production value and the scarce amount of scenes that actually have some kind of significance.
StrongKanegou I recently was in the lucky position to watch three documentaries on video games in rather short succession (Get Lamp, Indie Game: The Movie, and Minecraft: The Story of Mojang). In this trifecta, Get Lamp has to probably be the odd man out, since Indie Game and Minecraft revolve around recently released indie games, whereas Get Lamp presents itself more like a nostalgic retrospection. Still, out of those three, Minecraft, I am afraid to say, turns out to be the weakest - for a variety of reasons.The movie documented facts and events after Minecraft had circulated the internets, turning out to be a tremendous success and having created an immense fan base. This may be partially due to the fact, that the film was founded through Kickstarter and thus needed some time until it was in the clear financially (I am not familiar with the exact details, though). The thing with Minecraft is, however, that the game is probably the most thoroughly documented gaming phenomenon on the internet (being responsible for numerous Let's Players and game commentators on YouTube) – those videos alone vividly depict the endless possibilities Minecraft has to offer and are able to make you understand why it turned out to be the phenomenon it is, even if you are not familiar with the game itself.So what does this documentary add? Well, other than Indie Game, which focused on the people behind the games, their relation to what they were doing, and the reason why they did it or do it, Minecraft basically renders Markus Persson as a nice guy who simply lucked out making a game that he thought would be cool to play himself. Period. And then moves on to all the other aspects that are the Minecraft phenomenon – all of which, however, you are able to witness yourself first-hand by using your internet connection. Do I need a documentary to inform me about the existence of The Shaft or Yogscast? Or that Persson founded a company and is working on a new game? The most insightful comments are probably Peter Molyneux's in which he explains why he thinks Minecraft is such a big hit and discloses the fact that Minecraft played a role in him founding yet another game dev studio. Guys, seriously, for having Peter Molyneux, Tim Schafer, and Jonathan Blow (although he just makes a very brief appearance) available for interviews, these are pretty meager yields.For fans of the game it absolutely may be interesting to see more of the people behind the game (especially 'Notch' Persson – and it is good to see that he has remained a likable, down-to-earth guy, despite being responsible for possibly one of *the* gaming sensation of this decade), for the average gamer or documentary aficionado, however, this might be too little. Where Indie Game was able to tell a captivating story about the minds behind the games, Minecraft is asking the right people the wrong questions and leaves the viewer with an unsorted array of factoids about the phenomenon that is Minecraft.
plugfixer This is a documentary on the company that made Minecraft which is Mojang. If you have never played Minecraft then this documentary will make you want to pretty badly. I for one have played Minecraft and it is by far one of the most funnest indie games i have ever played. This documentary gives you a outstanding look on what went on and how it was made. I in my own way could have add some things but in all this documentary said it all. Also if you are a gamer or Minecraft player you will enjoy this documentary at most because it goes behind how a small place can make such a big game and how some companies can get started for a slow or fast perspective.
woody-lad Just finished watching the film and all I can say was, inspirational. The film takes you on a journey from how the game first started and carries you through this parallel to the journey of notch, the creator of the gameIt shows how one single man built nothing short of an empire. It gives real inspiration to those who are indie game developers or anyone who has a dream. Even if you aren't a Minecraft fan I can't see you could walk away from this without feeling that little bit of inspiration. It shows how the games popularity increasing grew through the last year. Giving views of those from the public as well as those who have supported Minecraft. Game developers give their humble opinions and talk about how Minecraft has made them go on to view game design and development in a different way.It's great for those die hard Minecraft fans and a soon as I'd seen the credits roll all I wanted to do is log in and start playing. If you've never heard of Minecraft, this will make you want to at least try it, but even for a causal or non-gamer this inspiring and collective journey will leave a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Nothing short of fantastic. 2PP has done a great job.