9 ms·
You won't believe how nice Notch's office is
- Tyrannosaurs 14y agoNice is clearly a matter of opinion. The space is great, the facilities and the culture they're obviously trying to create through them but let's just say it's not to my taste. Which is a polite way of saying that to me at least the place looks foul.
- k-mcgrady 14y agoFoul? What about it do you not like? It seems a bit over the top to me (it's an office not a private club) but interested as to why you dislike it so much.
- abrahamsen 14y agoThe dark, heavy furniture looks like what (Danish) furniture shops make for the US market, very different from the open, light, and minimalistic Scandinavian (mostly Swedish) design school used for products made for the home market. You know the design from IKEA, but there exists much more expensive (and somewhat higher quality) products. My first reaction was that this might be a deliberate provocation against what would be considered good taste in Sweden.
- adestefan 14y agoOr that different people have different tastes. Imagine that!
- Tyrannosaurs 14y agoSo the main things: 1) It's dark. Dark is nice for atmospheric, not so nice for avoiding eye strain, plus overall light is just more pleasing - ask an estate agent (realtor in the US?) what sells property - space and light is the answer. I know we're not selling the office here but it's a good measure of what people really like - what they're willing to pay for. 2) It does look more like a private club, but not just that, it manages to look like a private club without being high end. Look at that carpet - it looks like something you'd find in a budget hotel or conference center. 3) From a design perspective it just clashes - you've got at least three wood tones in there (including very dark and really pretty light), at least two different basic styles (the old world globe and leather chairs, the ornate candle stick and taps against the clean lines of the bar, the exposed ceiling, the light wooden floor). The more I look at it the more horrible I find it. And I should be clear, I have nothing against the more "traditional" look. I once worked for a major global law firm where the office decor was in places very conservative (think wood panels, ornate dark wood furniture in reception, thick carpets) and it was beautiful, and I live in a house that's about the same age as Texas which is obviously not modern in it's appearance. As I say, it's very much personal taste but whether you like it or not, I think it's hard to say that that the aesthetic is not all over the place. I'm sure someone who knows way more than me about such things can come along and tell me why it's all great from an interior design perspective but to me at least, it's a mess.
- catshirt 14y agofoul? really?
- herdrick 14y agoYep. Surprisingly tacky given the appreciation of simplicity shown in Minecraft.
- pnathan 14y agoWow. I think this place looks amazing. Leather and books and dimmer lighting are exactly my personal sweet spot.
- tluyben2 14y agoI would not say 'foul', but I wouldn't like to work in that space. It feels to heavy and I personally like techie things like devices splattered around and at least one 'hardware table' with a scope + soldering iron and such. Books are nice, but leather bound? Pretentious; I rather have books which are actually read and look shit. Of course it's a matter of taste and I think this part is nice to receive customers / partners. But for me (and at least a few of my colleagues) it would have to be a lot looser than this. And lighter. And about the suits; I have a bit of an issue with that because it was mandatory for programmers to wear a suit here not 15-20 years ago. And I did and hated it. I do it now when there are formal events or client contact, but outside that, I really feel forced if I wear such a thing. Again; matter of taste. I do agree you should try and that you DO feel more powerful doing it. It just doesn't mix that well with coding :) IMHO.
- RivieraKid 14y agoWow, I would really want to work in a place like that. I would probably feel more relaxed and creative than in the typical whiteish plain-looking offices.
- gilrain 14y agoTime will tell, but this is beginning to sound like echos of Ion Storm[1]. We've already got our Deus Ex out of Mojang, though -- my girlfriend and I still regularly play Minecraft together -- so I can't really feel any enmity for them. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Storm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Storm
- anonymouz 14y agoSeems to be quite a different story to me: Mojang has, with minimal expenses, already created an extremely successful (and profitable) game. It seems that they are now using some of that cash to get a really nice office. Ion Storm on the other hand basically used their fame and some promises of a future product to get a load of cash from investors, and spent that on a very nice office.
- TylerE 14y agoAnd now they have non-minimal expenses, and they are unlikely to have another hit of even half Minecraft's success ever again - Minecraft was a HUGE outlier.
- _djo_ 14y agoErm, 0x10c?[0] That's shaping up to be potential Minecraft-level success, if Notch can deliver what has been promised. [0] http://0x10c.com http://0x10c.com
- JustinJ70s 14y agoOne can only wonder if this game is going to be too geeky to cross over to significant adoption. I know a lot of people that got into Minecraft that would probably struggle with 0x10c.
- _djo_ 14y agoWhile I initially assumed the same, I think 0x10c could possibly evolve into a state that allows even casual players to be able to jump in without getting involved in the geekier aspects. For instance it be possible to have a Minecraft-esque gameplay mechanic on the planets and, as a player, to acquire through some in-game currency a pre-designed spacecraft created by others. So it could be played as an ordinary space trading game to an extent. In this form it'd be an extension of Minecraft. For others, I can see guilds being set up around exploitation of the programmable computers onboard spacecraft, with guilds developing their own encrypted communications protocols and attempting to break those of their competitors while still engaging in standard space game warfare with the added extra of electronic warfare. This is far geekier, but it has scope for players of varying skill levels occupying different roles without having to learn how to program the DCPU-16. This would be a sort of EVE Online scenario. There are other combinations that would be available, given a big enough community, a way to exchange items and the right gameplay dynamic. If Mojang gets that right and sells it right then 0x10c may potentially become a huge hit. Of course what I've described is ambitious in what's required from the game and there are a million things that could go wrong and make it too hard to make a game with this breadth and flexibility. The odds are against Notch and his team, but if they do succeed I think it'll be epic. Let's not forget that to an outside observer Minecraft is very geeky and quite confusing. It's a game without any gaming like most are used to, yet over time interest snowballed and non-gamers got into it based on recommendations. I hope the same could happen with 0x10c.
- chinmoy 14y agoNice to see a Kickstarter of this kind alive and kicking after raiding only $25,355. Keep it up!!
- eslachance 14y agoI think you got the wrong news item, buddy :P
- taybin 14y agoIt looks like a prohibition era speakeasy.
- minimax 14y agoWhere are the computers?
- 11031a 14y agowas thinking the same thing. maybe they pop out of the armrests of those leather chairs?
- ErrantX 14y agoSame thought occured to me. You can see some to the far left of the second image (the one after the collage). Then if you skip to the final image and note the shelf-unit (at the end of the long table) it snaps into focus - and you can just see the desks behind :)
- primitur 14y agoLaptops?
- stevesearer 14y agoIn the wide shot above the pool table, the workstations are in the background.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- quaunaut 14y agoWait, isn't their team like, less than a dozen people right now? Christ that's a lot of chairs. And space.
- citricsquid 14y agoThey have close to 30 employees, I think ~24 are in-office. Not sure if the list on the Minecraft wiki is accurate but it's pretty close (they added one maybe two in the recent weeks): http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Mojang http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Mojang
- scotth 14y agoReminds me of the holodeck. Are they working, or playing characters in a gangster/detective story?
- dkhenry 14y agoYou know what the first thing I pick up on is? Everyone is dressed nice. I don't know if that's just for the camera, but I see suits and vests all around. They look classy in a classy office. I wonder how the office would look if notch was wearing cut off shorts and a wife beater.
- petercooper 14y agoI don't know if that's just for the camera, That picture is about as posed as posed gets but in my (limited) experience, people in the tech industry do tend to dress 'up' somewhat more than in the US. But, you know, if notch were in a smoking jacket or a Hefner-style robe, I think it would still work ;-)
- tomjen3 14y agoCounterpoint. A few weeks ago one of my coworkers showed up in the kind of shoes that some people use on the beach (http://www.billig-sport.dk/public/produkt/stor/2699.jpg http://www.billig-sport.dk/public/produkt/stor/2699.jpg) with one of them only held together with duct tape. During the summer several people showed up with no shoes at all.
- lrm242 14y agoThey don't dress that way all the time. From what I've gathered they have "Formal Fridays". At first when I saw Notch mention this on Twitter I was a bit confused, but now I see it goes nicely with the theme of their office.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- jonknee 14y agoOur office did Suit Mondays last year. It was fun.
- untog 14y agoI like the idea of it, especially for companies that have clients/customers outside of tech. We're all comfortable in hoodies all day, but when you all have to turn up to meet at a government office you'll suddenly find that the suit you haven't tried on in over a year doesn't fit right, or has a stain you'd forgotten about. "Practising being formal" makes sense, I think.
- verroq 14y agoSo is there still a reason to why Minecraft is so buggy?
- MartinCron 14y agoHow can you even tell if something like Minecraft is buggy or not?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- thingie 14y agoNo, what I admire most isn't the office itself, though it's quite nice, it's the location. I can imagine that you can, for example, get some nice restaurants and few other option to get a real food within a walking distance. From my window, I can see just three freeways tightly surrounding this place-less office park from each side. And I am hungry, right now, there are just two ugly canteens that close by 2 PM anyway. It makes me feel desperate. Hunger is not nice.
- lucaspiller 14y agoHere in Europe business parks aren't really that popular for tech companies (unless you work for something like IBM, but I'd guess they'd have their own canteens), most are based in the city centre which is nice for lunches.
- rmc 14y agoExactly. Most small tech companies that I've worked for have always been in city centre locations.
- lewispollard 14y agoI worked for an IBM software lab in the UK and they had their own canteen catered by Upper Crust: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Crust_(restaurant_chain) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Crust_(restaurant_chain)
- nutjob123 14y agoNot to brag, but the midtown Manhattan food selection is outstanding. http://midtownlunch.com/lunch-by-food-type/ http://midtownlunch.com/lunch-by-food-type/
- TillE 14y agoI miss that about New York. If you avoid the tourist traps, you can get great food for reasonable prices. In Berlin pretty much all the food is cheap, but very little of it is good. The standard of sushi is generally passable, though it's not my favorite thing.
- mhomde 14y agoApparently I live right next doors to their office. Explains why I keep running in to Notch wherever I go, almost started to think he was stalking me :) Personally I wouldn't had gone in the "gentlemen's club"-direction, feels a bit old and stuffy as well as having some bad connotations (if it isn't meant to be ironic that is) but each to their own I guess :)
- Shorel 14y agoCan you elaborate on the bad connotations? Prohibition era gangsters?
- stusmall 14y agoMen only
- mhomde 14y agoThe theme they picked (this is from an article that ran in swedish media) is a british "Gentlemen's club". I don't know about you but for me that is a male-only upper-class establishment. I'm not so sure that's a vibe you want your indie gaming company to project. Then again, you can't politize everything and it's probably meant to just be different and be in "good fun", shrug Guess the good thing about having your own company is that you can do what you want :)
- Muzza 14y agoThere is a great deal of absurdity in modern society, which demands that everyone have spaces which they can call their own - except whites/white males, whose spaces must be open to everyone. Tell me, do women-only gyms also have bad connotations for you? What are the connotations of the "no whites allowed" workshops during the recent(ish) gay-pride idiocy in Gothenburg?
- buro9 14y agoThe word "Gentlemen" implies the class bit, but clubs and societies exist all over Britain from the humble workers clubs for the miners through to the exclusive clubs in the West End. Very few (perhaps none) are now gender exclusive. What you're missing is the role of the members clubs in the industrial revolution. They were instrumental as a place where business leaders could get together, relax, share ideas, views, experiences and do business. Debating the days' news, and enjoying a drink. From that light... I'd do it too. I'd build part of an office as a club and would encourage other startups and developers to drop-in and share. Gentleman's clubs were the environment for serendipity of their age. And even with mass communication and global travel, it remains the case that if you can get people together, relaxing, dreaming big ideas and laughing... magic can happen. Yeah, I'd build a club environment too. And it wouldn't be so I could pretend to be of that class, it would be to construct an environment that was proven to be good for serendipity. I'd also stock the bar well and subsidise it... helps to grease the wheels.
- zerostar07 14y agoNo light No light This is some kind of ultimate mancave, I can't imagine a girl working in there.
- citricsquid 14y agoThey have a couple of female employees, their finance manager is female and has worked there for about a year, their "director of fun" (manages events, media relations) is also female and has worked there for about 8 months. They both talk highly of the office so I guess it's more than just a "man cave".
- trotsky 14y agoI'm sure they could love it, but honestly - what else would anyone say when asked publicly about their famous bosses' big money decorator binge?
- citricsquid 14y agoTo clarify, I don't mean when asked. Here is an example tweet from Lydia (directory of fun) after returning from a trip: http://twitter.com/LydiaWinters/status/248842453178781696 http://twitter.com/LydiaWinters/status/248842453178781696
- JackC 14y agoHey, I don't know why you assume Mojang doesn't employ women. They totally have ... uh ... two female employees out of 28? http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Mojang_AB#Current_employees http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Mojang_AB#Current_employee... Oh, so that's why. Incidentally, I don't mean to call you out in particular, but when you call grownup female programmers "girls," lots of very cool women will decide to hang out somewhere else -- sort of for the same reason black men in the US aren't going to love it if someone calls them "boys." Not trying to police your language, just something to think about.
- paulhauggis 14y ago
- constant_change 14y agoI appreciate seeing an office for a successful indie company that doesn't consist of brick facades, exposed ventilation and a big open room filled with people, computers, video game consoles and foosball tables. I just appreciate the slightly more mature look than I'm used to seeing glorified in office pictorials for tech companies. That being said, I don't see ANY computers there, so maybe they just didn't picture their brickwork in this photo shoot.
- Tipzntrix 14y agoEh, the place would be amazing to relax in, but I feel like it would be too distracting to work. Notch might be different though.
- zalzane 14y agoYeah, I feel like this would be a huge issue. I can't that kind of office wringing any kind of productivity out of his employees with how it's set up. Not that providing some entertainment for employees isn't a good thing, however this seems way overboard.
- andyjohnson0 14y agoSlightly OT, but lots of pictures of other offices here: http://www.officesnapshots.com/ http://www.officesnapshots.com/
- timdiggerm 14y agoI wonder if they got the space checked out by an architect, or some kind of inspector. Probably not, as that would be destroying the open platform of building whatever you want.
- logn 14y ago"many leather-bound books, and... smells of rich mahogany"
- hnriot 14y agoI can't imagine getting any work done there, but since there are no computers, I'm assuming nobody does, and this is really just a set for some HBO drama. To me, this is a huge waste of time and money. Good for the economy though I suppose.
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y agoThere are computers in the room at the back of the third photo, and at the right of it. Also, I expect many of them use the rest of the space to dream up ideas, plan, and work on laptops.
- tibbon 14y agoAn interesting observation, on Kotaku the comments are focusing on a weird jealousy over Notch's success. Comments about people suddenly regretting buying a license to Minecraft, saying how tasteless the offices are, or how bad things are in Africa.
- MartinCron 14y agoPro tip: Never read the comments on Kotaku. You're welcome.
- pycassa 14y ago"meanwhile in Africa.." thing might be a joke.. come on, you can't possibly think that the guy posted that comment is jealous..
- lucasdailey 14y agoAs a (steel & glass) architect I'm certain this is not an expensive office when compared to other tech companies. I think most people are being fooled by the "high-class americana" style, but really this does not cost more than a high-end minimalist office. Question the style choices, sure, but the assumption that is in anyway more expensive than average is completely false.
- bluthru 14y agoSame here. It seems as if the color palette is throwing people off.
- lucasdailey 14y agoAgreed, though I think the dramatic lighting is responsible for most of it.
- tomjen3 14y agoIf the price is about the same, why does anyone go for glass & steel? This is so much better.
- evan_ 14y agowood and leather are less durable and harder to clean probably
- Evbn 14y agoNaw, distressed wood and leather are fine, if they are thick to begin with .
- lucasdailey 14y agoPersonal preferences, design philosophies, lots of reasons. I find that office to be pretty unappealing, personally.
- 14y ago
- caycep 14y agoI can't see how any work gets done in this office whatsoever!
- Nux 14y agoNice, but it looks more like a place for pleasure than for work.
- nhebb 14y agoSomething about the lighting makes it look odd - like a showcase at a furniture store.
- nilsimsa 14y agoI guess you can save a lot of money not hiring texture artists.
- dromidas 14y agoNotch = John Ralphio? Nice office but it's almost too try-hard :P There are better ways to make good work environments than make it look like something out of a sitcom.