10 ms·

Microsoft makes it easier to build Minecraft Mods using Visual Studio

216 points by Navarr 11y ago

lucasmullens 11y ago
Gaming gets so many people into programming. I started with GameMaker when I was 10 and I know plenty of people who've started with modding. This is fantastic.
smrtinsert 11y ago
I thought Minecraft had no official SDK for modding? I think that would be a nicer first step.
- strictnein 11y ago
  Yes, it really would. As would an official way to load mods. I get a headache every time I try to set one up for my kids. Wish it was as easy as loading a wad in Doom 2 was: doom2 -file dwango5.wad
  - vectorjohn 11y ago
    http://www.technicpack.net/ http://www.technicpack.net/ Very easy, just use this. Edit: I should say, it's not official of course. But it takes all the headache out of using mods. And the mods use the same modding framework it seems Microsoft is using.
    - cptroot 11y ago
      For what it's worth, Feed The Beast[1] has similar content to technic pack, but they actually work with mod developers when they release a mod pack. [1] http://www.feed-the-beast.com http://www.feed-the-beast.com
- oldmanjay 11y ago
  It seems, although I say this having no actual knowledge, that Microsoft is preparing to release a .NET version of Minecraft. I suspect that's a big driver for the ongoing push to federate the framework across the major platforms. I would imagine any official modding API would happen once that release is complete. Granted, I could be totally wrong on this, but it's fun speculation.
  - TillE 11y ago
    > a .NET version of Minecraft That would be really quick. It's only been about seven months since the acquisition, and Minecraft is not a simple game. I have no doubt they are rewriting the game (or a sequel) from scratch, but I wouldn't expect to see it any time soon.
    - neovive 11y ago
      This would make a lot of sense for Microsoft, since the Minecraft brand is so strong. If anyone has ever played Project Spark from Microsoft (Team Dakota), there are quite a few synergies there as well.
    - soup10 11y ago
      They have some of the codebase in c++ already from minecraft Xbox and pocket edition versions. If they expect it to be a long term ip/revenue source they will probably want a unified c++ codebase. Hard to improve the graphics engine much without biting that bullet.
    - magicalist 11y ago
      Yeah, the team is still actively tweeting updates about adding features and refactoring parts of the original code base. There's not even a slight chance a port would be even out of the planning stages. Even the most gung-ho C# pusher at Microsoft would also ask what benefit porting it would give. Years (if we're being realistic) just to get to feature parity all so it runs on top of .NET?
  - ultimape 11y ago
    Well, the xbox version of minecraft could be ported back to pc.
- Navarr 11y ago
  Not only do they not, but there is still no official way of modding Minecraft ;) https://twitter.com/Dinnerbone/status/593841459222212608 https://twitter.com/Dinnerbone/status/593841459222212608
  - AaronFriel 11y ago
    Nathan Adams is a brave developer, seeing as how his parent company just held their annual conference and showcased a featured way to create and distribute Minecraft mods. This is akin to someone working on Windows saying, "Just a reminder: there is no official way to run Windows on a Raspberry Pi 2 & we still do not officially support ARM. We are working on it" Uhm. Okay, Nathan, but your boss's boss just delivered a keynote presentation and told tens of thousands of people otherwise.
- pdkl95 11y ago
  The modding API has been vaporware for so long it inspired a friendly roasting by the Yogscast - in the form of an animated cover of "Stop the Cavalry". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-zthYFjk6s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-zthYFjk6s Practically speaking, for some time now Forge has been the community-made SDK that has replaced. There are a handful of others, but a vast majority of mods use Forge. At this point, given how many mods are already written[1], it would probably be really hard to introduce an "official" API and/or SDK unless it has explicit support for Forge. [1] one probably-incomplete list: http://modlist.mcf.li/version/1.7.10 http://modlist.mcf.li/version/1.7.10 edit: It seems MS's devkit does have Forge support baked in. edit2: It's worth mentioning that Yogscast's "Where's the modding API" cover mentioned above was published on Dec 20, 2013.
ryanburk 11y ago
the brilliant long play here is that if I program with my kids using this, they are growing up on the VS IDE. gets them in the ecosystem really early.
- pbhjpbhj 11y ago
  Was this possibly at the forefront of the decision to buy Minecraft - like how do we get kids in at the ground floor; or is that so obvious I should kick myself for not seeing it before. I saw it as a userbase acquisition before but didn't see how it fed in to their other business outside gaming, smart.
neovive 11y ago
This looks great for more experienced programmers. If you're working with younger kids, using Minecraft as a way to introduce programming, here are some good options: * Minecraft Pi - code and run Minecraft mods in Python (https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/getting-started-with-minecraft-pi/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/getting-started-with-mi...). If not running on a Raspberry Pi, you can use Raspberry Juice (http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/raspberryjuice/ http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/raspberryjuice/) which implements most of the Minecraft Pi API. * Scriptcraft (http://scriptcraftjs.org/ http://scriptcraftjs.org/) - create mods using Javascript. * LearnToMod (http://www.learntomod.com/ http://www.learntomod.com/) - commercial service that allows modding using a visual language (I think they use Blockly which is similar to Scratch).
- vectorjohn 11y ago
  Why on earth would you get raspberry pi into the mix with Minecraft modding? Python for mods seems great, but that's just using extra hardware for the sake of it.
  - wensheng 11y ago
    With the said RaspberryJuice you don't need to have a Raspberry Pi. I wrote a RaspberryJuice+Python command server so you can have run python functions inside minecraft. [0] [0] https://github.com/wensheng/JuicyRaspberryPie https://github.com/wensheng/JuicyRaspberryPie
  - dmoo 11y ago
    Because the Pi version of minecraft has an api http://wiki.vg/Minecraft_Pi_Protocol http://wiki.vg/Minecraft_Pi_Protocol Also if you have younger kids check out https://github.com/scratch2mcpi/scratch2mcpi https://github.com/scratch2mcpi/scratch2mcpi run a scratch extension on your pc and place blocks in minecraft on the Pi. It goes down well at our local coderdojo.
    - neovive 11y ago
      The scratch2mcpi sounds great. I mentor at a local coderdojo as well.
erikb 11y ago
I love that Minecrosoft under it's new leadership works harder on doing cool stuff. That really puts it back more in focus, at least for me. Maybe I'm even switching back one day, who knows.
- nacs 11y ago
  This is a good move by MS but most of this work is done by the Forge team [1] which is a community of open source people that have been doing the hard work for years -- they deobfuscate/reverse engineer Minecraft code and build an API for it. MS has basically just packaged up a way for working with that API through Visual studio (before this, you would have used Eclipse or any other Java IDE and still can). [1]: https://github.com/MinecraftForge/MinecraftForge https://github.com/MinecraftForge/MinecraftForge
- jebblue 11y ago
  >> cool stuff Cool announcements of stuff does not always equal cool stuff.
evo_9 11y ago
This is pretty awesome. Hopefully they figure out a way to allow me to write my mods in C#, that would just sweeten the deal that much more (I know Minecraft is a Java app, just saying that would be a cool feature if they can work that out).
- Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
  This project of mine may interest you: https://github.com/SirCmpwn/TrueCraft https://github.com/SirCmpwn/TrueCraft
  - scrollaway 11y ago
    I'm excited. How far along is it?
    - Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
      Check out the blog: http://truecraft.io http://truecraft.io It's got: - Multiplayer support - Entities (items, sand, gravel) - World and player data persistence - Crafting - Farming - Procedural terrain generation About 10% of the world logic (i.e. the movement of water, growth of plants, behavior of doors) is implemented. Notably missing: mobs, combat, redstone, smelting.
yarrel 11y ago
Won't someone think of the children?
emodendroket 11y ago
I don't have much interest in Minecraft, but it's interesting to see that you can now use Visual Studio to write Java.
dikaiosune 11y ago
Is this a new venture to support Java in VS? I was under the impression that they didn't really do Java in the MS IDEs. If so, that's far bigger news than Minecraft-specific support.
- billyhoffman 11y ago
  I hope so. They would have and some code/features left over from a decade ago when you could write "java" code in Visual Studio as VisualJ. Conceivable the interfaces for hooking the debugger, the syntax highlighting, and all that jazz that VS already has to support could be (re)extended to support the JVM and JRE once again
  - JonathonW 11y ago
    Doesn't look like it; looks like it's all based on open-source tools written by third parties. Syntax highlighting, Java project support, and the debugger come from the Java Language Support VS extension [1], and Intellisense support is being pulled from a bundled Eclipse instance running the Eclipse Java tools. [1] https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/bc561769-36ff-4a40-9504-e266e8706f93 https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/bc561769-36ff...
- julianz 11y ago
  I thought that as well. Roll on Android dev?
burningion 11y ago
This is incredible. Getting Minecraft modding working in Visual Studio is how you are going to get the next generation of kids interested in programming. If you haven't watched a 12 year old play Minecraft, you need to do so. It's the ultimate fantasy universe, and the way you combine elements to make something new is very analogous to programming in the vanilla game. Adding a way to customize this universe will just explode the interest in programming among young people. It's really unfortunate that there is so much time being devoted to "teaching programming" to kids, instead of "teaching playing on computers". "Teaching programming" feels serious and adult, and doesn't leave room for fun. I've had said 12 year old try multiple times to "learn programming", only to give up when things aren't as great as they'd imagined in their head, after having spent hours just trying to figure out the right version of Python, and how to get a shell set up, and how to get something on the screen. Imagine the result of having your for loop create millions of blocks accidentally in your universe, and seeing that mistake happen in a non-threatening way. This is the sort of thing that makes computing and abstract thinking easier for everyone. Giving an open universe to kids with the blocks to effect their world is just an insane tool. Kudos to MS for the hard work, and putting it out so early.
- iamcreasy 11y ago
  I grew up with Lego. I am getting the rush!
  - cmdrfred 11y ago
    I grew up with lego and moved on to mine craft. I'm not ashamed to say I still can get lost in that game and I'm 26. This gives me a reason to play with visual studio.
    - iamcreasy 11y ago
      Hey, I am 26 too. To be honest, I never had the rush while playing Minecraft, but I get it why children would love to play Minecraft. Nowadays I am more into stories and narratives. Building games. Stories that transform our lives.
- 11y ago
istvan__ 11y ago
Finally I got it, all of these new projects from MS, and the real reason is: to build Mincecraft Mods! :) I could not approve the new direction MS is taking.
- qbrass 11y ago
  Windows 11 will just be Minecraft with a web browser and the ability to run Office. Improving the ability for people to make mods now will provide an ecosystem for future Windows app development.
  - PhasmaFelis 11y ago
    Finally, a solid platform on which to implement the ideas from "Doom as a tool for system administration." http://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/flake/doom/ http://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/flake/doom/
Macha 11y ago
Sometimes solutions that have evolved over times end up being ludicrous in retrospect. * Microsoft are releasing a game. * Where they obfuscate the code so people can't read it * And mod tools * Built on community scripts * Which decompile the code and rename the obfuscated variables to give readable names At what stage does it make more sense for MS to tell Mojang to drop the obfuscation and move to a "visible source" model?
- iwwr 11y ago
  The objective was to protect Mojang's IP on the (probably mistaken) idea that if they release the source code it means they lose control over it. Added to that, my own speculation is that members of the modding community want to keep the barrier to entry for writing mods relatively high, for some reason or another. Some modders, including the brilliant Eloraam (maker of RedPower), want to maintain their own mods as proprietary and obfuscated.
  - UberMouse 11y ago
    They don't have to release the source code. They just need to stop running the bytecode through an obfuscator.
    - deathanatos 11y ago
      I don't even think they need go that far: only the bits that would form some sort of stable API would need to not be obfuscated. They could still do whatever with anything internal.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - mutagen 11y ago
    When I looked at the Minecraft mod scene a few years ago mods were generally monetized through distribution, generally only available for download through ad-laden 'locker' sites. Also, I think that many developers aware of software licensing issues stayed away due to the murky legal issues surrounding Minecraft modding.
kohsuke 11y ago
I always thought a better way to combine programming & minecraft for kids would be something like ComputerCraft (http://www.computercraft.info/ http://www.computercraft.info/), where you can program a robot inside the Minecraft world to do stuff for you, like building road/bridge, digging tunnels, etc. ComputerCraft is Lua-based, but I can imagine something similar based on CLR, and that way you can let kids program in C# from Visual Studio. Programming a bot is much simpler and even a very simple program (like digging a tunnel straight) is instantly gratifying. Writing a mod has a much higher barrier to the entry, AIU.
giancarlostoro 11y ago
Microsoft sneaks Java into Visual Studio.
malkia 11y ago
This is some serious fun! My son would love it... But I no longer have Windows machines (couple of croutonized chromebooks and iBooks)... Anyone had an idea?
- nacs 11y ago
  The Forge API [1], which this is basically just a wrapper for, is already available on every platform (it's Java). You could use Eclipse or any Java IDE. https://github.com/MinecraftForge/MinecraftForge https://github.com/MinecraftForge/MinecraftForge
voltagex_ 11y ago
And it's open source! https://github.com/Microsoft/vsminecraft https://github.com/Microsoft/vsminecraft
PhasmaFelis 11y ago
Part of me wants to bitch about what a missed opportunity it was, letting Microsoft take over and tie this to their own dev environment. But on the other hand, taking even a single step back from the previous (effectively) actively hostile approach to the modding community (needlessly obfuscating the bytecode, promising and then pushing back mod tools) is more than we had under Notch.
TOMDM 11y ago
As an aside, I think it's worth looking at the Minecraft communities thoughts on the 'official' modding api for the game. Dinnerbone (aka Nathan Adams, the most community orientated Dev on mojangs Minecraft team) recently tweeted "Just a reminder: there is no official way to mod Minecraft & we still do not officially support mods. We are still working on the plugin API" and the community sentiment shows that they really are getting sick of the ever prolonged promise of a modding api. The comments on the reddit thread about dinnerbones tweet are largely hostile. http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/34ffag/dinnerbone_on_twitter_just_a_reminder_there_is_no/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/34ffag/dinnerbone...
deevus 11y ago
Link seems broken to me
rurounijones 11y ago
I keep on getting asked to login, anyone got a non-login site?
kristianp 11y ago
I can't get to the page without logging in to my Microsoft account. Very strange.
gcb0 11y ago
but i still have to $19 to download the windows phone emulator to use with the free VS2013 comunity edition... sigh
- badlam 11y ago
  no you don't, just click on download link. You may need an account to publish it.
  - gcb0 11y ago
    yes i do. clicked on the update notification. it took me to a sign up page (after i logeed in with my MS account) in the browser. i signed up. it said i had to have a special account and that i could register. the second page on the registration force me to choose either individual for $19 or enterprise for some other value. there is absolutely no way on that flow to download it. i always get to that page.
    - gcb0 11y ago
      OK, after getting the link somewhere else and starting the installer it tells me that i can't install on windows 7 somehow the download link, directly from VS, sees that I'm on windows 7 and instead of telling me that keep sending me to the payment screen. clever Microsoft...
hobarrera 11y ago
Does anyone have a link that doesn't require registration to read?

216 points by Navarr 11y ago

Gaming gets so many people into programming. I started with GameMaker when I was 10 and I know plenty of people who've started with modding. This is fantastic.

smrtinsert 11y ago

I thought Minecraft had no official SDK for modding? I think that would be a nicer first step.

strictnein 11y ago
Yes, it really would. As would an official way to load mods. I get a headache every time I try to set one up for my kids. Wish it was as easy as loading a wad in Doom 2 was: doom2 -file dwango5.wad
- vectorjohn 11y ago
  http://www.technicpack.net/ http://www.technicpack.net/ Very easy, just use this. Edit: I should say, it's not official of course. But it takes all the headache out of using mods. And the mods use the same modding framework it seems Microsoft is using.
  - cptroot 11y ago
    For what it's worth, Feed The Beast[1] has similar content to technic pack, but they actually work with mod developers when they release a mod pack. [1] http://www.feed-the-beast.com http://www.feed-the-beast.com
oldmanjay 11y ago
It seems, although I say this having no actual knowledge, that Microsoft is preparing to release a .NET version of Minecraft. I suspect that's a big driver for the ongoing push to federate the framework across the major platforms. I would imagine any official modding API would happen once that release is complete. Granted, I could be totally wrong on this, but it's fun speculation.
- TillE 11y ago
  > a .NET version of Minecraft That would be really quick. It's only been about seven months since the acquisition, and Minecraft is not a simple game. I have no doubt they are rewriting the game (or a sequel) from scratch, but I wouldn't expect to see it any time soon.
  - neovive 11y ago
    This would make a lot of sense for Microsoft, since the Minecraft brand is so strong. If anyone has ever played Project Spark from Microsoft (Team Dakota), there are quite a few synergies there as well.
  - soup10 11y ago
    They have some of the codebase in c++ already from minecraft Xbox and pocket edition versions. If they expect it to be a long term ip/revenue source they will probably want a unified c++ codebase. Hard to improve the graphics engine much without biting that bullet.
  - magicalist 11y ago
    Yeah, the team is still actively tweeting updates about adding features and refactoring parts of the original code base. There's not even a slight chance a port would be even out of the planning stages. Even the most gung-ho C# pusher at Microsoft would also ask what benefit porting it would give. Years (if we're being realistic) just to get to feature parity all so it runs on top of .NET?
- ultimape 11y ago
  Well, the xbox version of minecraft could be ported back to pc.
Navarr 11y ago
Not only do they not, but there is still no official way of modding Minecraft ;) https://twitter.com/Dinnerbone/status/593841459222212608 https://twitter.com/Dinnerbone/status/593841459222212608
- AaronFriel 11y ago
  Nathan Adams is a brave developer, seeing as how his parent company just held their annual conference and showcased a featured way to create and distribute Minecraft mods. This is akin to someone working on Windows saying, "Just a reminder: there is no official way to run Windows on a Raspberry Pi 2 & we still do not officially support ARM. We are working on it" Uhm. Okay, Nathan, but your boss's boss just delivered a keynote presentation and told tens of thousands of people otherwise.
pdkl95 11y ago
The modding API has been vaporware for so long it inspired a friendly roasting by the Yogscast - in the form of an animated cover of "Stop the Cavalry". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-zthYFjk6s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-zthYFjk6s Practically speaking, for some time now Forge has been the community-made SDK that has replaced. There are a handful of others, but a vast majority of mods use Forge. At this point, given how many mods are already written[1], it would probably be really hard to introduce an "official" API and/or SDK unless it has explicit support for Forge. [1] one probably-incomplete list: http://modlist.mcf.li/version/1.7.10 http://modlist.mcf.li/version/1.7.10 edit: It seems MS's devkit does have Forge support baked in. edit2: It's worth mentioning that Yogscast's "Where's the modding API" cover mentioned above was published on Dec 20, 2013.

ryanburk 11y ago

the brilliant long play here is that if I program with my kids using this, they are growing up on the VS IDE. gets them in the ecosystem really early.

pbhjpbhj 11y ago
Was this possibly at the forefront of the decision to buy Minecraft - like how do we get kids in at the ground floor; or is that so obvious I should kick myself for not seeing it before. I saw it as a userbase acquisition before but didn't see how it fed in to their other business outside gaming, smart.

neovive 11y ago

This looks great for more experienced programmers. If you're working with younger kids, using Minecraft as a way to introduce programming, here are some good options: * Minecraft Pi - code and run Minecraft mods in Python (https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/getting-started-with-minecraft-pi/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/getting-started-with-mi...). If not running on a Raspberry Pi, you can use Raspberry Juice (http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/raspberryjuice/ http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/raspberryjuice/) which implements most of the Minecraft Pi API. * Scriptcraft (http://scriptcraftjs.org/ http://scriptcraftjs.org/) - create mods using Javascript. * LearnToMod (http://www.learntomod.com/ http://www.learntomod.com/) - commercial service that allows modding using a visual language (I think they use Blockly which is similar to Scratch).

vectorjohn 11y ago
Why on earth would you get raspberry pi into the mix with Minecraft modding? Python for mods seems great, but that's just using extra hardware for the sake of it.
- wensheng 11y ago
  With the said RaspberryJuice you don't need to have a Raspberry Pi. I wrote a RaspberryJuice+Python command server so you can have run python functions inside minecraft. [0] [0] https://github.com/wensheng/JuicyRaspberryPie https://github.com/wensheng/JuicyRaspberryPie
- dmoo 11y ago
  Because the Pi version of minecraft has an api http://wiki.vg/Minecraft_Pi_Protocol http://wiki.vg/Minecraft_Pi_Protocol Also if you have younger kids check out https://github.com/scratch2mcpi/scratch2mcpi https://github.com/scratch2mcpi/scratch2mcpi run a scratch extension on your pc and place blocks in minecraft on the Pi. It goes down well at our local coderdojo.
  - neovive 11y ago
    The scratch2mcpi sounds great. I mentor at a local coderdojo as well.

erikb 11y ago

I love that Minecrosoft under it's new leadership works harder on doing cool stuff. That really puts it back more in focus, at least for me. Maybe I'm even switching back one day, who knows.

nacs 11y ago
This is a good move by MS but most of this work is done by the Forge team [1] which is a community of open source people that have been doing the hard work for years -- they deobfuscate/reverse engineer Minecraft code and build an API for it. MS has basically just packaged up a way for working with that API through Visual studio (before this, you would have used Eclipse or any other Java IDE and still can). [1]: https://github.com/MinecraftForge/MinecraftForge https://github.com/MinecraftForge/MinecraftForge
jebblue 11y ago
>> cool stuff Cool announcements of stuff does not always equal cool stuff.

evo_9 11y ago

This is pretty awesome. Hopefully they figure out a way to allow me to write my mods in C#, that would just sweeten the deal that much more (I know Minecraft is a Java app, just saying that would be a cool feature if they can work that out).

Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
This project of mine may interest you: https://github.com/SirCmpwn/TrueCraft https://github.com/SirCmpwn/TrueCraft
- scrollaway 11y ago
  I'm excited. How far along is it?
  - Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
    Check out the blog: http://truecraft.io http://truecraft.io It's got: - Multiplayer support - Entities (items, sand, gravel) - World and player data persistence - Crafting - Farming - Procedural terrain generation About 10% of the world logic (i.e. the movement of water, growth of plants, behavior of doors) is implemented. Notably missing: mobs, combat, redstone, smelting.

yarrel 11y ago

Won't someone think of the children?

emodendroket 11y ago

I don't have much interest in Minecraft, but it's interesting to see that you can now use Visual Studio to write Java.

dikaiosune 11y ago

Is this a new venture to support Java in VS? I was under the impression that they didn't really do Java in the MS IDEs. If so, that's far bigger news than Minecraft-specific support.

billyhoffman 11y ago
I hope so. They would have and some code/features left over from a decade ago when you could write "java" code in Visual Studio as VisualJ. Conceivable the interfaces for hooking the debugger, the syntax highlighting, and all that jazz that VS already has to support could be (re)extended to support the JVM and JRE once again
- JonathonW 11y ago
  Doesn't look like it; looks like it's all based on open-source tools written by third parties. Syntax highlighting, Java project support, and the debugger come from the Java Language Support VS extension [1], and Intellisense support is being pulled from a bundled Eclipse instance running the Eclipse Java tools. [1] https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/bc561769-36ff-4a40-9504-e266e8706f93 https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/bc561769-36ff...
julianz 11y ago
I thought that as well. Roll on Android dev?

burningion 11y ago

This is incredible. Getting Minecraft modding working in Visual Studio is how you are going to get the next generation of kids interested in programming. If you haven't watched a 12 year old play Minecraft, you need to do so. It's the ultimate fantasy universe, and the way you combine elements to make something new is very analogous to programming in the vanilla game. Adding a way to customize this universe will just explode the interest in programming among young people. It's really unfortunate that there is so much time being devoted to "teaching programming" to kids, instead of "teaching playing on computers". "Teaching programming" feels serious and adult, and doesn't leave room for fun. I've had said 12 year old try multiple times to "learn programming", only to give up when things aren't as great as they'd imagined in their head, after having spent hours just trying to figure out the right version of Python, and how to get a shell set up, and how to get something on the screen. Imagine the result of having your for loop create millions of blocks accidentally in your universe, and seeing that mistake happen in a non-threatening way. This is the sort of thing that makes computing and abstract thinking easier for everyone. Giving an open universe to kids with the blocks to effect their world is just an insane tool. Kudos to MS for the hard work, and putting it out so early.

iamcreasy 11y ago
I grew up with Lego. I am getting the rush!
- cmdrfred 11y ago
  I grew up with lego and moved on to mine craft. I'm not ashamed to say I still can get lost in that game and I'm 26. This gives me a reason to play with visual studio.
  - iamcreasy 11y ago
    Hey, I am 26 too. To be honest, I never had the rush while playing Minecraft, but I get it why children would love to play Minecraft. Nowadays I am more into stories and narratives. Building games. Stories that transform our lives.
11y ago

istvan__ 11y ago

Finally I got it, all of these new projects from MS, and the real reason is: to build Mincecraft Mods! :) I could not approve the new direction MS is taking.

qbrass 11y ago
Windows 11 will just be Minecraft with a web browser and the ability to run Office. Improving the ability for people to make mods now will provide an ecosystem for future Windows app development.
- PhasmaFelis 11y ago
  Finally, a solid platform on which to implement the ideas from "Doom as a tool for system administration." http://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/flake/doom/ http://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/flake/doom/

Macha 11y ago

Sometimes solutions that have evolved over times end up being ludicrous in retrospect. * Microsoft are releasing a game. * Where they obfuscate the code so people can't read it * And mod tools * Built on community scripts * Which decompile the code and rename the obfuscated variables to give readable names At what stage does it make more sense for MS to tell Mojang to drop the obfuscation and move to a "visible source" model?

iwwr 11y ago
The objective was to protect Mojang's IP on the (probably mistaken) idea that if they release the source code it means they lose control over it. Added to that, my own speculation is that members of the modding community want to keep the barrier to entry for writing mods relatively high, for some reason or another. Some modders, including the brilliant Eloraam (maker of RedPower), want to maintain their own mods as proprietary and obfuscated.
- UberMouse 11y ago
  They don't have to release the source code. They just need to stop running the bytecode through an obfuscator.
  - deathanatos 11y ago
    I don't even think they need go that far: only the bits that would form some sort of stable API would need to not be obfuscated. They could still do whatever with anything internal.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- mutagen 11y ago
  When I looked at the Minecraft mod scene a few years ago mods were generally monetized through distribution, generally only available for download through ad-laden 'locker' sites. Also, I think that many developers aware of software licensing issues stayed away due to the murky legal issues surrounding Minecraft modding.

kohsuke 11y ago

I always thought a better way to combine programming & minecraft for kids would be something like ComputerCraft (http://www.computercraft.info/ http://www.computercraft.info/), where you can program a robot inside the Minecraft world to do stuff for you, like building road/bridge, digging tunnels, etc. ComputerCraft is Lua-based, but I can imagine something similar based on CLR, and that way you can let kids program in C# from Visual Studio. Programming a bot is much simpler and even a very simple program (like digging a tunnel straight) is instantly gratifying. Writing a mod has a much higher barrier to the entry, AIU.

giancarlostoro 11y ago

Microsoft sneaks Java into Visual Studio.

malkia 11y ago

This is some serious fun! My son would love it... But I no longer have Windows machines (couple of croutonized chromebooks and iBooks)... Anyone had an idea?

nacs 11y ago
The Forge API [1], which this is basically just a wrapper for, is already available on every platform (it's Java). You could use Eclipse or any Java IDE. https://github.com/MinecraftForge/MinecraftForge https://github.com/MinecraftForge/MinecraftForge

voltagex_ 11y ago

And it's open source! https://github.com/Microsoft/vsminecraft https://github.com/Microsoft/vsminecraft

PhasmaFelis 11y ago

Part of me wants to bitch about what a missed opportunity it was, letting Microsoft take over and tie this to their own dev environment. But on the other hand, taking even a single step back from the previous (effectively) actively hostile approach to the modding community (needlessly obfuscating the bytecode, promising and then pushing back mod tools) is more than we had under Notch.

TOMDM 11y ago

As an aside, I think it's worth looking at the Minecraft communities thoughts on the 'official' modding api for the game. Dinnerbone (aka Nathan Adams, the most community orientated Dev on mojangs Minecraft team) recently tweeted "Just a reminder: there is no official way to mod Minecraft & we still do not officially support mods. We are still working on the plugin API" and the community sentiment shows that they really are getting sick of the ever prolonged promise of a modding api. The comments on the reddit thread about dinnerbones tweet are largely hostile. http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/34ffag/dinnerbone_on_twitter_just_a_reminder_there_is_no/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/34ffag/dinnerbone...

deevus 11y ago

Link seems broken to me

rurounijones 11y ago

I keep on getting asked to login, anyone got a non-login site?

kristianp 11y ago

I can't get to the page without logging in to my Microsoft account. Very strange.

gcb0 11y ago

but i still have to $19 to download the windows phone emulator to use with the free VS2013 comunity edition... sigh

badlam 11y ago
no you don't, just click on download link. You may need an account to publish it.
- gcb0 11y ago
  yes i do. clicked on the update notification. it took me to a sign up page (after i logeed in with my MS account) in the browser. i signed up. it said i had to have a special account and that i could register. the second page on the registration force me to choose either individual for $19 or enterprise for some other value. there is absolutely no way on that flow to download it. i always get to that page.
  - gcb0 11y ago
    OK, after getting the link somewhere else and starting the installer it tells me that i can't install on windows 7 somehow the download link, directly from VS, sees that I'm on windows 7 and instead of telling me that keep sending me to the payment screen. clever Microsoft...

hobarrera 11y ago

Does anyone have a link that doesn't require registration to read?