Markus Persson
Encyclopedia
Markus Alexej Persson is a Swedish indie
Independent video game development
Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...

 game developer
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...

 and founder of Mojang AB. He is best known for creating the sandbox building game Minecraft
Minecraft
Minecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game written in Java originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang, formed from the proceeds of the game. It was released as an alpha on May 17, 2009, with a beta version on December 20, 2010...

.

Biography

Persson began programming on a Commodore 128
Commodore 128
The Commodore 128 home/personal computer was the last 8-bit machine commercially released by Commodore Business Machines...

 home computer at the age of seven. Having experimented with various type-in program
Type-in program
A type-in program, or just type-in, is a computer program listing printed in a computer magazine or book, meant to be typed in by the reader in order to run the program on a computer....

s he produced his first game at the age of eight, a text-based adventure game
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...

. Professionally he had worked as a game developer for King.com
King.com
King.com is an online skill-based games company. King.com is available in nine languages and in 10 countries. King.com is an international company with 85 employees and offices in London, Los Angeles, Rome, Hamburg and Stockholm.-Operations:...

 for over four years until 2009. Afterwards he worked as a programmer for Jalbum
Jalbum
Jalbum consists of freeware cross-platform software for managing and creating digital photo galleries, and a free / paid-for photo sharing service on which to publish them...

. He is also one of the founders of Wurm Online
Wurm Online
Wurm Online is a 3D MMO produced by Code Club AB in Sweden that allows players to choose between a PvP game and a non-PvP game based on different servers. Development started in 2003 by friends Markus Persson , and Rolf Jannson.-Gameplay:...

, although he no longer works on this game. Outside of work, he has made seven games for competitions for the Java 4K Game Programming Contest
Java 4K Game Programming Contest
The Java 4K Game Programming Contest is an informal contest that was started by the Java Game Programming community to challenge their software development abilities. The goal of the contest is to develop the best game possible within four kibibytes of data...

 such as "Left 4K Dead" and "Mega 4K Man". He has also entered the Ludum Dare
Ludum Dare
Ludum Dare is an accelerated game development competition. It was founded by Geoff Howland and were first held in April 2002. Ludum Dare has received mainstream media coverage from sources such as PC Gamer and Wired...

 competition. He is involved in making a movie called "Minecraft
Minecraft
Minecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game written in Java originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang, formed from the proceeds of the game. It was released as an alpha on May 17, 2009, with a beta version on December 20, 2010...

: The story of Mojang".

Minecraft

Persson's most popular creation is the survival sandbox game Minecraft
Minecraft
Minecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game written in Java originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang, formed from the proceeds of the game. It was released as an alpha on May 17, 2009, with a beta version on December 20, 2010...

, which was released on November 18, 2011. Persson quit his job as a game developer to work on Minecraft full-time until completion. 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
Scrolls (video game)
Scrolls is an upcoming video game from Mojang. It will feature card collecting and board game elements. The game will be purchasable in the normal way, and will require no further payment for online play but will feature optional purchasable items....

including elements from board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

s and collectible card game
Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...

s. Persson noted he will not be actively involved in development of the game and that Porser will be developing it.

Persson revealed on his tumblr
Tumblr
Tumblr is a website and microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog. Users can follow other users, or choose to make their tumblelog private. The service emphasizes ease of use. The site ranks as the 10th...

 blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

 on the 5th August 2011 that he was being sued by a Swedish lawyer firm representing Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks, LLC, is an American video game company. A subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, the company was originally based in Bethesda, Maryland and eventually moved to their current location in Rockville, Maryland...

 over the trademarked name of Scrolls claiming it conflicted with their The Elder Scrolls
The Elder Scrolls
The Elder Scrolls is a role-playing video game series developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks.-History:...

series of games.

On 17 August 2011 Persson challenged Bethesda to a Quake 3 tournament to decide the outcome of the naming dispute. However, the proposed solution was not answered.

On 27 September 2011 Persson confirmed the lawsuit was going to court in a tumblr post. Some clarification was made that it is ZeniMax Media
ZeniMax Media
ZeniMax Media Inc. is an American media company that develops and publishes computer and video games through its subsidiaries. ZeniMax is known as the owner of id Software , Bethesda Softworks , Arkane Studios , Tango Gameworks and...

, the company owning Bethesda Softworks, who are pushing for the lawsuit.

Ludum Dare entries

Persson has also participated in several Ludum Dare
Ludum Dare
Ludum Dare is an accelerated game development competition. It was founded by Geoff Howland and were first held in April 2002. Ludum Dare has received mainstream media coverage from sources such as PC Gamer and Wired...

 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. The game was written in 2 days. 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.

Prelude of the Chambered

Prelude of the Chambered is a game Persson created for the entry to the Ludum Dare #21 competition. 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
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

.

Personal life

He is a member of the Swedish chapter of Mensa
Mensa International
Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test...

 and also makes electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...

 music under the name "Markus Alexei".

He has criticized both piracy as well as the stance of large game companies on piracy and he is a member of the Swedish Pirate Party.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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