So Notch’s New Game Is Called ‘Mars Effect’, And There Are Details

In case you haven’t been let in on the news, Minecraft’s creator Notch has been hard at work on yet another new game. Scrolls is coming along nicely, but Notch has turned his attention to this new baby, that now has a name and some details. The latest creation is called Mars Effect, and I swear I’m not making this up.

The game has been in development for some months now, and details are starting to emerge on its official site. The name is the most recent accomplishment, and it alone took Notch three weeks. My first thought about the name was, “Man, didn’t he learn from his last incident?” Notch knows that many must think like I do, and stated on the site:

After several weeks of trying to come up with a good name for the game, we finally decided not to learn from previous experiences and pick a name that’s already kind of in use by a huge existing franchise.

After playing around with names like “Elight”, “Wind Commander”, and “Steve Online”, we finally settled on the very catchy name “Mars Effect”.

It’s good to know he can poke fun at himself. So, about the game, we know that it’s still very much in development, as Notch states. He posted a list of some things we can hope to see in the game, such as:

• Hard science fiction.
• Lots of engineering.
• Fully working computer system.
• Space battles against the AI or other players.
• A game ending that makes sense.
• Abandoned ships full of loot.
• Waist high walls.
• Seamlessly landing on planets.
• Advanced economy system.
• Mining, trading, and looting.

I already love Minecraft, and am very much looking forward to Scrolls. This new Mars Effect that’s in development does seem like it will be yet another cool creation from the mad genius himself. Notch has really been putting a lot of work into the new project, and with this much heart, it’s not something that could be to anyone’s dislike.