Minecraft modders to get improved editing tools on mobile

30 Mar 2016

Minecraft modders have established one of the internet’s largest modding communities on PC, but now Microsoft is trying to offer more power to mobile users with a raft of new modding tools on mobile.

Regularly heralded as both a brilliant computer game and teaching device, Minecraft has been big business for Microsoft since it purchased the game for a cool $2.5bn in 2014.

Undoubtedly, what has driven much of this success is the player’s ability to code an entire world with few limitations, defining a whole new genre of what we would call ‘sandbox games’.

However, despite this being its most appealing factor for many on desktop PCs, the €6.99 mobile version – which has found itself in the top charts of gaming apps on iOS, Android and Windows Phone – is largely a means of playing the factory standard version.

But now, CNET has reported, the ability to mod is finally making its way to mobile devices with the addition of ‘command blocks’ that will allow for programmable items and other modifications to be made on the phone itself.

Won’t be as powerful as PC sibling

So, for example, you would be able to create code that would teleport another player to the complete opposite side of the game world, or just create whatever your mind can conjure up.

“Modding is a core element of the Minecraft community,” said Jens Bergensten, Minecraft’s lead developer.

“In order to support mods for other platforms, we need to create a system that allows this without modifying the application itself. We are currently researching our options and hope to solve this soon.”

The addition of command blocks won’t bring it the same modding capabilities as its bigger PC sibling, but this could be the first step in at least bringing some kind of parity to the two different platforms.

Minecraft on mobile image via dennizn/Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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