The Minecraft creeper is one of the most iconic video game creatures of all time, resting alongside the greats of Super Mario Bros’ Goombas. While players around the world love the angry, explosion-primed mob, Mojang definitely wouldn’t add something like that to the game nowadays.
Speaking in a recent YouTube video, The Biome That Broke Minecraft, Mojang CEO Jens Bergensten explained that adding a mob that destroys your work would prove too “controversial” to modern gamers. Instead, the team focuses on additive mobs that don’t turn up and blow up your creations.
“If you were to follow the rules that we have today, we would probably not add the creeper,” the Mojang CEO said. “Because it would actually be so controversial to have a monster that would show up and destroy what you built.”
Bergensten explained that the “creeper is iconic though”, calming players that they won’t be removing the creature just because it doesn’t fit with the current design goals of Minecraft. However, for new additions of powerful enemies, creative lead Cory Scheviak explained that they like to “put the harder challenges later in the game and also like to make them opt-in”.
With Minecraft being about creation, there should always be the threat of destruction, but the team at Mojang wants to limit how much can be taken away from the player. Using the Enderman as an example, which was heavily nerfed after their introduction to only steal specific blocks, Scheviak said that it’s “really important for the player to feel like they are in control of what’s happening in their world”.
“Whenever you add something destructive to the game, you need to test it with the players and make sure it finds the right level of destruction,” added Bergensten, explaining that the game can’t be too punishing or else players won’t feel cosy within the game world.
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It’s unsurprising, really. As someone who has played Minecraft since before its 1.0 release, the modern updates for the game are more about pushing towards exploration and new creations rather than adding powerful new threats. Early versions of the game often came with new threats that could prove dangerous at any given time, whereas new threats are ones that you choose to interact with.
It’s a new style of design, and I’m not sure it hurts Minecraft when the earlier content still exists mostly untouched, and fans who want more dangerous challenges usually mod them in themselves. However, it is quite heartbreaking to hear that the iconic creature simply wouldn’t be dreamt up by the current day team.
