Notch Drop Game

Markus "Notch" Persson is an interesting developer, to say the least. After his success with the simple-yet-catchy Minecraft, he has amassed a large online following, jumped from project to project, and left behind a trail of Twitter arguments. When he's not involved in gripping legal drama  or expressing his disdain for Windows 8, Persson occasionally shows progress on some of his many game projects. His latest release Drop is as blocky and addictive as Minecraft, but this is where the similarity ends.

Inspired by Super Hexagon, the ending of Fez, and oddly enough his ceiling, Persson's newest mini-game is a typing challenge at its core. While brief, clever and catchy, Drop is also not unlike many Facebook apps that draw on the same fast-paced playing style - only a little more flashy. For players who are proficient enough to type words like "clean" and "reward," interesting graphical effects and electronic music are in store. As gameplay continues, the screen twists and turns, and inverted three-dimensional boxes rush open, revealing a tunnel vision effect of cube-ception.

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Interestingly enough, the game becomes both easier and more challenging when one realizes that the letters on the screen form words, and the lexicon used is quite limited. Words will often repeat themselves, allowing for some patterns to be found. For a quick and dirty Unity-based typing game, it is certainly entertaining, at least for a time. It's nice to see Persson stretch his legs and try new things that don't involve badgering folks on Twitter, but with both progress and fan expectations ramping up on more important projects like 0x10c, are these experiments necessary?

Ranters, what do you think of Drop -- is it indeed unabashedly addictive and clever, or a brief distraction from Persson's other ongoing projects?

Persson's indie development / publishing studio Mojang is responsible for  indie smash-hit Minecraft, as well as the upcoming Scrolls, on its way to Windows and Mac OSX.

Follow Kyle at @superkyol.

Source: Joystiq