Recently, Game Rant had the opportunity to talk with Minecraft's Lead Gameplay Developer, Agnes Larsson, to get some insight on the Nether Update which released today. In sharing her thoughts on the update, Larsson revealed her incredible passion for the game she has worked so hard on.

Minecraft is the highest selling game of all time, so it is no surprise that even now, 11 years later, the game is getting regular content updates on a yearly basis. Here's what Larsson had to say about all the new features coming to Minecraft with the Nether update.

Sr. Gameplay Developer of Minecraft Agnes Larsson Headshot

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Q: What drove you guys to maintain Minecraft with yearly content updates? It has been great for the game's longevity.

Agnes Larsson: Everytime we release a new update, that's quite a big moment for the community. Both for the long term players and we also see lots of players coming back. We see lots of new players enjoying it. Our goal is to create player delight, so that's of course one thing. We want to keep inspired for our players, and we also see Minecraft as quite unique, to have these free updates for so many years, and the plan is to have it for many, many more years. Sometimes we say that we are carrying the torch of Minecraft, so it is like this phenomenon which will last longer than those of us here right now. We intend to continue so we can pass the torch on to the next people that will work on it later.

There's definitely so many ideas from us and from the community, so we want to keep on adding Minecraft, still keeping the fundamentals of what makes Minecraft Minecraft, that's important, but expanding it in many directions. We don't want to go too deep in one direction, we want to expand it until we reach as many of our players as possible because we have a very diverse community, which is beautiful. So we try to expand like that and of course it's always a balance between it being innovative and bold and then sort of keeping the base of what makes Minecraft so magic.

Q: What does the Nether update have to offer for new players coming in?

Larsson: Ooh, for new players. Do you mean like first time? That's exciting. I mean, Nether has been in the game for many years and it is this very unique environment that is not similar to the overworld or other dimensions in MinecraftAnd that of course means that we really can add unique experiences and unique environments. And I think those can be very exciting for new players as well, and especially, let's say what with the Nether update would make you want to play.

I could see if you are a big sort of adventurer type of player, then you suddenly have this dimension which is now very much fleshed out with lots of new biomes, lots of new things to explore, and it's also quite challenging, which can be very fun. So I think that's one part, it adds a lot more... it really inspires you to craft your own adventures. I think Minecraft did that as well, but I think we really expanded on that with the Nether update because we expanded one of our most challenging areas in the game.

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Q: The Nether previously was sort of a one stop kind of thing. A lot of players didn't go back to it after their first experience with it. What kind of stuff in particular, as far as mobs and new blocks and whatnot, did you guys add that you thought would bring people back and make them want to spend time there for the sake of being there as opposed to trying to get stuff for their overworld?

Larsson: That's a great question and a thing we actually thought quite much about for the Nether update. We actually, we work design pillars for this update, and we had a design pillar which was called 'provide players with a Nether oasis." What we mean by that is we actually want player to be able to live in Nether and also of course want players to want to spend a lot of time, or maybe live there depending on how adventurous they are. I think for example, the new biomes tie a lot into this. There will be so many unique environments, and this is what's interesting. The biomes are very unique from each other, but they still all have this very weird and scary feel to them, but they are also more unique which means there is so much to explore.

When you see interesting environments, you get inspired to build. Maybe you want to build a quirky Nether village between the Basalt Pillars and the Basalt Deltas, or maybe you find this, actually quite pretty, pretty but weird glade in the Warped Forest and you want to build your Nether home there. So I think the world of Minecraft has always inspired players, now we bring much more of that to Nether with so much more variation and unique environments when compared to the Overworld.

Then we of course have the Piglins, they are a new mob, the Piglins and Hoglins, and they add a lot of life. So Piglins and Hoglins actually interact a lot with each other, which makes them feel alive. When you walk around there, you see the Piglins and Hoglins, they're fighting, and you really feel like 'okay, I'm in there, I'm in the world, I'm immersed, things are happening.' But then, you can also feel the Piglins are much more than just a monster. You kind of notice that, okay, there must be some history here because they live in this huge ashen remnants that seem to have a lot of history. You don't really know what that is, which I think also can be inspiring because you start to make your own stories, which also for some players is a big part of telling stories about the world. And then you can also actually interact more, so it's not only about fighting, you can barter for example to get nice loot from them if you provide them with gold. So there is a mob you can interact more with.

I like the Strider as well, it's another new mob you can use for lava transportation actually. Yes! You can traverse these huge lava oceans of the Nether by sitting on this adorable, well silly looking creature that walks on the lava. It's quite funny and also a thing which makes living in the Nether or being in the Nether a unique experience and I think that will lead to players wanting to be more in the Nether.

Minecraft Nether Update Strider

Q: What is your favorite biome that you are adding with this update? And also your favorite new mob?

Larsson: Oh you mean my personal? Ooh, that's tricky. For the biome, I think I've got to go with the warped forest. I don't know if you have seen it, but it's like a blue-ish forest. It has something that looks like trees, it probably isn't really trees, but... And the atmosphere is very, yeah the name, we decided on the name "warped" because it is just really weird, hm, what are good words for that? It actually also is the safest biome in the Nether, because even if it's the very weird and it has this blue coloring and falling particles, there's not that many monsters spawning there so you can feel a bit safer. It can be dangerous still, but not as dangerous. And I like the uniqueness of that biome and the weird feel to it.

It definitely stands out from the rest of the areas in the Nether. It would probably be a place that a lot of people choose to make home if they want to.

Larsson: Yeah, I think I most likely, I think I'm gonna make my home there. And then, it's interesting with the colors as well. There's mostly red, but it's so pretty, it's blue-ish. I think that's a really cool way to get the contrast without making it feel off. And then for mobs, I think I must say the Strider after all, cause it has so much character. When we add mobs in Minecraft, we want all the mobs to have their own purpose, and we want them to have character. You should know this mob, this is what it does and this is the character. It should be something specific, and I think that the Strider really is typical of this process. It has a clear purpose as you can use it for lava transportation and then so much character with the looks and the animation added to that. It looks like it's wiggly, walks on the lava, and is super silly.

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Q: I'm really excited to get to know the Strider, it sounds great. I'd like to know a little bit more about the new Netherite material. I've read that it's harder than diamond and I know that diamond has always been the pinnacle of Minecraft, so that must have been a big decision for you guys to go past that.

It was quite a bold thing to do, to be fair. There were many discussions in the team about, not bad discussions, but just like 'Are we really gonna do this? Wow.' But then also, what is very important to us is to make sure to not make diamond useless. Actually, with all the features we add, we want to be respectful to existing features. We don't just want to add things and then old things become useless or not good anymore. So we also spent much time on how to find a good balance there. One thing that we are doing is that you actually need a diamond in order to get the Netherite item.

So that means that the diamond is still super valuable, even if you want this new, highest tier thing that now is Netherite. Yes, quite a cool thing to do after all these years. I actually think it was almost on the day, 10 years after we added the diamond I think. We didn't know that, it was actually the community that noticed, we were like oh, that was good. But still, we really thought a lot about the balance to make sure we don't make diamond useless because that's important.

Minecraft Netherite

Q: So Netherite will be craftable into tools, weapons, armor, and all of those things?

Larsson: Yes.

Q: That's exciting. Do you guys have any idea of your future plans? What's coming up next?

Larsson: Well I cannot really say that, but we do have ideas, yes. I cannot say what yet.

Q: Okay, so what inspired you guys to choose the Nether as the focus of this update. There's any number of things you could have expanded on in the Overworld or in The End. Why the Nether?

Larsson: Oh, that's a good question. So when we decide a theme for a big update, we try to look at different areas of Minecraft and say okay, where do we feel needs an update? What feels a bit empty or old or just needs some improvement? And then we felt Nether actually has been in the game for many many years, not many things have happened, and it really started to feel like something that needs to be improved. And we also of course had a lot of cool ideas about it and there's lots of cool ideas from the community as well. There's also, there's so many things we wanted to do, and to prioritize this isn't easy, but it feels... We were happy with the update, and it seems like the community really likes the features we added, so it's good.

That's great. Well I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me, it was great to meet you.

Larsson: Yeah it was super nice to meet you as well, thank you.

Minecraft's Nether Update is available now.

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