0x10c

0x10c (pronounced "ten to the c")[2] is an unfinished sandbox science fiction video game previously under development by Mojang AB. It was announced on April 3, 2012, by Markus Persson, the game's lead designer.[3] The game was indefinitely postponed because Persson found himself burned out and demotivated after so much early effort were spent into planning and designing the game, up until the point that it "sucked out any fun from the project". Persson then stated he will instead most likely continue to work on smaller projects for the rest of his life, rekindling the reason he loves programming games in the first place.[4] The game was later cancelled.[1]

0x10c
Developer(s)Mojang
Designer(s)Markus Persson
Artist(s)Jonatan Pöljö
Composer(s)C418
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux
ReleaseCancelled[1]
Genre(s)Sandbox, Space simulation
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The announced features included a fully working virtual computer, random encounters, an advanced economy system, and also single and multiplayer modes in a consistent universe, or "Multiverse".[3] The game takes place in the year AD 281,474,976,712,644[5] after people start waking up from "deep sleep" caused by a bug in deep sleep cells that were released in 1988. 0x is a prefix in many high-level languages used to indicate a hexadecimal literal. 10C in hexadecimal is equivalent to 1612 in decimal, which equals 281,474,976,710,656, the number of years passed in the story since 1988.

Gameplay

The list of features included engineering, space battles, seamless space-to-planet transitions, mining and trading, laser guns, and an open universe with both single-player and multiplayer variants.[3]

0x10c featured a working emulated 16-bit processor inside the game called the DCPU-16 that could be accessed through any of the monitors located in the game. The DCPU-16 could also load external programs and data using the required standards which would have allowed the community to make their own DCPU-16 emulators.[6]

Development

In December 2011, Markus Persson announced[7] that he was going to be stepping down as the lead developer of Minecraft, and that he would be working on another project. Mojang CEO Carl Manneh said in an interview with Edge Online that Mojang was committed to supporting a new project that Persson was developing along with another game created by other developers in their company.[8] After winning a special award from BAFTA in March 2012, Persson revealed that there were three different projects he was developing, but he had yet to come to a decision in terms of which one he was committed to working on.[9] A few days later in an interview with PC Gamer magazine, Persson announced that he was working on a space-themed game that was inspired by the television show Firefly and the video game Elite.[10]

The first details of this game were released in an April Fool's parody website called "Mars Effect", a play on Mass Effect and alluding to the lawsuit by Bethesda Softworks over trademark infringement.[11] A few days later Persson announced that he had chosen a real name for the game and that he had made some progress on its development. Although it is not immediately obvious how to pronounce the game's name and a large variety of suggestions were proposed, Persson has said that he pronounces it as "ten to the see", but that "people can pronounce it however they want".[12]

On October 13, 2012, the first video gameplay of 0x10c was released by Persson on the game's website.[13] On October 26, 2012, the first multiplayer test was uploaded to the website from Twitch.TV.[14] In an April 2013 interview with Polygon, Persson stated that 0x10c development was hit by creative road block and would be put on hold. Persson also said that the game is "ways off" and that he would be expanding the team, bringing on one other developer to "make sure the game gets made".[15] On August 13, 2013, Persson confirmed in a live stream that 0x10c was indefinitely shelved, adding that the game could potentially be made in the future, if another Mojang employee were interested in continuing its development.[4]

Art
A mockup of what the game might look like made by Jonatan Pöljö, the game's artist

"The style is pixel art meets modern 3D. It's influenced by bright, vivid sci-fi, and real-world functional spaceship design to go with 0x10c's realistic tone," said Jonatan Pöljö, artist of the game's team.[16]

Soundtrack

On September 15, 2014, Daniel Rosenfeld (C418), who also composed the music for Mojang's previous game, Minecraft, released the soundtrack for 0x10c on his Bandcamp page, which consists of two tracks, "0x10c" and "0".[17]

Pricing

0x10c was expected to be the first Mojang game with a monthly fee for online play in multiplayer mode (but no recurring fee for single player mode). Persson said that this was because of the cost to "emulate all computers and physics even when players aren't logged in". It is unknown if there was to be a private multiplayer mode.[3] It was revealed that the pricing would be similar to Minecraft, with alpha costing less than beta, and beta costing less than the full release.[18]

References
  1. Cooper, Daniel (August 20, 2013). "Notch explains decision to axe 0x10c, concentrate on 'smaller' games". engadget.com. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
  2. "Minecraft's composer discusses Mojang's unreleased game, Notch's departure". Polygon. September 18, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
  3. Knapp, Alex (April 3, 2012). "Mojang Registers Website For Its New Game '0x10c'". Forbes.com. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
  4. Plafke, James (August 13, 2013). "Notch indefintely [sic] shelves Mojang's space game, 0x10c". Geek.com. Archived from the original on April 25, 2016. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  5. Harry McCracken. "The Mystery of Minecraft". TIME.com. Stockholm. Archived from the original on May 23, 2013.
  6. Senior, Tim (April 12, 2012). "0x10c screenshots show early build, shadows, shapes that aren't cubes and TF2 soldier". PC Gamer. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
  7. Markus Persson (December 2, 2011). "Och med dom orden så passar jag micken". tumblr.com. Archived from the original on December 27, 2011. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
  8. Nathan Brown (January 13, 2012). "Mojang working on three new games". Edge Online. Archived from the original on January 15, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
  9. "Video: Minecraft boss talks three projects, BAFTA thrill". VG247. March 18, 2011. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
  10. Tom Senior (March 21, 2012). "Notch wants to make a Firefly-inspired sandbox space game like Elite "except done right"". PC Gamer. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
  11. Jordan Mallory (April 1, 2012). "Notch's new space game is called ... Mars Effect?! [April Fools!]". Joystiq. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
  12. Persson, Markus (April 18, 2012). "i say "ten to the see", but people can pronounce it however they want". Twitter. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
  13. First Gameplay VideoPersson, Markus. "Video test!". 0x10c.com. Markus Persson. Archived from the original on April 18, 2013. Retrieved October 15, 2012.
  14. First Multiplayer Gameplay VideoHill, Owen. "First multiplayer test!". 0x10c.com. Mojang. Archived from the original on March 23, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
  15. Crecente, Brian (April 5, 2013). "Markus "Notch" Persson's next big game is stuck". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved April 7, 2013.
  16. "More mock-ups from the artist". Mojang. November 1, 2012. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved November 3, 2012.
  17. "0x10c - C418". C418. September 15, 2014.
  18. Liebl, Matt (April 11, 2012). "0x10c to use same price model as Minecraft". Gamezone. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
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