Creeper (Minecraft)

A creeper is a fictional creature within the sandbox game Minecraft. Creepers are hostile mobs (a mobile non-player character) that can be encountered within the game world at any given time or location where such mobs spawn in the dark, such as nighttime. Instead of attacking the player directly, they creep up on the player and explode when they get close, destroying blocks in the surrounding area and potentially damaging the player if they are inside or near the blast radius. Their green camouflage and generally silent behavior aid in stealth attacks. Creepers were first added to Minecraft in a pre-alpha update to the game that was released on September 1, 2009.

Creeper
Minecraft character
A creeper from Minecraft
First appearanceSeptember 1, 2009
First gameMinecraft (2011)
Created byMarkus Persson
In-universe information
PositionHostile mob
HomeOverworld

The creeper has become one of the most widely recognized icons of Minecraft. They have been referenced and parodied in popular culture, and they are featured prominently in Minecraft merchandising and advertising.

Characteristics and design

Creepers were created as a result of a coding error when creating the pig mob in the pre-alpha stages of Minecraft's development in 2009.[1] Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson mixed the dimensions of the pig model up, swapping the length and height. This, combined with the AI of looking at the player, led to the creeper becoming a hostile mob.[2][3][4][5] On September 1, 2009, the monster was officially named "Creeper" and was added to one of the early pre-alpha versions of the game,[6][7] officially designated 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST_03.[8][7] In 2011, the Minecraft logo was redesigned to integrate the creeper face into the letter "A".[4]

The original color of the creeper was dark green.[7] In 2021, an investigation revealed that Persson simply took the texture of leaves, one of the building blocks of Minecraft, and painted on it a characteristic face.[8] With the new updates, the hostile mob received a new texture, sound, and unique behavior. Initially, creepers attacked players directly like zombies and exploded only when they were killed, but Persson decided that this was not enough and made the explosion a basic mob attack.[7]

In Minecraft, the player exists in a large world made up of cubes. The world contains a number of enemies, of which creepers are commonly encountered. A creeper is practically silent until it comes near the player, at which point it emits a quiet hiss[6] and detonates after a short delay. The explosion kills the creeper, can kill or injure the player, and also destroys surrounding blocks.[9] In an article for Games and Culture, Daniel Dooghan characterized the creeper as a "suicide bomber".[10]

Over time, the developers decided that creepers were not unpredictable enough, and increased the destructive power of their explosions by having creepers become charged if a lightning strike occurs near them. Mobs killed by charged creepers, including other creepers, drop their heads, which can then be worn in the player's head armor slot as a disguise against mobs of that type.[11][7]

Appearances

The creeper originally appeared in Minecraft in a pre-alpha update as a common hostile mob that silently approaches players and hisses, then explodes. It appeared later in Minecraft spin-off games such as Minecraft: Story Mode,[12] Minecraft Dungeons,[13] Minecraft Legends[14] and Minecraft Earth.[15]

Outside of Minecraft, it also appeared in Terraria (2011), Torchlight II (2012), Borderlands 2 (2012), Octodad: Dadliest Catch (2014),[16] and in Nintendo's crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018), where the creeper has been featured as a Mii Brawler costume.[17]

Impact

A woman wearing a Creeper head, alongside another wearing a head depicting Steve, one of the default player characters in Minecraft

The creeper is considered to be one of Minecraft's most iconic enemies and icons.[18] The pixelated face of the creeper has been integrated into the "A" of the Minecraft logo, as well as being used in numerous Halloween costumes and cosplays.[3] Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition listed the creeper as tenth in their list of "top 50 video game villains".[19] The creeper has been featured in multiple Lego Minecraft sets and has been the main focus of one.[20] In 2021, PC Gamer ranked creeper as 9th of "the 50 most iconic characters in PC gaming," stating that "The Creeper is the star of Minecraft, which is ironic considering that the Creeper's effectiveness hinges upon not being seen."[21]

The creeper image has been used on a wide variety of Minecraft merchandise, including clothing, bedding and lamps.[22][23] In July 2020, a joint partnership between Mojang Studios and Kellogg's led to the announcement of Minecraft Creeper Crunch, an official Minecraft branded cereal prominently featuring a creeper on the packaging. It was set to be available for release in stores in the United States in August 2020. Every packet additionally includes a unique code which can be redeemed for a Minecraft cosmetic clothing item.[24][25][26]

Creepers have been the subject of numerous pop culture references and parodies. In the season 25 episode "Luca$" of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, Moe Szyslak appears as a creeper and explodes at the end of the theme song's "couch gag".[27][28] On August 19, 2011, Jordan Maron (aka CaptainSparklez) released the song "Revenge", a parody of "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love", depicting a Minecraft player seeking revenge against creepers. The song regained popularity as an internet meme around July 2019.[29]

References

  1. Gesualdi, Vito (October 15, 2012). "Notch Calls Minecraft's Creepers "a Mistake"". GameZone. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  2. Apperley, Thomas. "Glitch Sorting: Minecraft, Curation and the Postdigital". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. Goldberg, Daniel; Larsson, Linus (June 16, 2015). Minecraft, Second Edition: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game that Changed Everything. ISBN 9781609806866. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
  4. Guthrie, Robert (June 5, 2017). "The History Of The Creeper, Minecraft's Most Infamous Monster". Kotaku. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  5. "Meet the Creeper". Minecraft.net. May 15, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  6. "Happy birthday to Minecraft's Creepers!". Vg247. September 1, 2014.
  7. Guthrie, Robert (June 5, 2017). "The History Of The Creeper, Minecraft's Most Infamous Monster". Kotaku.
  8. "Minecraft Fan Discovers Secret To Creeper Skin". ScreenRant. May 23, 2021.
  9. "How Minecraft Creepers Originated From A Pig Accident". ScreenRant. February 16, 2021.
  10. Dooghan, Daniel (June 29, 2016). "Digital Conquerors: Minecraft and the Apologetics of Neoliberalism". Games and Culture. 14 (1): 67–86. doi:10.1177/1555412016655678. ISSN 1555-4120. S2CID 148037543.
  11. Coles, Jason (December 24, 2020). "Everything you need to know about Minecraft's Creepers". PC Gamer.
  12. "Minecraft: Story Mode Works Surprisingly Well". Kotaku. October 13, 2015.
  13. Watts, Rachel (May 22, 2020). "Minecraft Dungeons is a bombastic and breezy dungeon crawler that doesn't take itself too seriously". PC Gamer.
  14. Troughton, James (September 30, 2022). "Minecraft Legends Shows Off Cutesy Creepers, Cobblestone Golems, And More". TheGamer. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  15. Gilliam, Ryan (June 3, 2019). "Here's the first look at Minecraft Earth in action". Polygon.
  16. "Creeping up on you: The best Minecraft references in video games". PCGamesN. September 24, 2012.
  17. "Bomberman, Travis Touchdown, Creeper And More Join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate As Mii Fighter Costumes". Nintendo Life. October 3, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  18. McDougall, Jaz (December 25, 2011). "Minecraft review". PC Gamer.
  19. "Bowser voted top of 50 video game villains". Digital Spy. January 24, 2013.
  20. MacManus, Christopher (February 16, 2012). "Lego Minecraft available for preorder". CNET. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 17, 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  21. Lane, Rick (November 12, 2021). "The 50 most iconic characters in PC gaming". PC Gamer via www.pcgamer.com.
  22. "Apparel, Toys, More | Official Minecraft Store - Powered by JINX". Official Minecraft Store - Powered by J!NX. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  23. "This Minecraft Creeper Lamp Shouldn't Explode When You Turn It On". Technabob. March 4, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  24. Watts, Rachel (July 2, 2020). "Kelloggs is releasing a Minecraft 'Creeper Crunch' cereal". PC Gamer. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  25. July 2020, Jordan Gerblick 01 (July 2020). "Minecraft is getting a cereal with codes for in-game clothes". GamesRadar. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  26. Watts, Steve (July 3, 2020). "Minecraft Now Has Its Own Cereal". Kotaku UK. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  27. "Simcraft: What If The Simpsons Did Minecraft?". Time. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  28. "The Simpsons do a Minecraft couch gag, Notch doesn't know how to feel about it". GameSpot. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  29. Anderson, Sage (July 30, 2019). "The 'Creeper Challenge' has group chats fighting to finish song lyrics in the right order". Mashable. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
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