Markus Persson

Markus Alexej Persson, more commonly known under the alias Notch, is the creator of Minecraft and one of the founders of Mojang Studios.

Markus Persson

Real name	Markus Alexej Persson
Date of birth	June 1, 1979 (age 45)
Occupation	Game developer
Nationality	Swedish
Known for	Creating Minecraft, founder of Mojang Studios
Also known as	Notch
Reddit name	xNotch
X (Twitter) username	@notch
YouTube channel	Markus Persson
Minecraft name	Notch

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Biography

Persson started programming at the age of seven, using his father's Commodore 128. He produced his first game (a text-adventure) at the age of eight, with the help of type-in programs. In 2005 he started working as a game developer for King.com, which he left in 2009 to work as a programmer at Jalbum. He is also one of the founders of Wurm Online. After Minecraft sales grew, he moved from full-time to part-time at Jalbum and then eventually left to focus full-time on Minecraft in June 2010; many of the original Mojang employees (including former CEO Carl Manneh) were also ex-Jalbum employees. After the full release of Minecraft (1.0.0), Persson transferred creative authority of the game's development to Jens Bergensten, afterwards continuing to help out with Minecraft while also working on new projects.

Persson engaged Ez during a vacation in Indonesia, and married her on August 13, 2011. The two separated on August 15, 2012. Her brother, Kristoffer, is the artist whose paintings appear in the game.

Persson sold Mojang and all of its assets to Microsoft on September 15, 2014. In a blog post, Notch states "I love games and I love to program, but I don't make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don't try to change the world." He then goes on to say that "I've become a symbol. I don't want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don't understand, that I don't want to work on."

Persson left Mojang on November 5, 2014, along with the other founders. He wrote that "as soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I'll probably abandon it immediately."

Persson has not been involved with Minecraft since selling Mojang to Microsoft, and the company has disassociated with him since 2019 following a series of controversial Tweets on Twitter, with a spokesperson for Microsoft stating that Persson's comments and opinions do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang and are not representative of Minecraft.

Outside of work Persson frequently took part in competitions, including Ludum Dare and the Java 4K Game Programming Contest.

On August 15, 2024, Notch tweeted that he liked the change that Mojang made to the appearance of redstone torches. On September 29, 2024, Notch tweeted that the creaking “looks awesome”, and that “thought should be put into” whether or not a mob drops loot.

On September 4, 2024, Notch commented on the teaser trailer for A Minecraft Movie.

Notch’s Goodbye Letter

This letter, made by Notch, announces his departure from Mojang.

“

I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either. It’s certainly flattering, and to gradually get thrust into some kind of public spotlight is interesting. A relatively long time ago, I decided to step down from Minecraft development. Jens was the perfect person to take over leading it, and I wanted to try to do new things. At first, I failed by trying to make something big again, but since I decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges, I’ve had so much fun with work. I wasn’t exactly sure how I fit into Mojang where people did actual work, but since people said I was important for the culture, I stayed. I was at home with a bad cold a couple of weeks ago when the internet exploded with hate against me over some kind of EULA situation that I had nothing to do with. I was confused. I didn’t understand. I tweeted this in frustration. Later on, I watched the This is Phil Fish video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had. I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter. As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately. Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don’t expect to get away from negative comments by doing this, but at least now I won’t feel a responsibility to read them. I’m aware this goes against a lot of what I’ve said in public. I have no good response to that. I’m also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I’m not. I’m a person, and I’m right there struggling with you. I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can’t be responsible for something this big. In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it’s belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change. It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity.

„

Games and other work

Notch has released much of his work, including, but not limited to:

Games:

• Droj, a multiplayer game.
• DachonB, a gravity based shooter.
• Wurm Online, an MMO featuring sandbox elements similar to Minecraft.
• LogicHex, a hexagonal logic gate builder.
• Infinite Mario Bros, a Super Mario clone featuring an endlessly-long level.
• Takns, a strategy game with tanks.
• Blast Passage, an 8-Bit mashup between Bomberman and Gauntlet.
• TowerFail, a failed attempt at a ludum dare game.
• TinyCham, a dungeon crawler with a 40×30 pixel resolution.
• Eye of the Onlooker II - The Legend of Tinymoon, a sequel to TinyCham.
• Road, a racing game.
• Minecraft, a block game.
• Jack Guzi, a platformer game about a deranged man cleaning his bathroom.
• Muh, a rhythm game.
• Launch, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
• Her, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
• Anttack, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
• Sunshine Bubbles, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
• CatRace, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
• 15m, a game for the 2010 Bigjam competition.
• Herp Fortress, a Team Fortress 2 demake.
• Drop, a typing game that increases in speed as you play.
• Shambles, a hectic shooter greatly inspired by Doom.
• Cliffhorse, an open-ended game in which you play as a horse that can scale cliffs.

Java 4k Games:

• Sonic Racer 4k, a racing game with stolen sprites.
• Dungeon4k, a dungeon exploration game.
• Hunters4k, a first person shooter.
• Miners4k, a game kind of inspired by Lemmings and Diggers.
• Dachon4k, a 4k remake of DachonB.
• l4krits, a Luxor clone.
• t4kns, a real time strategy game.
• Left 4k Dead, a zombie shooter game inspired by Left 4 Dead.
• Left 4k Dead 2, a zombie shooter game inspired by Left 4 Dead 2.
• MEG4kMAN, a Mega Man clone featuring old-school graphics.
• Minecraft 4k, Minecraft in less than 4 KB for a Java 4k competition.
• VVVV, a VVVVVV demake.

Ludum Dare Games:

• Breaking the Tower, a slow-paced strategy game.
• Bunny Press, a violent puzzle game made for Ludum Dare 14.
• The Europa Arcology Incident, an RPG-style game Notch made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 16.
• Metagun, a puzzle game Notch made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 18.
• Prelude of the Chambered, an escape game Notch made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 21.
• Minicraft, a top-down Zelda-esque game with elements from Minecraft, made for Ludum Dare 22.
• Last Minute Christmas Chopping, in which you play as Santa collecting wood to build a sleigh.
• Drowning in Problems, a clicker game that gets progressively more complicated.

2.5D Engines:

• Flashmaze, a first person shooter prototype in flash.
• Flash doom level renderer.
• Dungeon master type game engine in Java.
• Legend of the Chambered, a dungeon crawler containing many textures that were reused in Minecraft.
• Legend of the Chambered 2, an updated version of Legend of the Chambered.
• City, an engine and walking test with walls.
• HL2RPG, a Java Dungeon Master like prototype which uses Half-Life 2 assets.

Notch also has a soundcloud page which includes 53 tracks in total. He would sometimes use his music on his old YouTube channel Nizzotch.

Unreleased

BitSeven Productions:

Information from this set of images, verified through this article:

• 3D1, a free-roaming engine based on Wolfenstein.
• Ruby, a free-scrolling engine inspired by JRPGs.
• ISOM, an isometric renderer test which included a random terrain generator.
• Turbo, an "over-the top side scrolling shooter".
• IQ Ball 2, a sequel to IQ Ball, where the object of the game is to get a ball safely to the goal, and in which all balls are moved when a directional key is pressed.
• HEDE, a platformer that involved shooting slimes with a gun.
• HEDE 2, the sequel to HEDE, albeit top-down instead of a platformer.
• Rubylands x, a tile based roguelike.
• RUBYLAND, a "first person tile based dungeon crawler".
• Howl, "a Megaman-type game".
• STRAT, inspired by Dune 2.

Other:

• Rubylands, a fantasy group manager.
• RubyDung, a Dwarf Fortress-inspired game containing textures that were reused in Minecraft.
• Zombie Town, a GTA: Chinatown Wars-inspired game containing models that were reused in Minecraft.
• Legend of the Chambered - Book 1, an unfinished TinyGame2010 submission.
• The Tiny Vikings, another unfinished TinyGame2010 submission.
• Super Me4k Boy, a super meat boy demake.
• Brickcraft, a sandbox game developed in collaboration with the LEGO group.
• Santa vs Cthulhu, a real time strategy game where you play as either Santa or Cthulhu.
• Minitale, a sequel to Minicraft.
• 0x10^c, a space sandbox game featuring programmable spacecraft.

Quotes

	“	Imagine countless wiki editors all using each others work as basis for their own, reasoning what must be true from what they already assume is. Wouldn't that make for a weird reality?	„
		— Notch on January 6, 2020

Trivia

• On June 1, 2011, Notch posted on Twitter that he was 2⁵ years old. 2⁵ is 32, which was his age at the time.
• Notch programmed the Minecraft splash screen to display "Happy Birthday, Notch!" all day on June 1. This was removed in Java Edition 1.8.5.

Gallery

Photographs

• 

  Notch on his phone.

• 

  Notch wearing his iconic black fedora.

• 

  Notch smiling.

• 

  Notch with his fans at MinecraftCon 2010.

• 

  Notch surrounded by fans.

• 

  Notch using his computer.

• 

  Notch (left) and Seananners (right) at the Machinima Realm Minecraft Interview; February 11, 2011.

• 

  Notch unboxing his new hat.

• 

  At MINECON 2011.

• 

  Notch cutting a cake at MINECON 2011.

• 

  Notch at the 2016 Game Developers Conference.

Screenshots

• 

  Notch's unique yellow name tag in a Java Edition Classic 0.30 server.

• 

  Notch with other players in the MINECON 2010 server.

• 

  Notch sneaking around in Minecraft.

• 

  Notch wearing his Mojang cape.

• 

  Notch on a server.

• 

  Notch on a server.

Renders

• 

  Notch's skin in Minecraft.

• 

  Notch's one-of-a-kind hat in the game Team Fortress 2, given to him by the developers.

• 

  The "Minecraft Notch Hat" Xbox 360 avatar item.

Illustrations

• 

  Notch in a cartoon style.

• 

  Notch icon on Adweek's The Top 10 Technologists.

Icons

• 

  Notch's Xmas 2011 Twitter icon.

• 

  Notch's steam profile picture.

• 

  Notch's YouTube profile picture showing Kirby with Steve's Copy Ability from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

See also

• Kristoffer - Former brother-in-law
• The Word of Notch - Former blog
• Nizzotch - Former YouTube channel

External links

• SoundCloud page
• List of Notch's games on mojang.com