Exciting news dropped today out of Sweden for Minecraft gamers. The four main developers responsible for Bukkit, the community-built server implementation for Minecraft multiplayer, have joined Mojang. Plans are in place to rebuild the game’s multiplayer server capabilities under the direction of the Bukkit team, as well as offering true mod support to the indie title.
Stock Minecraft multiplayer is a bit of a mess, even in the full release of the game. There are a lot of inherent problems and limitations to the stock install. Bukkit is an open source project aimed at extending the multiplayer experience in Minecraft by adding many useful features and moderation capabilities. Things such as game-limiting customizations, super moderators (with command control of just about everything in the game), and privatized chests are only possible with Bukkit. Most sizeable Minecraft multiplayer servers rely on Bukkit, including Icrontic’s own Minecraft server.
Mojang has announced that with these four new additions to their team, they intend to completely rebuild the server API. Starting from scratch, the new team will build vanilla Minecraft to offer proper multiplayer features, such as those found in Bukkit. The team said that while they cannot guarantee backward compatibility with Bukkit users moving to the new API, they will still ensure that Bukkit has full support for Minecraft 1.2 when released to help hold users over until the new API is completed.
Mojang also mentioned that in addition to the new API, the Bukkit team will also be working on implementing proper client-side modding to the game. Currently, modding Minecraft can be a confusing, difficult task, and is nearly impossible for users that don’t have a thorough understanding of computers and the Windows operating system. A proper modding interface in the game will be a very welcome addition.
This announcement sheds some light on Minecraft’s exciting future. Though many critics flung mud at Mojang for releasing what they felt was an incomplete game at version 1.0, hiring the Bukkit team shows that Mojang are definitely taking steps to improve their product and offer an awesome experience for single and multiplayer gamers alike. With the addition of a proper multiplayer server API and moddability, the Minecraft of the future will be just as dynamic as the players that populate the servers today.
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