When Minecraft, a game created by the independent game studio Mojang Specifications, made it into open beta, the game was immediately a huge success. While the game hasn't been fully released yet, it has already managed to get twelve million people playing. The amount of players is still rapidly growing and is expected to explode when the game finally releases. One thing is for sure, Minecraft has started a video game revolution and created a new video game genre all by itself. Numerous of so called Minecraft "clones" have already been made by other developers and these games are very popular too. Let's take a closer look at some of these Minecraft-like games.

Terraria

Minecraft's popularity was growing rapidly and this must have been noticed by the independent game studio Re-Logic, who created Terraria. Just like Minecraft, Terraria was incredibly popular when it launched and it was at the top of Steam's most bought list for a long time. Terraria's gameplay is a lot like Minecraft, building, exploring and fighting monsters at night are it's key gameplay elements. But the thing that sets Terraria apart from Minecraft is that Terraria is 2D while Minecraft is fully 3D.

Fortresscraft

Fortresscraft is one of the games that most resemble Minecraft. It has been developed by an independent game developer, just like Terraria and Minecraft, but unlike Terraria, Fortresscraft doesn't really set itself apart from Minecraft, apart from the fact that it is being sold for on XBOX Live.

So why are these types of games so incredibly popular?

These types of games probably became so incredibly popular because of the following main points:

Varied and cheap: both Minecraft, Terraria and Fortresscraft offer incredibly varied gameplay for a very low price. People do not have to buy multiple games because these games have everything they want. People can explore things, create things, and fight against monsters. No need to buy three different games for a retail price.
Unique: It could also be possible that these games have garnered their popularity by doing something unique, by offering something almost no other game has ever successfully done.

Are we going to see more of this new video game genre in the future?

I am absolutely sure we are going to see more games like Minecraft and Terraria in the coming years, because they have both proven to be very popular. But in the far future, I don't think there is going to be space for more than two of these games, because how far can a game developer go without destroying the base of these games: creating, exploring, and fighting. And at the end all of these games closely resemble each other, and as we all know from the MMORPG industry, only one game can be the true winner.