On Minecraft

Sound in games is very difficult to get right - it's a bit like make-up - a little makes everything a lot better, a lot makes things worse. And having none at all is better than too much.

Minecraft gets it right - the sound is functional and pretty spooky at times. When there's a zombie hanging around outside your door or down a passageway that you can't see, the sound of it is incredibly atmospheric, as well as being informative. What you don't get (and would be added in a big budget software house) is the sound of birds, crickets and various paraphenalia that you simply don't need. In some ways the sounds of minecraft reminds me of that from a very old game, Dungeon Master - functional, informative, and downright terrifying at times.

Minecraft also gets music right. Instead of being constantly on, the music fades in and out - there will be long periods with no music at all, but when it does arrive, it's incidental and adds to the experience rather than distracts from it. A bigger budget game would have swamped the music channel with crap that 95% of people turn off. (Seriously, game designers: If I want to listen to music whilst playing a game, *I* will choose what it is, not you). The one proper commercial game that I can think of that does music right is the GTA series - again, it's not always on - it's incidental and doesn't distract.