Minecraft: Story Mode

Gameplay

Minecraft: Story Mode is a episodic interactive comedy-drama point-and-click graphic adventure video game similar to Telltale Games's other games, released as a number of episodes. The player will collect items, solve puzzles, and talk to non-player characters through conversation trees to learn about the story and determine what to do next. Like other Telltale Games, decisions that the player makes will impact events in the current and later episodes. However, unlike Telltale Games's previous games that tend to carry more mature or emotional overtones including the death of major characters, Minecraft: Story Mode is aimed as a family-friendly title, so the decisions will still be pivotal and emotional but will not involve mature imagery or themes. Elements of crafting and building, central to Minecraft, were included in the gameplay, following a similar approach. The game will feature combat and other action sequences, carried out through both quick time events similar to Telltale's other episodic games, and more arcade-like controls, such as steering around debris on a road.

Setting

Minecraft: Story Mode takes place in an interpretation of the world of Minecraft. The main character is named Jesse (voiced by Patton Oswalt/Catherine Taber), who is a passionate newbie Minecraft player who sets out on a journey with his/her friends within the Minecraft world to find The Order of the Stone (Gabriel, Ellegaard, Magnus, Soren, and Ivor) – five legendary adventurers who saved the Minecraft world. Jesse is described as a newbie player of Minecraft, still learning how to build and craft but passionate about the Minecraft world. The game will include a number of locations that exist in the real version of Minecraft that some players have difficulty accessing, including the Nether, The End, and the Far Lands.

Characters

The player can customize Jesse, including choice of gender and skin tone; as such, the male version is voiced by Patton Oswalt, while the female avatar is voiced by Catherine Taber. Other characters within the Minecraft world include the humans Petra (voiced by Ashley Johnson) Axel (Brian Posehn), Olivia (Martha Plimpton), Lukas (Scott Porter), Maya, Ivy, Fangirl (GK Bowes), Owen (Owen Hill), Gill (Phil LaMarr), Aiden, Otis (Matthew Mercer), Usher (Jason 'jtop' Topolski), Ivor (Paul Reubens) Sigge, Fanboy (Billy West), Lydia (Lydia Winters), and the Announcer (Erin Yvette), Jesse's pet pig Reuben (Dee Bradley Baker) and the four Order of the Stone members: Gabriel the Warrior (Dave Fennoy), Magnus the Rogue (Corey Feldman), Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer (Grey Griffin) and Soren the Architect (John Hodgman); Stauffer said that the human characters as a whole represent the different types of gamers that play Minecraft. Billy West narrates the story.

Plot

This is a broad overview of the plot. Certain decisions made by the player will alter details of specific events.

The Order of the Stone (Episode 1)

Young builder Jesse, their friends Olivia and Axel and their pet pig Reuben go to the Endercon building competition, which they lose every year to rival team the Ocelots. Despite this, they manage to build an impressive contraption (determined by the player), which Ocelot member Aiden, angrily sabotages, scaring off Reuben. Jesse goes after him and the two are saved from mobs by their friend Petra, who convinces Jesse to help her in a business deal selling a Wither skull for a diamond.

Back at the competition (which the group either wins or loses, depending on whether or not Jesse's friends followed them), the deal goes bad when Ivor, the man Petra sells the skull to, rips her off and flees. Unable to get into the building he ran into, the group, joined by sympathetic Ocelot leader Lukas, create a distraction allowing them to sneak in. Following Ivor into an underground laboratory, they discover that he's making a Wither, an incredibly dangerous creature, but are unable to stop him. The creature attacks the event and targets Gabriel, a member of the legendary Order of the Stone, whom Ivor seems to know. Unfortunately, Ivor loses control of the beast, which, due to the special 'command block', transforms into an advanced, more horrific version of itself called 'The Wither Storm', which destroys the town, forcing the group to escape into the dangerous Nether, losing Petra and Gabriel in the process. Gabriel sends them to find Order members Magnus and Ellegaard, and gives them an amulet to guide them.

In the Nether, they find a train track left by the Order, and arrive to the Overworld, where they decide to bunk for the night. Axel has an unexplained bitterness towards Lukas, and Jesse must chose who they will side with. The next morning, they arrive at the Order Fortress, where they discover in the archives that Ivor had actually been a member of the Order, but had been inexplicably kicked out. They later find a contraption that, when hooked up to the amulet, shows on a map the current locations of the members of the Order. Lukas decides to stay and fortify the fortress, and asks that one of the four stay with him. The player then has a choice: to go with Axel to get Magnus, or with Olivia to get Ellegaard. As Jesse and Axel/Olivia prepare to leave, the Wither Storm approaches.

Assembly Required (Episode 2)

Following an amulet Gabriel gave Jesse, the group makes it to a temple that served as the Order's headquarters. Using a machine powered by the amulet, Jesse pinpoints the locations of two of the three remaining members, Magnus and Ellegaard, and chooses to either go after Magnus with Axel or Ellegaard with Olivia. After successfully getting the member to join them, they return to discover that the other friend has subsequently retrieved the other member and are reunited with either Petra or Gabriel (depending on who Jesse tried to save), who is now very sick. Returning to the machine, they discover that it now shows the location of the last, long thought lost member, Soren, as well as Ivor, who was once an unknown member, heading toward him.

The Last Place You Look (Episode 3)

Arriving at Soren's location, Magnus and Ellegaard split up after an argument and Jesse follows one of them, only to run into Ivor. Despite the group's best efforts, Ivor overpowers and entraps them. They manage to escape, but end up in the foreboding End. There, they spot Soren and follow him into his massive house, where Jesse finds him researching the dangerous Endermen. Jesse convinces Soren to help destroy the Wither Storm using the incredibly powerful Formidi-Bomb, just as it attacks. Accepting either Magnus or Ellegaard's armor, which costs that member their lives, Jesse constructs and uses the Formidi-Bomb, seemingly destroying the monster and freeing the citizens it ate, including a now amnesiac Gabriel or Petra.

A Block and a Hard Place (Episode 4)

Unfortunately, due to the bomb not reaching the Command Block keeping it alive, the Wither Storm reforms, having split apart to make three Wither Storms, forcing everyone to flee. The group then encounters Ivor, who wants to fix his mistake and offers a solution: using a book of enchantments he has at his house in the Far Lands, Jesse can construct a powerful weapon they can use to destroy the Command Block. The group (possibly sans Lukas and the sick member) goes to Ivor's house, where they learn that the Ender Dragon battle that made the Order famous didn't actually happen: Soren just used the Command Block to glitch the Ender Dragon out of existence. Ivor left the Order in disgust and this is why he summoned the Wither Storm.

Despite this shocking betrayal, Jesse constructs the weapon which, with the unwitting help of the Endermen, they use to enter the Wither Storm and destroy the Command Block, though Reuben is fatally wounded in the process and dies shortly after. As the world praises the new heroes, Jesse convinces Gabriel, who now either remembers everything or is cured (same with Petra), to either tell the truth about the Order's past or continue keeping it a secret. Either way, Jesse and their friends are then made the famous New Order of the Stone.

Order Up! (Episode 5)

Sometime later, the group go on a tip from Ivor to a temple, where they discover a Mysterious Enchanted Flint and steel. Outside the temple, they're accosted by Aiden, who usurped Lukas as the new leader of the Ocelots and is bitter towards the fame the group has attained, though they manage to chase him and his lackeys away. Back in town, the group shows their found loot to Ivor, who built a skull with lava eyes and reveals the Enchanted Flint And Steel to be the key to the Eversource, a source of unlimited power. Returning to the temple, Jesse, Petra, Lukas and Ivor find a portal which Jesse activates with the Flint and steel. Unfortunately, the Ocelots surprise them and enter the portal first.

Pursuing them, the group ends up in a sky dimension, where they have to build a bridge with dirt while Ivor builds a skull with lava eyes again. They come to Sky City, an island metropolis in the clouds, where building is strictly regulated by the town's stern Founder. Unluckily for the group, Aiden gets to the Founder first and tricks her into turning the whole town against them. Though Lukas and possibly Ivor are captured, the rest are saved by Milo, a barman and the leader of an underground resistance called Build Club. After Jesse shows their building talents to the group, they sneak into the Founder's palace at night, encounter the escaped group member (or members) and find the Eversource, revealed to be a chicken which lays spawn eggs.

The group is then attacked by the Founder and Aiden, only for him to betray her and knock her, Jesse and possibly Lukas over the side. Landing safely on the land below, which is surprising to the Founder as she thought there was nothing below, she, Jesse and possibly Lukas build a tower back to Sky City, which is now overrun with monsters Aiden summoned from spawn eggs layed by the Eversource chicken. Though Jesse defeats Aiden and his crownies, the city is lost and the remaining townsfolk into a waterfall and flow safely down to the land below. After deciding what to do with Aiden and the Eversource and how the new government should be run, Jesse and the group use a portal Jesse and the Founder discovered while building the tower to return home, only to find themselves in a corridor filled with portals.

A Portal to Mystery (Episode 6)

After entering one of the portals, Jesse, Lukas, Petra and Ivor end up in a world very similar to their own, except there are two moons, and everything appears swampy. After reading an invitation and escaping a hoard of zombies, they end up in the mansion of the inviters, who end up to be five well-known Minecraft YouTubers: CaptainSparklez, StampyCat, DanTDM, LDShadowLady and StacyPlays, as well as two other fictional ones, TorqueDawg and Cassie Rose. They are revealed to be just as oblivious as the New Order, since portraits of the youtubers and the Order somehow appeared in the house. While meeting them, all lights go out and TorqueDawg is mysteriously killed by a trap.

Through a series of investigation, causing the death trap of CaptainSparklez right after his announcement of the fact that the murderer (who referred to him/herself as the 'White Pumpkin' )was killing them off for the enchanted flint and steel (such as the one as Jesse has), as well as the death of either Dan or Lizzie, eventually the majority of Youtubers point the evidence at Lukas, but Petra and Jesse fiercely disagree. The two, along with Stampy, who then reveals that he himself had an enchanted flint and steel, prove that Cassie Rose was the White Pumpkin, who then accidentally sets off one of her own traps and seemingly dies. Jesse, Petra, Ivor, and Lukas peacefully depart with the remaining Youtubers. The New Order walks over to an unlit portal frame, and attempt to use the flint and steel on it, and open another portal back to their home.

Though the flint and steel had the power to send them back to their world, it is revealed to be a trap from Rose, who was not dead. While she threatens them with Endermites, Jesse is able to defeat her with his sword and her own collection of ender pearls and leaves her to be eaten by the endermites, while he and his friends return through the real portal, while it is unknown whether they return home or not.

Access Denied (Episode 7)

Back in the portal hallway, Petra, who is bitter towards Jesse for leading to nowhere in multiple worlds and portals, flees into a redstone portal, concluding that redstone meant "smart people", Jesse, Lukas and Ivor, having no choice, follow her into the portal.

Upon arrival, they are taken hostage by a population of players controlled with redstone chips by the psycopathic artificial intelligence computer screen PAMA (Prototype: Autonomous Management Agent), who was created by redstone user Harper but, against Harper's will, controlled the population in order to "make them useful". Wanting to invade Jesse's territory and world, P.A.M.A. questions him and takes over Petra and Lukas, allowing them to see what they know. Jesse and Ivor escape P.A.M.A with the help of Harper, who shows them her laboratory, where she reveals that she is an old builder. They are soon attacked by P.A.M.A controlled monsters, alongside the mind controlled and Lukas and Petra. Through a stroke of luck, Jesse manages to destroy the redstone chip controlling either Lukas or Petra.

Harper and whoever Jesse didn't free are captured by PAMA, and Harper tells Jesse to find the 'headset'. Eventually, after solving Harper's difficult puzzle, finds the headset, and wears it. It allows Jesse to take control over and migrate into PAMA-controlled mobs. Eventually finding Harper being captured by PAMA, Jesse is unable to free her but finds out from Harper that PAMA's internal redstone heart was supposed to be destroyed. Using one of Ivor's potions, Jesse is able to break into PAMA but is engaged in a fight with either Lukas or Petra before destroying PAMA's heart. After the townspeople are freed from PAMA's possession, Harper accompanies them to the portal hallway, where she unlocks a stairway with the redstone heart leading to where the 'Old Builders' lived, who might be able to help them find their way home.

A Journey's End? (Episode 8)

Arriving at the Old Builder's village, the five accidentally interrupt a game of spleef hosted by the Old Builders; Hadrian, Mevia and Otto. Lukas and either Ivor or Petra are seemingly killed, but respawn to be sent to the Nether mines where other losers of the Old Builder's games are sent. Jesse strikes a deal with Hadrian - if Jesse wins the games, Jesse and friends get the Atlas and go home. In the village, Harper explains to Jesse that Hadrian and Mevia began to force players from other worlds to play the games - they would only be free if they won the games, which was virtually rigged.

After freeing Lukas and his other companion from the mines, Jesse successfully completes the second game, despite Hadrian sending the green team to eliminate Jesse. Harper convinces sympathetic Old Builder Otto to help Jesse. Hadrian reveals to Jesse that he kept Olivia and Axel captive using the Atlas, and makes another deal: If Jesse loses the games, Petra, Olivia, Axel, Harper and Ivor can go free while Jesse stays imprisoned.

The next day, on the third task, Jesse eventually convinces the other teams to cooperate and rebel against Hadrian and Mevia by all winning. The two kill Jesse, and the player respawns in the respawn area, where Olivia, Axel, Petra, Lukas, Harper and Ivor have stolen items for Jesse to defeat the Old Builders. The plan is successful, and they eventually receive the Atlas. Back in the Portal Hallway, Otto works on making the games fun again, Harper returns to her world to help her civilians after the PAMA incident, and the Order of the Stone return home. There, Ivor takes the enchanted flint and steel and the Atlas, in which Jesse either decides to go after him or trust him with their new treasure.

Episodes

The main Minecraft: Story Mode game was separated into five episodes, released in one month intervals.

Downloadable content

Following Episode 5, Telltale has produced three additional episodes as downloadable content for the game that will continue the story. These episodes will be released in interval as part of an Adventure Pass that existing players can purchase, and require the player to have purchased the main game. These episodes are not available on the Apple TV version of Minecraft Story Mode, although they are available in the iOS version for iPhone and iPad.

Development

The idea for Minecraft: Story Mode came around the end of 2012 when Telltale Games was engaged in work for Tales from the Borderlands, an episodic series based on the Borderlands series. The idea of developing stories around other established video game franchises led the team to brainstorm the idea for a Minecraft-related game, given that the game was essentially a "blank canvas" for storytelling, according to Job Stauffer, and would create an interesting challenge. The two groups recognized the amount of fan-generated narrative content that existed in the way of YouTube videos and other media forms that demonstrated the potential for storytelling in the game. Many on Telltale's staff were also already fans of Minecraft, with a private server that they played on, with some of the incidents that occurred on there becoming ideas for the game's story. Telltale began negotiations with Mojang in early 2013, and began work on the title shortly thereafter. Stauffer noted that Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang was not a factor in the game's development, as their interaction with Mojang began well before Microsoft's negotiations.

Telltale opted to create a new main character of Jesse for Minecraft: Story Mode instead of using default "Steve" character from Minecraft, feeling that they did not want to attempt to rewrite how players already saw this character in the game. Other primary characters in the game are loosely designed around archetypes of common player-characters for Minecraft, such that those that engage in building, fighting, or griefing other players. The game will not attempt to provide any background for some concepts in Minecraft, such as the creepers, as to avoid the various interpretations that fans have done for these elements, though they are elements of the game's story.

Stauffer stated that the game's story would be aimed as family-friendly, similar to the films The Goonies or Ghostbusters; their intended content would be equivalent to a PG-13 or PEGI-12 rating. A number of the voice actors are alumni of such films of the 1980s such as Corey Feldman who starred in The Goonies, and the game includes various references to these types of films. Stauffer reflected that while Telltale Games's more recent games like The Walking Dead were more mature stories, their original adventure games like Sam & Max and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People were written as family-friendly, and that they consider their approach to Minecraft: Story Mode as "part of our DNA". The story was aimed to be accessible to both existing players of Minecraft - both novice and advanced players - and to new audiences outside of the game.

Minecraft: Story Mode was formally announced in December 2014 as a collaboration project between Mojang and Telltale Games; the announcement was presented as an interactive adventure game named "Info Quest II". Its first trailer was released during the Minecon 2015 convention in early July. The game is planned for a five-episode series for release on Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation and Xbox consoles by late 2015; Telltale has confirmed that they will release the game for the Wii U, representing the first time a Minecraft game has been released on a Nintendo platform, as well as the first time a Telltale Games's title has been released on a Nintendo platform since Back to the Future: The Game. Minecraft: Story Mode - The Complete Adventure, incorporating both the main episodes and downloadable content, was also announced for the Nintendo Switch.

The series released for most systems on October 13, 2015, with the PlayStation Vita and Wii U versions to follow at a later date. A season pass of the game was available for purchase on October 27, 2015, which allows the player to access the other four episodes once they are released. Retail versions of the game were released on October 27, 2015.

Reception

Minecraft: Story Mode received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics. It received praise for its humor, faithfulness to its source material and light hearted tone compared to some of Telltale's previous works although some critics were divisive on the quality of its story and characters.

Episode 1: The Order of the Stone

Episode 1: The Order of the Stone received mixed to positive reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 71/100 based on 25 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 71/100 based on 23 reviews and the Xbox One version 77/100 based on 13 reviews.

Episode 2: Assembly Required

Episode 2: Assembly Required received mixed reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 59/100 based on 13 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 53/100 based on 7 reviews and the Xbox One version 61/100 based on 8 reviews.

Episode 3: The Last Place You Look

Episode 3: The Last Place You Look received mixed to positive reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 73/100 based on 10 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 73/100 based on 7 reviews and the Xbox One version 75/100 based on 9 reviews.

Episode 4: A Block and a Hard Place

Episode 4: A Block and a Hard Place received mixed reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 68/100 based on 8 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 72/100 based on 8 reviews and the Xbox One version 71/100 based on 8 reviews.

Episode 5: Order Up!

Episode 5: Order Up! received mixed reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 70/100 based on 6 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 72/100 based on 9 reviews and the Xbox One version 69/100 based on 6 reviews.

Episode 6: A Portal to Mystery

Episode 6: A Portal to Mystery received mixed reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 64/100 based on 5 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 69/100 based on 6 reviews and the Xbox One version 71/100 based on 5 reviews.

Episode 7: Access Denied

Episode 7: Access Denied received mixed reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 69/100 based on 4 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 68/100 based on 6 reviews and the Xbox One version 71/100 based on 5 reviews.

Episode 8: A Journey's End?

Episode 8: A Journey's End? received mixed reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the PlayStation 4 version 69/100 based on 6 reviews.