Minecraft’s Notch to Indie Developers: ‘Don’t Listen to Advice’

Markuc “Notch” Persson, the mind behind Minecraft, is offering indie game developers a bit of advice when it comes to creating a game.

“Don’t listen to advice,” he says in a recent interview with Forbes.

Wait…what? Has Notch spent too many hours coding to think straight? He’s advising developers to not listen to advice? You heard read correctly.

“You don’t become unique by repeating what someone else did,” Notch continues. Ah, I think I get it. He’s encouraging indie developers to think outside of the box. Think of new gameplay mechanics. Think of new gameplay ideas. Maybe he should be offering this advice to bigger developers as well.

Notch has implied that listening to others and repeating what others have done stifles creativity. And if anyone knows of creativity, it’s Mr. Markus “Notch” Persson. The brain behind Mojang’s successful indie title, Minecraft, has created a game that encourages not only the designers to be creative, but the player’s as well. Giving almost universal freedom to do or create whatever they want, Minecraft is a true example of what Notch is advising.

And if indie developers should listen to anyone’s advice, even though it strongly goes against his own words of wisdom, it’s Notch. Minecraft has sold over 3 million copies even though it still hasn’t “officially” been released. Minecraft is still technically in beta, with it’s official release date targeted for November.