The Minecraft devs probably wouldn't add the creeper if they were following their current design rules 'because it would actually be so controversial'

A creeper lurks over the shoulder of a miner in Minecraft. — (Image credit: Mojang)

I think we can all agree that the creeper is one of the most iconic videogame enemies—next to the murloc, the goomba, and whatever the hell's going on with the tonberry. But it turns out that Minecraft's devs probably wouldn't have added it based on their current design goals.

That's per a recent dev blog (thanks, GamesRadar+). See, present-day Minecraft has a few core principles. The relevant ones to everyone's least favourite critter are "be fair to players", "bad things can happen, but they're technically the player's fault", "find the right level of destruction", and "don't add features that wreck player's builds."

THE BIOME THAT BROKE MINECRAFT - YouTube

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If you're sitting here thinking 'hey, wait a second, those are all things that the Creeper does!' then you'd be right. As Chief Creative Officer Jens Bergensten says in the video linked above, "If you followed the rules we have today, you would probably not add the creeper, because it would actually be so controversial to have a monster that would show up and just destroy what you built."

However, the "creeper is very iconic", which seems in direct conflict with all those lovely pre-established rules. How can this be?

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it's because games really just aren't meant to be frictionless. All of Mojang's practical advice is great to avoid moments of frustration, sure, but you need to have a little spice in there.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a great example of this sort of philosophy playing out in the extreme. The entire reason that game is compelling is because it's not afraid to take a sledgehammer to your best-laid plans. In an RPG less afraid to bully you, I might've simply gone onto my ox cart and left Battahl with a nice pleasant JPEG to wash the loading screen down smooth.

Instead, I was ambushed by orcs, one of my pawn's spells destroyed the cart, a griffin decided to join the party, and said griffin immediately took off when I tried to climb on it, taking me so far away from my actual intended location I started laughing my head off.

Point being, inconvenience is memorable. It's a tightrope balance to walk, to be sure, and I think Mojang is wise to not add anything else like the creeper into Minecraft—but I'm glad it's there, and I'm sure Mojang is, too.

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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