While building a computer in Minecraft is nothing new, it was only a matter of time before somebody used one to create a working game within Mojang’s hit title. That is exactly what two masterminds are attempting with their working replica of The Legend of Zelda. The Daily Dot spoke with the duo Evan (lead designer) and Jon (lead programmer) who go by “Senselesswander” and “Thejonwithnoh” on Reddit, and got the low down on how they were able to create a game within a game. (Gameception?) In short, they’ve utilized what’s known as “command blocks” to run the operation.

“Minecraft has a predefined set of commands that the player can choose from, that do various (usually oddly specific) things,” explained Jon. “For instance, there is a ‘fill’ command which allows us to fill a region with a bunch of blocks, and a ‘tp’ command which allows us to teleport the player to a specific location. The individual commands themselves are moderately useful, but the real magic happens when you start stringing them together, and using command blocks to start triggering other command blocks in an organized way.”

He elaborated,  “One of the commands we have available is called ‘testfor.’ With this command, we can ask a question like ‘Is there a player in West Hyrule?’, and the command block will give us a yes or no answer.” We can then have other command blocks hooked up so that if the answer is yes, then they will ask more specific questions like ‘Is there a player near Level 6?’ By hooking up command blocks appropriately, the player can be tracked pretty effectively.”

Finding out where exactly the player is, they note, is an important factor that helps the game run smoother. While they haven’t decided on a final design, Jon stated that the team doesn’t plan on  having monsters on more than one or two screens. In an attempt to prevent lag, they plan on only generating the amount of enemies necessary. He added that the use of at least two screens will help avoid the issue of having creatures pop in and out of line of sight when moving between screens.

The computer the guys have created to run the whole thing is a two floor building contained in block separate from the map itself, invisible from those playing the simulation. Also, instead of planting dungeons under ground, they’ve separated them. So, when entering a dungeon, players will go down fake stairs and teleport to another location on the map.

Once Jon and Evan have finally worked all the kinks out and made sure the simulation runs smoothly, you’ll be able to get your hands on the creation for free. For an in depth look at some of the work they’ve done, head on over to the imgur album they released a couple of days ago.

—

Are you ready to play a game within a game? Let us know in the comments below.

[HT: The Daily Dot]