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Comment by dminor | Hacker News Reader

I've been working on an Android game that I envision as a mashup of Zelda and Minecraft, so it's pretty entertaining to see Notch whip out a pretty similar idea over a single weekend.

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Entertaining or frustrating? The guy is a machine, I watched his stream (not the whole thing but a few minutes here and there) and he was almost never not typing (or editing something in paint.net).

How he maintains his focus for that long and doesn't get stumped by bugs for any great length of time is truly impressive.

It's true, I was amazed at how fast he worked. A bit of programmer envy from me.

Entertaining, definitely. Notch has been making games for years, so he's drawing on a lot of experience.

I love how he uses the most uncool tools out there. Eclipse, Java, Pain.net, Windows, yet produces more than most of us combined.

Pain.net: Typo, or subtle joke?

Funny, it was a typo :)

Since when windows and eclipse aren't cool?

I think it's something I could learn from. Stop messing around trying to get everything perfect and just go ahead and get something done.

The flip side to this is that his projects tend to accrete bad design decisions and just outright bugs that a more methodical developer wouldn't. Minecraft multiplayer comes to mind.

I'd imagine the pressure of having hundreds of people watching would keep him in check. It's pretty unlikely he'd stream himself doing some casual browsing with a sandwich in hand.

Me too, I'm working on a 2D MMO for Android: http://developingthedream.blogspot.com

And it's a real treat to see a 2D game like it being made. Not to say other participants didn't have cool looking 2d games.

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