Molyneux picks his game of the decade

PC indie phenomenon Minecraft is the best game Populous creator and newly anointed BAFTA Fellow Peter Molyneux has played in the last 10 years.

Speaking in an interview with IGN, the Lionhead boss cited the sandbox building game as an example of a burgeoning independent development scene that deserves greater mainstream exposure.

"I wish people in the press would focus on some of that up and coming talent, because there isn't enough focus on it in my opinion," he said. "People like Marcus Persson who did Minecraft, he's a fantastic person to talk to, and I think Minecraft is a complete work of genius.

Molyneux went on to recount how, when playing the game with his son, an innocent Tweet calling for players to visit his world caused the game server to fall over.

"That was the worst thing to do – within ten seconds of me pushing the Twitter button there were ten people, within 20 there were 50 people, and in a minute there were 200 people and we were bombarded until the point where the whole server crashed.

"I opted that they couldn't have permission to change anything – but if you could imagine, there was this hill completely full of people, like a forest of people. It was quite scary, actually. In Minecraft your designs tend to be quite personal – and that's the genius of it – and to think there are all these people just going there and looking, it was quite funny."

Elsewhere in the interview, he hailed the game's creator, Marcus 'Notch' Persson, for his independent, DIY ethic, before calling on gamers to take more notice of similarly creative underground titles.

"I think Minecraft's the best thing I've played in the last ten years, and what's so brilliant about it – and I've met Marcus and he's a real inspirational person – he did everything on his own, and I think how brilliant and inspirational that is, to not need the full force of publishers and marketing people," he said.

"People like Marcus – and there are some people in the social side – I feel there's a real talent there. I think the triple AAA titles will continue to improve, but I dearly wish that things like the 30 under 30, that pull people out of obscurity, were noticed a bit more."

For more on Minecraft, check out Alec Meer's recent post-mortem.