Minecraft

Minecraft is an indie sandbox game created by Markus "Notch" Persson and currently maintained by Jens "Jeb_" Bergensten. It was released on November 18, 2011. The game is focused on creativity and exploration. Players are encouraged to explore a randomly generated world in order to find the resources necessary to build whatever they wish. Meanwhile, there are perils to contend with, including zombies, skeletal archers, spiders, lava, and creepers (a creature that explodes upon contact). Minecraft is unique in that there is no story (until you beat the game).

Gameplay
When loading a new world, the player has five options for the game mode:
 * 1) Survival (optional modifier: Hardcore)
 * 2) Creative
 * 3) Adventure (you must enable cheats in the More World Options, then ingame type the command "/gamemode 2")
 * 4) Spectator

In the level.dat, Survival mode is gametype=0, Creative is gametype=1, Adventure is gametype=2, and Spectator is gametype=3. Hardcore is Survival with the addition of hardcore=1 (for Survival and Creative, hardcore=0). This knowledge allows hacking to change game modes by editing the world's level.dat. The command "/gamemode" can be used to switch between these. Example: "/gamemode 1" would put you into creative mode.

They also have four options for game difficulty:
 * Peaceful
 * Easy
 * Normal
 * Hard

Survival
In survival, the player starts with absolutely nothing in their possession spawning at the beginning of daytime, however you may choose to start the game with a bonus chest nearby, which contains some items to get the player going. The player should then collect wood, and hopefully have a shelter built before nighttime. At nighttime, several hostile mobs can spawn, and attack the player when nearby.

After some food has been collected, adequate protection gear or armor is equipped, along with some weapons, the player can then start to mine for valuable resources, which will vastly improve the gameplay.

Hardcore
Hardcore is the same as survival, except that the difficulty is locked on Hard, and when the player dies, they cannot respawn. They must delete the world.

Creative
In creative mode, you spawn with every block in your inventory. You have unlimited health, blocks, and normally hostile mobs will not attack you. This mode was created to let you imagination run wild.