The Sounds of Minecraft: How We Make Minecraft – Episode 4

Dare you join us for another fascinating journey into the minds that make Minecraft? [CRICKETS] This is fast becoming my least favorite part of the show. Welcome to How We Make Minecraft! [JAUNTY THEME MUSIC] [MOB NOISES] “Unlistenable.” It’s both the cruelest comment I’ve read about the narration on these videos,

And what our designers are always trying to avoid when putting together the sounds of Minecraft. But this month, we thought we’d tell you less about specific sounds, and more about the hopefully “sound decisions” we make when it comes to the audible aspects of Minecraft.

So, the obvious, easy joke here would be for the music to come in randomly while I’m talking. But, here at How We Make Minecraft, we like to think we’re better than that. (Off-mic) What’s that? We’re not better than that? Oh. Well. That’s disapp – [MUSIC] MUSIC

Adding music to a film or YouTube video is an easy thing to control. You can time it to play at the precise second you want. For example, video editor, play a guitar twang now. I said, play a guitar twa – [GUITAR TWANGS]

Unbelievable. This is because I didn’t come to your birthday party, isn’t it? [GUITAR RIFFS AFFIRMATIVELY] Controlling when music plays in a video is simple, THEORETICALLY. But in video games it’s a lot trickier to predict the player’s actions. It’s why our score plays randomly over the action,

Often has long periods of silence designed to build anticipation, and doesn’t feature too many airhorns. [AIRHORN] Minecraft’s pared-back soothing soundtrack is hopefully appropriate to the action, and pleasant on the ears, no matter what you’re currently doing. And that works fine, so long as you are somewhere pleasant.

But then, we had to go and spoil it all, by updating this. Yes, the Nether Update. In the Warped Forest biome, music doesn’t seem to be able to play at all. Because, as spooky as scary music can be, sometimes it’s scarier when you can’t hear any music. Just my horrifying voice.

(Off-mic) Excuse me, who wrote that line? Still, it’s not all doom and gloom. We made some of the Nether sounds using balloons. How lovely! Actually, more like hately. Because the truth is, we exploited those balloons to get the sinister sounds of something being stretched and forced to bend into unnatural shapes.

The similar sounds I submitted of me doing yoga were apparently too terrifying. And in the Soulsand Valleys, listen closely and you might just hear what the souls are trying to tell you. [CREEPY VOICES] CLICK LIKE ON THIS VIDEO Can you hear the sound of shame?

Because here at Mojang Studios, we certainly can’t! Minecraft at night has always been a horror game. One so scary, that I’ve never been able to play more than three seconds of it, without having to hug my beloved childhood toy, Captain Cuddlebuddy.

Actually, now I look closer, Captain Cuddlebuddy is far more terrifying than Minecraft. Dark, bleak, hard to navigate tunnels, full of sinister Skeleton Archers. Bloodcurdling Cave Spiders. And, most terrifying of all, the lean, green, exploding machine: ALAN. Oh, I should probably explain.

I call Creepers “Alans” to try and humanize them and make them less scary for me. It doesn’t work. Because Minecraft keeps pathetically pandering to realism, it’s hard to see in the dark. So, to keep the game scary and fair … relatively fair, we need to make our hostile mobs noisy.

Zombies need to groan, and Alans need to hiss. And I need to whimper with fear. [WHIMPERING] Captain Cuddlebuddy….no…. So remember, we’re making hostile mobs make scary sounds to HELP you. But sometimes, sinister sounds of no origin play when you’re in proximity to a dark space in Minecraft.

Why? Well, it’s simple. Those are just noises designed to scare you. Because we’re jerks. [MANIACAL LAUGHTER] [COUGHING FIT] Steve and Alex don’t talk in Minecraft. It’s because Steve and Alex aren’t really characters (no offence, Alex.) They’re more meant to be avatars for you, the player.

Ideally, we want the gap between you in Minecraft, and you the player, to be as thin as possible. It’s why we’re steadily increasing the customization options for avatars. Although, the lack of swimsuit options that show off my ripped summer bod is disappointing. If we put in voice acting, that might mean adding dialogue,

And that could create a bigger disconnect between Steve and Alex and the player. Say Steve said something like, “Dirt blocks are for losers”. Suddenly, all our players who love dirt blocks, are going to enjoy Minecraft a lot less. Luckily, this would never happen.

Because obviously, anyone who dares criticize dirt blocks, we send this letter. Villagers don’t speak much for similar reasons, because it’s hard to be offended by a “hrmm”. Well, except in this situation. Look, someone had to tell him. Minecraft is all about giving players the tools to be creative.

And why should that stop at building? But instead of a normal instrument, we wanted to give you a unique musical contraption, one that would fit consistently with the world of Minecraft. Remember what we said in Episode 3, about consistency being important? You did watch Episode 3, right? Unbelievable.

By giving you the tools to do it yourself, we’ve seen players cover their favorite songs, and even compose their own fresh beats. (Off-mic) Can we change the “fresh beats” line? [Producer] (Sighs) Why? [Narrator] I’m too old to say that. [Producer] No you’re not. [Narrator] I’m 112, we’re changing it.

And even compose their own “original melodies”! We wanted you to craft the sounds of Minecraft, and unsurprisingly you didn’t disappoint. We even have more plans for Note Blocks in the future. I would tell you them, but the developers won’t tell me what they are.

Which is fine. Didn’t even want to know them anyway. And there you have it! What’s your favorite Minecraft sound? Let us know in the comments. But if it’s not my voice, don’t bother. See you next time!