Think one Millennial can change the world of Minecraft? Marius Metzger did!
Without Marius Metzger aka CrushedPixel, it would still be impossible for 360° Minecraft video creators to produce and share their fun gaming experiences. Originally a dedicated Minecraft player, this genius teenager, along with a friend from the Minecraft community, has leveraged the passion up to a new level by creating the tool Replay Mod. VeeR VR is very honored to invite Marius to share his great story with us!
VeeR: Tell us something about yourself!
CrushedPixel: My name is Marius. I’m an 18 year old software developer from Germany. I have a passion for programming, making music and doing sports. I’m also the creator of the popular Minecraft Replay Mod, which allows you to easily record your gameplay and make awesome videos out of it!
VeeR: Why did you become a fan of MINECRAFT? What is so magical about this game in your opinion that draws gamers to be part of this community? What keeps community members in? What makes them keep sharing their experience with each other and being an active member?
CrushedPixel: The most fascinating part about Minecraft is the amount of creative freedom the player has — no matter if you’re exploring caves and deserts in a survival world, building farms and houses or creating giant mansions in creative mode — there is no “right” way of doing it, and the player can decide how to design their world. The only thing that’s important when playing Minecraft is having fun 🙂
One more advanced and technical feature of Minecraft is the so-called Command Blocks, which allow players to “program” the world and create cool mini-games and adventure maps. Sharing and playing these with other players as well as showing off constructions and technical contraptions are what the large and active community does and why the game is so fascinating.
VeeR: Why did you and other people want to record the process of playing this game? How long did it take you to build Replay Mod from scratch? What are some of the unique features of Replay Mod?
CrushedPixel: The main goal when creating the Replay Mod was so I could easily create nice montage videos when playing minigames, and be able to see the gameplay from a different perspective than just first-person. It took me and johni0702, who has helped with the development, almost a year before the first version was released. Since then, we’ve done many changes to the code and actually open-sourced it on GitHub so other people can learn from it and contribute! The most unique feature of the Replay Mod is the ability to render 360° and VR videos, which no other mods that I know about are capable of.
Marius Metzger (Photo by CrushedPixel)
VeeR: What are your visions for MINECRAFT, Replay Mod, and 360/VR industry? What is the most significant difference between actually playing the game and watching Minecraft 360 videos made by other players?
CrushedPixel: I believe that VR videos have great potential. While the technology is not perfect yet, I think that the Replay Mod, which allows for easy VR content creation has made VR a lot more accessible, especially for Minecraft players.
When watching a 360° video of Minecraft, you can actually see more than the player itself could see when recording! For example, you may have seen that sneaky little Creeper that surprised the player coming, because you’ve been looking behind the player. 360° videos provide a lot of interactivity, while the game itself is still being played and/or commented by someone else, which many people love to watch.
VeeR: How has MINECRAFT changed your life if it did? How has Replay Mod changed your life if it did?
CrushedPixel: I’m a professional software developer, and the Replay Mod has created many opportunities to collaborate with companies like VeeR VR, which I’m very thankful for. There are some people out there using VR videos in very creative ways, and I can’t wait to see what innovative Minecraft videos we’ll see in the future!
360, CrushedPixel, Germany, Minecraft, Replay Mod, VeeR, Virtual Reality, VR, VR video
I was Messaged bye someone named Zoe and I’m wondering what this place is ._.
In a word we’re a 360 video sharing platform, for more details you can check out what we do here: http://veer.tv/about-us. Look forward to seeing some of your work!
It’s one of the best places where you can share 360 VR videos