In mid-February, nine indie dev teams assembled in New York, in the Netherlands, in Mojang’s lush Stockholm office and elsewhere to make nine games in 78 hours. 86,531 fans picked the theme of their games, watched their development via live streams, and donated more than $500,000 to Block by Block and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Sadly, though, the fine beard of Mojang head Markus ‘Notch’ Persson did not survive a flippant promise he had made to donors before proceedings began.
Notch told fans that he would allow his colleagues to forcibly remove his beard, should Mojam earn more than $500k for its designated charities. Be warned that the following video contains images some facial-haired viewers may find disturbing:
Maximum face, indeed.
Mojang report that the median amount donated was $2.00, while the monetary average was $5.98. Not including payment processor fees, $295,553.96 was raised for The Electronic Frontier Foundation and $194,493.28 for Block By Block.
“Massive thanks to all who donated,” wrote Mojang’s Owen Hill. “You’re probably a lovely person.”
I don’t know how lovely I am, but I know I’d completely forgotten to play even one of the finished games until just now. I think I’ll start with Vlambeer’s Wasteland Kings, or Wolfire’s FPS, as both teams have ludicrously strong track records for this sort of thing.
Check here to see what was made. Did you donate, and if so, what did you think of the results?