Minecraft composer releases 0x10c tracks, muses on Notch's departure from Mojang

Remember 0x10c ? It was supposed to be Markus "Notch" Persson's follow-up to the mega-hit Minecraft , but development ground to a halt in early 2013 and in August of that year Notch confirmed that he'd abandoned it completely . But it wasn't entirely unfinished when he pulled the plug, and earlier this week Minecraft composer Daniel Rosenfeld released two audio tracks he'd written for the game to Bandcamp. He also offered some insights into why Persson ultimately chose to walk away from Mojang and Minecraft.

"I think now is a good time to release the 0x10c music. You can pay for it if you want," Rosenfeld, also known as C418, tweeted , along with a link to the tracks on his Bandcamp page . There are only two of them, and they're short, but they're really quite lovely, too.

"If you listened to the 0x10c tracks, they were seemingly low bitrate. Even in FLAC. I wanted that to be the main identifier for the game," he wrote. "Also the game would have had very little music and a lot of drone. Just like in the original thief games. It was a composers playground."

I think now is a good time to release the 0x10c music. You can pay for it if you want. https://t.co/aFfAm8qIqK September 15, 2014

Speaking to Polygon , Rosenfeld echoed Persson's statement immediately following his departure, in which he said he'd recently realized that "I didn't have the connection to my fans I thought I had," and had instead "become a symbol," something he never wanted to be.

"Do you know that feeling that you have had a great day, but then some guy on twitter that you don't even know tells you you're the worst thing that ever happened to this planet? And then you spend most of that day thinking about this one guy. Maybe he was right. Maybe you're actually terrible and didn't know yet. That feeling also happens with Markus, except it's amplified times two million," Rosenfeld said. "I can absolutely understand that [Persson] might have been emotionally bankrupt after hundreds of thousands of people told him he's garbage."

Despite Persson's departure, Rosenfeld said he'll continue to work on Minecraft "as long as we're still happy with the product."

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.