Considering the humble beginnings of Minecraft, it is no surprise that it does not have mod support. Not to mention who ever knew that there was a desire for it. Without any official mod support, mods for Minecraft have been hacked into the game and eventually communities built up around modding the game. These communities have done their best to build their own mod API but without official support they can only go so far. The community has been begging for some official support for sometime. This is why, when Notch announced plans for the upcoming Minecraft mod API nearly a year ago, the community rejoiced.

Having official mod support for Minecraft will undoubtedly be huge for the community. This will help bring the mod community together. Another huge benefit is that it will enable players to more easily obtain and install mods. Additionally, there will likely be much higher quality mods developed. This is probably only scratching the surface on what benefits we’ll see from an official mod API. However, some of the given information does potentially have some downsides – mainly accessibility.

In order to gain access to this mod API you must signup as a mod developer. It also sounds like mods will go through some submitting process and once accepted will become available to everyone online. If this is the case then there is little place for casual mods. I do hope that Mojang has considered this and provide means for players to easily and casually create mods as well as be able to share with just friends or the entire community.

Since the mod API announcement, Notch has given lead to Jens Bergensten who is continuing to focus efforts on developing this mod API. More recently Mojang absorbed Bukkit, a Minecraft mod team, to help with the mod API. This really shows Mojang’s continued committed to this mod API – not to mention how much this team will help bridge between development and the community.

Back when Bergensten took over Minecraft lead, he had an interview with Gamasutra and from it there is a quote of resounding truth.

“there is no way in hell I will be able to add as much content as the whole internet can” - Jens Bergensten

This quote has stuck with me since I read it and undoubtedly helped set the course for our recently announced sandbox game.