Droidcraft

PC indie hit Minecraft is something of a hot property right now. The popularity of this unassuming 3D adventure has confounded the expectations of everyone involved, with millions of copies sold and talk of ports to the iPhone and Android.

For those of you too impatient to wait for the impending Google Phone edition, there’s Droidcraft. It’s billed - inevitably - as a loving tribute to Minecraft rather than a shameless rip-off, and manages to replicate much of what makes its inspiration such an engrossing game to play.

First and foremost, Droidcraft is about survival. You’re marooned in a strange land with no recollection of how you got there, and your ultimate objective is to regain contact with your world in order to arrange a rescue.

During daylight hours this strange and unfamiliar environment is populated by friendly characters who offer pieces of advice, but when the sun sinks and the moon rises, monsters emerge from their slumber and prowl the wilderness.

In order to keep yourself safe you need to manufacture various items. Herein lies one of the most appealing elements of Droidcraft: by following ‘recipes’ you can craft a wide range of different items, ranging from pick-axes to swords and armour.

The proviso is that you need to have obtained the appropriate recipe sheets before you can perform the combination. There are over forty of these are dotted around the world, and seeking them out is addictive in itself.

As you create more items your horizons widen. You can make fires to illuminate dark caves and keep monsters at bay during twilight, and digging tools allow you to burrow into underground caverns to explore even further.

While Droidcraft does an excellent job of capturing the unique sense of exploration that makes Minecraft so captivating, it’s rather less successful when it comes to mimicking that game’s sheer scope. In order to keep things simple, the developer has decided against 3D visuals and has instead opted for a top-down 2D perspective.

While Minecraft’s crude blocky graphics were primitive, you only have to browse the many fan-made videos on YouTube to appreciate the fantastically complex structures that have been be created. That scope is naturally missing from Droidcraft, as you’re unable to build in three dimensions.

Droidcraft also feels a little disjointed and incomplete - at times the game seems thrown together, with an awkward interface and occasionally frustrating combat.

However, many will argue that exactly the same thing can be said of Minecraft. Even now that game is being worked on and enhanced, and if you look back over the version history of this Android replication you’ll notice a similar progression.

The developer – who, lest we forget, is a massive Minecraft fan who merely wishes to pay homage in his own special way – has stressed that Droidcraft is an ongoing concern, and supporting his venture now will ensure it continues.

You could argue that the moment Minecraft arrives on mobile platforms, tributes like Droidcraft will be rendered largely irrelevant, but that may not necessarily be the case.

Should the developer of Droidcraft decide to take his creation in a slightly different direction, it could grow into something unique – and that is a noble undertaking that is surely deserving of your attention.