Notch planning sandbox space game inspired by Elite, Firefly

Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson's next major project will likely be an open world space game inspired by classic trading sim Elite and cult sci-fi series Firefly.

Speaking in an interview with PC Gamer, Notch revealed that he hopes to make a space game in the same vein as David Braben's ancient 3D classic, but "done right".

"I want the space game that's more like Firefly," he explained.

"I want to run around on my ship and have to put out a fire. Like, oh crap, the cooling system failed, I have to put out the fire here."

Although he still hasn't decided for sure whether the idea will indeed be Mojang's next big title, he suggested that if it is, it will follow a similar development model to its breakout hit.

"The goal is to do it the same way I did Minecraft," he said.

"Just basically have me work on it for a while, and then we'll add people as needed, and try to charge as soon as possible, because it's probably going to be open ended sandbox game as well, so it doesn't need to be completed before people can play it."

He added that he wouldn't be put out if another developer takes the idea and runs with it before he has a chance to get started.

"If someone steals the idea before me, that's totally fine. I just want to play that game."

Notch then later clarified his stance on Elite via Twitter. "Please note that I did not wish to imply Elite wasn't done right. I wanted to imply it hasn't been done right since," he wrote.