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Minecraft Releasing On Android This Week
Android owners have been waiting patiently for the Xperia Play exclusivity of Minecraft Pocket Edition to end, and that patience is about to pay off. Today Mojang announced the game will be available for general Android devices on September 29 and also released a video showing how touchscreen controls will work.
The video below reveals that players will control their avatar's movement in Minecraft Pocket Edition via an onscreen D-pad, and look around with simple flicking gestures. Interacting with blocks is done by simply tapping on them; a new circular timer will indicate how long it will take to demolish a block. Jumping will now be performed automatically, though you can also press on the middle of the D-pad for manual hopping.
The video leaves me unconvinced as to how smoothly the touchscreen controls will work, but it's more Minecraft, so I will happily try it out on Thursday. It's also one of the very few games to release on Android first, though iPhone users won't be out of luck for too long; Mojang has told Pocket Gamer that the iOS version of the game will be available sometime before the end of the year.
[via Touch Arcade]
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