Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft , was offered a programming job at Valve before founding his own studio, Mojang.

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An excerpt from Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus ‘Notch’ Persson and the Game that Changed Everything was posted on All Things D . The book originally debuted in Swedish in 2011, but the English version was just recently released. We already knew about the job offer, but until now we didn’t know the fascinating details surrounding it.When Minecraft started gaining traction, Notch was flown to Seattle to meet with some of his game development heroes and discuss the possibility of employment.“We would like to work with you,” Notch was told. “Are you interested in working with us?”Of course, Notch refused the offer. “Somehow, I felt that Minecraft was maybe my chance to create a Valve, rather than work at Valve,” he said.Give the excerpt a read. It’s a fascinating look into Minecraft’s early steps, the first “MinecraftCon,” and the origins of Notch’s famous hat.

Brian is an associate editor at IGN. Follow him @albinoalbert on Twitter for Dota, cats, and food.