It's Just ScrollsGde Without U & I!

Inception

Proliferation

Investigation

Accusation

Revelation

Termination

- ScrollsGuide Staff

Good day, Scrolls fans! Exactly one year has passed since the world first heard the name of our beloved Scrolls. Mojang decided to follow up their mega-hit Minecraft with a game they've always wanted to build, a refreshing game in the collectible / trading card genre. A lot has happened in the one year since then, and we're here to bring you a recap of all the highlights! This is the first part of our 1 year celebration, with an interview from the Scrolls team coming up next!It all started with a post on Notch's blog. The first mention of a game-to-be saw light on the 6th of January, 2011. Nothing but interest and intrigue sprang from sites like Twitter and Reddit. From that point on, nobody knew what (and when) to expect more about this project. The updates around the game seemed to come sporadically from both his blog and his Twitter account.Not long after, the first mention of Mojang working on something other than Minecraft appeared on Notch's blog. The 2nd of March post did offer no less than a name: Scrolls. That post rid a point discussed by many (and still a subject of debate to a few to this day): will Notch dedicate his time to this 'new game', or will he still be developing Minecraft? The short answer to this couldn't have been more clear: "I won't be involved in the day-to-day development of Scrolls". Well then, who is involved, had been the next logical question. One of the founders of Mojang, Jakob, would lead the development of Scrolls. Another veteran Mojangsta would take care of the visual side of things: Jnkboy created the logo for the game, as well as the first four pilot scrolls to ornament the website.The website held another nice surprise: Alpha sign-up. It would later turn out that Mojang would roughly follow a similar release method as used with Minecraft: have a lucky few test the game (called the 'alpha' of a game), then release a 'beta' at a discount for everyone to enjoy, before releasing it to the general public. This release method would also be used for 'Cobalt', a game developed by Oxeye Game Studio and published by Mojang. It gives (indie) game developers time to implement suggestions and bug fixes from the community.Gradually, game magazines and websites started to pick up the scent of Scrolls and wanted more. Interviews with Jakob appeared everywhere on the 'net, some of which gave away crucial game details and information. Scrolls wouldn't be free to play, so it seemed. Notch's dislike for free-to-play games, as expressed on his blog, lead to the decision to make it come with an initial cost. However, injecting your money into the game (buying scrolls, etc.) 'would not guarantee your victory', promised Notch. The only way to secure a victory was through hard work, dedication, and technique.It was around this time Mojang announced the names of the composers for the game. Josh Whelchel and Mattias Häggström, both renowned game music composers, were contracted to bring life to the world of Scrolls. Their previous work left quite the impression, and such epic soundtracks would fit the game perfectly.Not more than half a year after the initial announcement, Mojang was sued over the name of the game. Scrolls apparently bore too close a resemblance to Bethesda's 'The Elder Scrolls' series. Markus Persson didn't believe the developers over at Bethesda had anything to do with this, though; he still supports them, and plays their games as much as he did before. "I assume this nonsense is partly just their lawyers being lawyers" appeared on his blog. While this did not have a noticeable effect on the progress of the game, it was at least a minor setback in morale. Jakob told 2 Player Productions they did not have a backup name to use in case Bethesda somehow succeeded, and they were definitely not planning on changing it out of goodwill for Bethesda.Just weeks after the initial report, Mojang had to go to court over this. Notch instead tried to resolve the dispute with a friendly match of Quake, Mojang vs. Bethesda. Needless to say, Bethesda didn't respond to this offer and the case continued.Soon after that, the game conventions came along. First in line was PAX, where Jakob spoke about Scrolls for the first time in public, in the form of a Q&A session. A rough draft of the game in its final stage could be formed from the info heard there. For example, winning would be done by destroying three out of five 'crystals' [now idols], representatives for the health of the player. Attending fans received a real scroll, with text from the Scrolls website inscribed upon it. Those became real collector's items later on, as they have not been handed out by Mojang since.Not only did we receive information by word, a trailer popped up on the web as well! It didn't feature much tangible information, though two seconds of gameplay could be seen near the end. No static scrolls or units featured in the game, it was all moving and dynamic. This tiny bit of gameplay gave everyone a nice impression of the overall feel and look of the game in its final stage.Worth mentioning: in the mean time, Mojang won the lawsuit against Bethesda in court. No longer would they receive any kind of penalty for using the word 'Scrolls' in their game title.Minecon, the game event organised by Mojang, took place 18 and 19 November in Las Vegas. This nearly-all-about-Minecraft conference would bring fervent players news on the progression of Minecraft; it was also a launch celebration of version 1.0, the version which would make Minecraft lose its beta-label. Two projects of Mojang had a minor role here: Cobalt, the game being created by Oxeye Game Studio and published by Mojang, and, of course, Scrolls. Both had their own panel at Minecon at which they did a little demo and a live Q&A session. It was here that gamers would first experience Scrolls in the form of a pre-alpha demo. All Minecon attendees received a free alpha code for both Cobalt and Scrolls to enjoy once those games hit the public.This concludes the one-year recap of the Scrolls development process! There's definitely more in store to come this year. We all hope for some kind of release, even if it's an early alpha build like the playable Minecon demo. Until that time, stick around to chat on the forums and keep up on your Scrolls knowledge with the wiki. See you around, Scrolldiers!