Two creators, two outcomes: Tetris and Minecraft

Twice in history a lone developer hit on a concept that set the world alight: Alexey Pajitnov with Tetris in the 1980s and Markus “Notch” Persson with Minecraft in the late 2000s. Both began as solitary experiments that became culture-saturating phenomena. Pajitnov was an academic working under a Communist regime that initially denied him rights to his work.

Notch was a jobbing programmer in a liberal, capitalist society whose game became a viral hit while still in alpha. After those breakthroughs, each faced the same question: what to do next? Pajitnov struggled to gain rights and remuneration, tried follow-ups such as Hatrix and Hexic without equal success, and ultimately settled into a role as a statesman of Tetris, managing licensing and enjoying other designers’ interpretations.

tetris, minecraft, alexey pajitnov, markus persson, notch, hatrix, hexic, licensing, communist regime, alpha