The forthcoming v1.8 update for Mojang’s Minecraft (the PC version, just to be clear) gives players the ability to access a variety of world customization tools before even starting a new game. Creativity has always been at the heart of the enduringly popular world-builder, but until this update players had only been able to build on top of whatever randomized world they were presented with.
The coming update adds three pages worth of sliders and switches that allow players to tweak specific aspects of their generated world. Some are easy to comprehend, such as on/off buttons for including elements like villages, strongholds, dungeons, and the like. Others, such as “Main Noise Scale X/Y/Z” and “Biome Scale Weight,” are a little harder to comprehend.
Of course, you don’t need to be a programmer to decide how many dungeons you want to include in your world, or whether or not you want there to be lava oceans (hint: the answer is always an emphatic Yes). The update will include a handful of Mojang-created presets to help guide players as they create their own blocky landscapes.
Check out the forthcoming update in Mojang’s newly posted video, embedded below. There’s no release date set for v1.8, but it should be here soon.