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Creeper (Minecraft)

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Creeper
Minecraft character
A creeper from Minecraft
First gameMinecraft (2011)
September 1, 2009
Created by Notch
In-universe information
HomeOverworld

A creeper is a fictional creature in the sandbox video game Minecraft. Creepers are hostile mobs (mobile non-player characters) that spawn in dark places, but can still survive in the sunlight. Instead of attacking the player directly, they creep up on the player and explode, destroying blocks in the surrounding area and potentially hurting or killing the player if they are within the blast radius. Their green camouflage and generally silent behavior aid in stealth attacks, making them one of the most dangerous mobs in Minecraft. Creepers were first added to Minecraft in a pre-alpha update to the game that was released on September 1, 2009.

The creeper has become one of the most widely recognized icons of Minecraft. They have been referenced and parodied in popular culture, and they are featured prominently in Minecraft merchandising and advertising.

Conception and design

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The creeper was created as a result of a coding error when creating the pig mob in the early pre-alpha stages of Minecraft's development in 2009.[1] The game's creator, Markus Persson, accidentally mixed up the dimensions of the model, swapping the length and height. Instead of deleting the result, Persson instead added a green texture based on the in-game leaves texture to the model, gave it aggressive AI, and turned it into a hostile mob.[2][3][4][5] The creeper was added to the game on September 1, 2009, on a pre-alpha version named 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST_03.[4][6][7]

In Minecraft, the player exists in a large world made up of blocks. The world contains a number of enemies (hostile mobs), of which creepers are commonly encountered. A creeper is nearly silent until it comes near the player, at which point it emits a hiss and explodes after a short delay. The explosion destroys the creeper, can kill or injure the player, and also destroys surrounding blocks.[7][8] In later updates, the Minecraft developers decided that creepers "weren’t quite unpredictable enough", and added the ability for creepers to become "charged creepers" when struck by lightning. Charged creepers have amplified explosion power and can cause other specific mobs killed in the blast to drop their heads (creepers, zombies, skeletons, wither skeletons, and piglins). These heads can then be worn by the player, putting the head's model on them to look like that mob. In later updates, a feature was added that enabled the player to place these mob heads on top of a note block, causing the block to play one of the mob's noises when interacted with.[4][9]

Appearances

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The creeper originally appeared in Minecraft in an early pre-alpha update as a common hostile mob that silently approaches players, hisses, then explodes. It appeared later in Minecraft spin-off games such as Minecraft: Story Mode,[10] Minecraft Dungeons,[11] Minecraft Legends,[12] and the discontinued Minecraft Earth,[13] and the film adaption A Minecraft Movie (2025).

Outside of Minecraft, it also appeared in Terraria (2011), Torchlight II (2012), Borderlands 2 (2012), Octodad: Dadliest Catch (2014),[14] and in Nintendo's crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018), where the creeper has been featured as a Mii Brawler costume.[15]

Promotion and reception

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The creeper image has been used on a wide variety of Minecraft merchandise, including clothing, bedding, and lamps.[16][17] In July 2020, a joint partnership between Mojang Studios and Kellogg's led to the announcement of Minecraft Creeper Crunch, an official Minecraft-branded cereal prominently featuring a creeper on the packaging. It was set to be available for release in stores in the United States in August 2020. Every packet additionally includes a unique code which can be redeemed for a Minecraft cosmetic clothing item.[18][19][20]

The creeper is considered to be one of Minecraft's most iconic enemies and icons.[21] The pixelated face of the creeper has been integrated into the "A" of the Minecraft logo, as well as being used in numerous Halloween costumes and cosplays.[3] Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition listed the creeper as tenth in their list of "top 50 video game villains".[22] The creeper has been featured in multiple Lego Minecraft sets and has been the main focus of one.[23] In 2021, PC Gamer ranked creeper as 9th of "the 50 most iconic characters in PC gaming", stating that "The Creeper is the star of Minecraft, which is ironic considering that the Creeper's effectiveness hinges upon not being seen."[24]

In an article for Games and Culture, Daniel Dooghan characterized the creeper as "resistance personified", using its role in the game to draw comparison to real-world terrorism and how society reacts to such. More directly drawing parallels to real world suicide bombers through the ideology of "Self-annihilation is the ultimate form of resistance", its inhuman appearance coupled with the semblance of a permanently scowling face further made it represent "otherness" in the game's world. While he acknowledged it was impossible to know the creature's actual motivations he felt it characterized the game world's rejection of the player, and impels them towards technological advancement and resource gathering due to frequent interaction and the consequences of such interaction.[25]

Creepers have been the subject of numerous pop culture references and parodies. In the season 25 episode "Luca$" of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, Moe Szyslak appears as a creeper and explodes at the end of the theme song's "couch gag".[26][27] On August 19, 2011, Jordan Maron (also known as the YouTuber CaptainSparklez) released the song "Revenge", a parody of "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love", depicting a Minecraft player seeking revenge against creepers. The song regained popularity as an internet meme around July 2019.[28]

References

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  1. ^ Gesualdi, Vito (October 15, 2012). "Notch Calls Minecraft's Creepers "a Mistake"". GameZone. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  2. ^ Apperley, Thomas (2015). "Glitch Sorting: Minecraft, Curation and the Postdigital". In Berry, David M.; Dieter, Michael (eds.). Postdigital Aesthetics: Art, Computation and Design. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 232–244. doi:10.1057/9781137437204_18. ISBN 978-1-349-49378-4. Archived from the original on February 13, 2024. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Goldberg, Daniel; Larsson, Linus (June 16, 2015). Minecraft, Second Edition: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game that Changed Everything. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 978-1-60980-686-6. Archived from the original on March 11, 2024. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Guthrie, Robert (June 5, 2017). "The History Of The Creeper, Minecraft's Most Infamous Monster". Kotaku. Archived from the original on November 24, 2016. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  5. ^ "Meet the Creeper". Minecraft.net. May 15, 2017. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  6. ^ Lapunov, Dmitry (May 23, 2021). "Minecraft Fan Discovers Secret To Creeper Skin". ScreenRant. Archived from the original on May 27, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  7. ^ a b "Happy birthday to Minecraft's Creepers!". Vg247. September 1, 2014. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  8. ^ "How Minecraft Creepers Originated From A Pig Accident". ScreenRant. February 16, 2021. Archived from the original on October 1, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  9. ^ Coles, Jason (December 24, 2020). "Everything you need to know about Minecraft's Creepers". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  10. ^ "Minecraft: Story Mode Works Surprisingly Well". Kotaku. October 13, 2015. Archived from the original on August 14, 2023. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  11. ^ Watts, Rachel (May 22, 2020). "Minecraft Dungeons is a bombastic and breezy dungeon crawler that doesn't take itself too seriously". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on August 14, 2023. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  12. ^ Troughton, James (September 30, 2022). "Minecraft Legends Shows Off Cutesy Creepers, Cobblestone Golems, And More". TheGamer. Archived from the original on August 14, 2023. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  13. ^ Gilliam, Ryan (June 3, 2019). "Here's the first look at Minecraft Earth in action". Polygon. Archived from the original on August 14, 2023. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  14. ^ Dean, Paul (September 24, 2012). "Creeping up on you: The best Minecraft references in video games". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on August 14, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  15. ^ Doolan, Liam (October 3, 2020). "Bomberman, Travis Touchdown, Creeper And More Join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate As Mii Fighter Costumes". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on October 3, 2020. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  16. ^ "Apparel, Toys, More | Official Minecraft Store – Powered by JINX". Official Minecraft Store – Powered by J!NX. Archived from the original on April 1, 2013. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  17. ^ "This Minecraft Creeper Lamp Shouldn't Explode When You Turn It On". Technabob. March 4, 2020. Archived from the original on March 5, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  18. ^ Watts, Rachel (July 2, 2020). "Kelloggs is releasing a Minecraft 'Creeper Crunch' cereal". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on July 3, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  19. ^ Gerblick, Jordan (July 1, 2020). "Minecraft is getting a cereal with codes for in-game clothes". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  20. ^ Watts, Steve (July 3, 2020). "Minecraft Now Has Its Own Cereal". Kotaku UK. Archived from the original on September 7, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  21. ^ McDougall, Jaz (December 25, 2011). "Minecraft review". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on August 26, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  22. ^ "Bowser voted top of 50 video game villains". Digital Spy. January 24, 2013. Archived from the original on October 19, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
  23. ^ MacManus, Christopher (February 16, 2012). "Lego Minecraft available for preorder". CNET. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 17, 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  24. ^ Lane, Rick (November 12, 2021). "The 50 most iconic characters in PC gaming". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on November 26, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  25. ^ Dooghan, Daniel (June 29, 2016). "Digital Conquerors: Minecraft and the Apologetics of Neoliberalism". Games and Culture. 14 (1): 67–86. doi:10.1177/1555412016655678. ISSN 1555-4120. S2CID 148037543. Archived from the original on January 6, 2023. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
  26. ^ Peckham, Matt (April 7, 2014). "Simcraft: What If The Simpsons Did Minecraft?". Time. Archived from the original on August 14, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  27. ^ Makuch, Eddie (April 7, 2014). "The Simpsons do a Minecraft couch gag, Notch doesn't know how to feel about it". GameSpot. Archived from the original on August 14, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  28. ^ Anderson, Sage (July 30, 2019). "The 'Creeper Challenge' has group chats fighting to finish song lyrics in the right order". Mashable. Archived from the original on July 25, 2021. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
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