The character model that later became the creeper was first created on August 20, 2009, as a result of a
coding error when creating the pig mob in the early
pre-alpha stages of
Minecraft's development. 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 stated "I'll keep it for a creepy creature", and later added a green texture based on the in-game leaves texture to the model, gave it an aggressive
AI, and turned it into a hostile mob. The creeper was added to the game on September 1, 2009, on a pre-alpha version named
0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST. 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 typically destroys surrounding blocks. 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, and piglins). These heads can then be worn by the player, putting the head's model on them to look like that mob. The destructiveness and unpredictability of creepers was coined very early in development, during the
Minecraft Classic stage. Overtime,
Mojang Studios have changed their
game design approach, with the guiding principle that all events that negatively affect the player should be a direct consequence of the player's own actions or lack of countermeasures against clearly foreseeable events. Lead designer
Jens Bergensten stated that creepers would be unlikely to have been added to modern
Minecraft, as he thinks it would be "controversial" to have player-made structures potentially damaged or destroyed, though reassuring that the mob will not be removed due to its iconic status. == Appearances ==