7 lessons Minecraft can learn from its spin-off titles

As the best-selling game of all time, it should come as no surprise that Mojang has made several spinoffs to capitalize on Minecraft's popularity and brand recognition. However, all of these spinoffs have since had their support discontinued by Mojang. This begs the question of what went wrong with these spinoffs, what went right with them, and what can Mojang learn from them.

Seven important lessons that Mojang can learn from their spinoff titles can be found detailed below, along with why these lessons would make the vanilla game better.

---

Lessons that Mojang should learn from Minecraft's spinoffs

1) The base game needs new mobs

The spore medic is just one potential new mob from a spinoff (Images via Mojang)

One of the most important lessons that Mojang could learn from Minecraft's spinoffs is that players always want new and interesting mobs to be added to the game. Mojang has added several unique mobs to their spinoffs, many of which would be wonderful for the base game.

For example, Legends added a huge number of new and interesting piglins, such as spore medics, war boars, and piglin builders, while Dungeons added hedgehogs, penguins, aquatic tropical slimes, and more. There are dozens, if not more, different mobs that Mojang could look to from these spinoffs for potential inspiration.

---

2) Continued support leads to consistent players

The base game wouldn't be anywhere near as popular without its updates (Image via Mojang)

One of the biggest reasons that Minecraft is the single best-selling game of all time is that Mojang has continued to update and support the game over the years. However, the same cannot be said for the different spinoffs.

Mojang has been quite quick to abandon ship on these projects after release, which is disappointing, as the base game wouldn't be what it is today without the years of love it's received.

---

3) The base game needs refreshed combat

Vanilla combat has always been very lacking (Image via Mojang)

One of the biggest issues with both Java and Bedrock is that combat is awful. Bedrock combat comes down to which person can aim their auto clicker better, and Java Edition is stuck with slow combat thanks to cooldowns.

Minecraft Dungeons combat is way more entertaining and exciting than the base game. Different weapons control differently, giving players more options for how to play the game in a way best suited to them. Mojang could look to the Dungeons spinoff for inspiration here.

---

4) Spinoff mob variants also need to be added to vanilla

The bone spider from the Earth spinoff (Image via Mojang)

While Mojang should look to the spinoffs for unique Minecraft mobs to bring to vanilla, there are just as many, if not more, mob variations that Mojang could also pull inspiration from.

For example, Earth introduced the moobloom, a flower-infested version of the cow; the melon golem, a snow golem that shoots melon seeds; and the bone spider, which is a variant of spider able to spit bone shards at players. These three mobs are a small portion of the potential variants of a single spinoff game. There are three different titles for Mojang to be inspired.

---

5) Experimental gameplay isn't always what players want

Earth was the spinoff close to the base game (Image via Mojang)

Another important lesson that Mojang can learn from its spinoffs is that being experimental isn't always what fans want from new projects. Legends, Dungeons, and Earth were all entertaining in their own right, but only Earth felt like a Minecraft game. Dungeons and Legends used the universe as a skin.

And unfortunately, using the base game's universe comes with a set of expectations. Players expect Minecraft's building and survival mechanics, as that's the core of vanilla gameplay. These games might have done better without Mojang forcing people to directly compare them against the original game due to using the same setting.

---

6) Vanilla gear is quite bland

The vanilla game's combat options are quite lacking (Image via Mojang)

Another area in the spinoff games that is superior to the base game is in the fun and unique gear available to players. There are hundreds of different armor sets and weapons in Dungeons alone, many of which have unique bonuses, effects, and abilities.

While bringing all of these items over to the base game would be excessive, it would be nice to see Mojang take inspiration from some of this gear to add new and interesting Minecraft items.

---

7) Spinoffs need inspiration

Mojang's spinoff titles need to stand out from their genre competition more (Image via Zebra Gamer/YouTube)

Unfortunately, many of the different spinoff titles feel like generic titles within their respective genres. For example, Legends was seen by many as quite a standard RTS, and Dungeons, the longest-lived spinoff, took quite a bit of time to stand out from other Diablo clones.

These games take off initially due to Mojang's name but often end up feeling like shallow experiences. Future potential spinoffs, and even vanilla Minecraft updates, need to feel inspired to get players coming back.