The earliest known version of Minecraft was originally called the Cave Game Tech Test or Cave Game Tech Demo. This prototype was created on May 13, 2009, between roughly 16:48 and 16:55 UTC. Although it was never officially released, Notch recorded a video of the game around 17:00 UTC, which was later uploaded at 17:36 the same day. This recording represents the first public glimpse of what would eventually become Minecraft.
Development for this early version began around May 10–12, 2009, and continued up to May 13. During this time, basic features were added, many of which would appear in the tech test video.
Features
Blocks
- Air – Not represented as a block at this stage.
- Grass Block – Created using graphics from Notch’s earlier game, RubyDung. Grass only appeared on the top 7 fully lit layers of the map.
- Stone – Also based on RubyDung graphics. Its texture would later become the foundation for cobblestone.
Non-Mob Entities
- Player – At this stage, the player had no visual model but stood at a height of 1.7 blocks.
World Generation
- Caves – Extended from the topmost layer of grass down to the second-to-last layer of stone.
- Chunks – Each chunk measured 16×16 blocks, a change from the earlier 8×8 blocks to improve performance. Chunks generated in about 0.1 seconds and loaded based on the player’s proximity.
- Map Size – Players spawned in a 256×64×256 block map, which took roughly 20 seconds to generate. Falling out of the world was possible, but it didn’t result in player death.
Gameplay
- Controls – Movement used the WASD keys, and Space allowed jumping.
- Creative Mode – At this stage, players could not fly or place/remove blocks, and there was no inventory or hotbar system.
Lighting
The lighting system was very simple, with only two levels: bright and dark.
Darkened blocks also had a thick black fog layer, creating unusual visual effects and glitches when viewed from a distance.
“Sunlight” came from the top edge of the map and lit blocks directly below, even passing through transparent blocks.
Blocks not exposed to light remained in dim shadow, maintaining a constant darkness regardless of distance.