Finally! According to Notch’s latest post about the state of Minecraft once the 1.7 update has come around – implementing new piston blocks for creating even more ridiculous and complex systems of awesomeness – there may very well be NPC towns, something that has been hinted at and half-promised well before Minecraft hit beta last year. There is also mention of “new combat mechanics, a new lighting engine, and some experimental new gameplay ideas”, and not to mention “more interesting farming, [and] bigger incentives to explore”. Could we start to see an inkling of item shops and friendly AI companions for creating armies of doom with? I hope so! Notch promises more details between now and then.

I. Can’t. Wait.

Here’s a video of the piston block, due to be released with the 1.7 update to Minecraft. Now I really want to make some kind of secret entrance to a secret underground lair where I can perform secret underground evil deeds.