Next RETURN OF THE PIGLINS

Cristina: This isn’t your first time working with an upcoming Minecraft spin-off game. Do you enjoy writing about unreleased games?

Matt: I love writing for games that are in development because it gives me a chance to see all sorts of things before they’re released to the public. I also get to ask the developers questions to see what they’re thinking about the game’s background and get some deeper insights about why things are the way they are in the game. 

C: But it’s not all sunshine and sneak peeks when working with unreleased titles…

Matt: Working with a game that is not quite finished can be a bit of a challenge, in that the game might change at some point, and those changes can affect what I’m writing in my story. That’s the way it has to be though, as making the game the best it can be is the most important thing. When it happens—which isn’t always—I just have to adjust for it as best I can.  

Often I don’t get to play the game before I write the book, as it’s not ready for that quite yet, but that means I get to dig into all sorts of other documents and images and such to get a feel for it. It’s good fun. 

C: Compared to Dungeons, the events in Minecraft Legends are a story, not history or fact. Did that pose a challenge when writing the novel?

Matt: That was a bit tricky, but I think we managed it. The story in Return of the Piglins treats the happenings in Minecraft Legends as if they are just that: legends. These are things that happened so long ago that the stories about them are iffy and impossible to confirm but still fill the people of the present with both cautionary tales and hopeful heroics. 

In a way, it was freeing because I didn’t have to attach my story directly to Minecraft Legends. I got to treat it not as dictation but inspiration. That’s kind of how regular Minecraft players can approach Minecraft Legends too, I’d think. 

C: By the way, what inspires you about Minecraft in particular?

Matt: The best part of Minecraft is the sense of wonder that it gives you as you wander around the world and learn how things work. I just love figuring things out and then experimenting with them to see what else can be done.

The game isn’t merely a set of recipes for crafting though. It’s all about what you can do with that knowledge once you acquire it. You see so much creativity being expressed in the game in so many wild and unexpected ways. The dedication players show to their works of art there always astounds me.

C: Looking closer at the main characters of the novel, Farnum and Kritten, they don’t speak the same language. What was it like writing the interactions between them?

Matt: That was a bit of a challenge. In the real world or in a video game, you can communicate with gestures and grunts and such, and while it’s a challenge, it works, but describing that in words can get tedious. So I skip over some of those details and get into them figuring out the rough details of what the other means pretty fast. 

The real trick was making each of them desperate enough to even attempt to communicate with the other. This is something that neither of them would normally even attempt, but I put them in a situation in which they didn’t have many other choices. 

C: And unfortunately, Farnum’s only choice was trusting a piglin. Speaking of Farnum, he's not exactly a hero in the traditional sense, is he? How do you make readers root for someone like him?

Matt: That’s part of the beauty of prose is that you can get deep into a character’s head and explore their motivations. Farnum might not be your typical brave and hearty hero, but that’s what makes his story more interesting. 

He’s not naturally courageous. Most of the time he tries to avoid conflict, just like many other people would, so I had to put him under some terrible pressure to get him to the point at which he would start showing his true colors. 

C: We spend quite a bit of time with Kritten as well, and it’s a very entertaining journey. How do you get readers to relate to such an unpleasant, scheming character?  

Matt: That’s actually easier than it sounds! While Kritten might be a schemer, they also get bullied a lot, and we all like to root for the underdog. (Or under-piglin!) 

On top of that, Kritten is smart and sees things in their world a lot more sharply than most of the people around her—with the possible exception of Farnum. It’s easy to root for someone who’s cleverer than anyone around but is still dealing with troubles from bigger and tougher folks. 

C: I have one last question. On a scale from 1 to 10, how big of a mistake is trusting a piglin?   

Matt: 100. NEVER trust a piglin. Unless… If you know how piglins think and work, you can trust them to act in their own self-interests and to betray others when their interests diverge. If you think they would never do that to you, well, your interests just haven’t split apart enough yet.