You won't believe how nice Notch's office is

http://kotaku.com/5948142/you-wont-believe-how-nice-notchs-office-is

by loso • 14 years ago

159 112 14 years ago

kotaku.com

minimax• 14 years ago

Where are the computers?

11031a• 14 years ago

was thinking the same thing. maybe they pop out of the armrests of those leather chairs?

ErrantX• 14 years ago

Same thought occured to me.

You can see some to the far left of the second image (the one after the collage). Then if you skip to the final image and note the shelf-unit (at the end of the long table) it snaps into focus - and you can just see the desks behind :)

stevesearer• 14 years ago

In the wide shot above the pool table, the workstations are in the background.

quaunaut• 14 years ago

Wait, isn't their team like, less than a dozen people right now? Christ that's a lot of chairs. And space.

citricsquid3• 14 years ago

They have close to 30 employees, I think ~24 are in-office. Not sure if the list on the Minecraft wiki is accurate but it's pretty close (they added one maybe two in the recent weeks): http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Mojang

scotth• 14 years ago

Reminds me of the holodeck. Are they working, or playing characters in a gangster/detective story?

dkhenry• 14 years ago

You know what the first thing I pick up on is? Everyone is dressed nice. I don't know if that's just for the camera, but I see suits and vests all around. They look classy in a classy office. I wonder how the office would look if notch was wearing cut off shorts and a wife beater.

petercooper• 14 years ago

I don't know if that's just for the camera,

That picture is about as posed as posed gets but in my (limited) experience, people in the tech industry do tend to dress 'up' somewhat more than in the US.

But, you know, if notch were in a smoking jacket or a Hefner-style robe, I think it would still work ;-)

tomjen32• 14 years ago

Counterpoint. A few weeks ago one of my coworkers showed up in the kind of shoes that some people use on the beach (http://www.billig-sport.dk/public/produkt/stor/2699.jpg) with one of them only held together with duct tape.

During the summer several people showed up with no shoes at all.

lrm242• 14 years ago

They don't dress that way all the time. From what I've gathered they have "Formal Fridays". At first when I saw Notch mention this on Twitter I was a bit confused, but now I see it goes nicely with the theme of their office.

jonknee• 14 years ago

Our office did Suit Mondays last year. It was fun.

untog2• 14 years ago

I like the idea of it, especially for companies that have clients/customers outside of tech. We're all comfortable in hoodies all day, but when you all have to turn up to meet at a government office you'll suddenly find that the suit you haven't tried on in over a year doesn't fit right, or has a stain you'd forgotten about.

"Practising being formal" makes sense, I think.

calinet6• 14 years ago

I think dressing nicely is highly underrated.

It makes you feel different. You think about yourself differently, and everyone else does too.

It's kinda fun. Everyone should try it sometime if they haven't, even if it's just wearing a collared shirt instead of a T-shirt. Try it out and see how you feel.

MartinCron4• 14 years ago

I do the same thing (though I call it "Fancy Friday") and I strongly suggest that you try it if you're at all curious.

englishcheck• 14 years ago

suits.

Tyrannosaurs2• 14 years ago

Nice is clearly a matter of opinion.

The space is great, the facilities and the culture they're obviously trying to create through them but let's just say it's not to my taste.

Which is a polite way of saying that to me at least the place looks foul.

k-mcgrady• 14 years ago

Foul? What about it do you not like? It seems a bit over the top to me (it's an office not a private club) but interested as to why you dislike it so much.

abrahamsen• 14 years ago

The dark, heavy furniture looks like what (Danish) furniture shops make for the US market, very different from the open, light, and minimalistic Scandinavian (mostly Swedish) design school used for products made for the home market. You know the design from IKEA, but there exists much more expensive (and somewhat higher quality) products.

My first reaction was that this might be a deliberate provocation against what would be considered good taste in Sweden.

Tyrannosaurs2• 14 years ago

So the main things:

1) It's dark. Dark is nice for atmospheric, not so nice for avoiding eye strain, plus overall light is just more pleasing - ask an estate agent (realtor in the US?) what sells property - space and light is the answer. I know we're not selling the office here but it's a good measure of what people really like - what they're willing to pay for.

2) It does look more like a private club, but not just that, it manages to look like a private club without being high end. Look at that carpet - it looks like something you'd find in a budget hotel or conference center.

3) From a design perspective it just clashes - you've got at least three wood tones in there (including very dark and really pretty light), at least two different basic styles (the old world globe and leather chairs, the ornate candle stick and taps against the clean lines of the bar, the exposed ceiling, the light wooden floor).

The more I look at it the more horrible I find it.

And I should be clear, I have nothing against the more "traditional" look. I once worked for a major global law firm where the office decor was in places very conservative (think wood panels, ornate dark wood furniture in reception, thick carpets) and it was beautiful, and I live in a house that's about the same age as Texas which is obviously not modern in it's appearance.

As I say, it's very much personal taste but whether you like it or not, I think it's hard to say that that the aesthetic is not all over the place.

I'm sure someone who knows way more than me about such things can come along and tell me why it's all great from an interior design perspective but to me at least, it's a mess.

catshirt• 14 years ago

foul? really?

herdrick• 14 years ago

Yep. Surprisingly tacky given the appreciation of simplicity shown in Minecraft.

pnathan• 14 years ago

Wow.

I think this place looks amazing. Leather and books and dimmer lighting are exactly my personal sweet spot.

tluyben2• 14 years ago

I would not say 'foul', but I wouldn't like to work in that space. It feels to heavy and I personally like techie things like devices splattered around and at least one 'hardware table' with a scope + soldering iron and such. Books are nice, but leather bound? Pretentious; I rather have books which are actually read and look shit.

Of course it's a matter of taste and I think this part is nice to receive customers / partners. But for me (and at least a few of my colleagues) it would have to be a lot looser than this. And lighter.

And about the suits; I have a bit of an issue with that because it was mandatory for programmers to wear a suit here not 15-20 years ago. And I did and hated it. I do it now when there are formal events or client contact, but outside that, I really feel forced if I wear such a thing. Again; matter of taste. I do agree you should try and that you DO feel more powerful doing it. It just doesn't mix that well with coding :) IMHO.

taybin• 14 years ago

It looks like a prohibition era speakeasy.

chinmoy• 14 years ago

Nice to see a Kickstarter of this kind alive and kicking after raiding only $25,355. Keep it up!!

eslachance• 14 years ago

I think you got the wrong news item, buddy :P

RivieraKid• 14 years ago

Wow, I would really want to work in a place like that. I would probably feel more relaxed and creative than in the typical whiteish plain-looking offices.

gilrain• 14 years ago

Time will tell, but this is beginning to sound like echos of Ion Storm[1]. We've already got our Deus Ex out of Mojang, though -- my girlfriend and I still regularly play Minecraft together -- so I can't really feel any enmity for them.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Storm

anonymouz• 14 years ago

Seems to be quite a different story to me: Mojang has, with minimal expenses, already created an extremely successful (and profitable) game. It seems that they are now using some of that cash to get a really nice office.

Ion Storm on the other hand basically used their fame and some promises of a future product to get a load of cash from investors, and spent that on a very nice office.

TylerE• 14 years ago

And now they have non-minimal expenses, and they are unlikely to have another hit of even half Minecraft's success ever again - Minecraft was a HUGE outlier.

FredFredrickson• 14 years ago

While I didn't think exactly of Ion Storm, this photo did remind me a bit of the extravagance of that generation of "rock star" developers. Not saying that out of any malice or jealousy of Notch or Mojang - just being honest about my gut, knee-jerk response.

verroq• 14 years ago

So is there still a reason to why Minecraft is so buggy?

MartinCron4• 14 years ago

How can you even tell if something like Minecraft is buggy or not?

thingie• 14 years ago

No, what I admire most isn't the office itself, though it's quite nice, it's the location. I can imagine that you can, for example, get some nice restaurants and few other option to get a real food within a walking distance.

From my window, I can see just three freeways tightly surrounding this place-less office park from each side. And I am hungry, right now, there are just two ugly canteens that close by 2 PM anyway. It makes me feel desperate. Hunger is not nice.

lucaspiller• 14 years ago

Here in Europe business parks aren't really that popular for tech companies (unless you work for something like IBM, but I'd guess they'd have their own canteens), most are based in the city centre which is nice for lunches.

rmc• 14 years ago

Exactly. Most small tech companies that I've worked for have always been in city centre locations.

lewispollard• 14 years ago

I worked for an IBM software lab in the UK and they had their own canteen catered by Upper Crust: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Crust_(restaurant_chain)

nutjob123• 14 years ago

Not to brag, but the midtown Manhattan food selection is outstanding.

http://midtownlunch.com/lunch-by-food-type/

TillE• 14 years ago

I miss that about New York. If you avoid the tourist traps, you can get great food for reasonable prices.

In Berlin pretty much all the food is cheap, but very little of it is good. The standard of sushi is generally passable, though it's not my favorite thing.

untog2• 14 years ago

Right now I'm working in Chinatown. Phenomenal lunch options. Shortly, I will be moving near Times Square- I'm in two minds about it.

warfangle• 14 years ago

For quality, I'd say Soho is a bit better for the price.. Midtown tends to be mediocre-affordable, awesome-superexpensive; Soho tends to be prettygood-affordable, awesome-superexpensive.

Unless midtown food options have radically changed since I last worked up there five years ago.

lucian1900• 14 years ago

I got into the habit of making an extra portion for dinner that I take to work as lunch for the next day. It's quite low effort and I get to eat tasty food every day.

fghh45sdfhr3• 14 years ago

I recently switched from a job where the corporate cafeteria (horrible) was the only option, to a new job in town of my food full city. No one know how much of a big deal that difference was in my decision to switch.

mhomde4• 14 years ago

Söder is Stockholms "Harlem" ;) While being pretty central it's not located in the most central part of the city, and the only decent lunch place around here just closed last week, ack! :)

mongol• 14 years ago

Which was?

willvarfar• 14 years ago

I used to work in Gamla Stan. Stockholm city is a really great feeling place to have a little indie tech company.

In those pictures, you can see a long table that looks like lunch is eaten in-house.

Reminds me of the Joel Spolsky school of keeping good developers happy: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/12/29.html

jiggy2011• 14 years ago

Ah, that brings back bad memories of working for a large consulting company in a business park.

We worked in a building that was only at about 20% capacity so the canteen was closed and there was no food shops within a miles walk.

Basically, forgetting to make a packed lunch meant staying hungry all day and trying to subside on vending machine coffee alone.

sopooneo• 14 years ago

I realize not everyone has this luxury, but the market is still very hot in Boston/Cambridge around me. And I'm sure others can second that for their cities. I have at least fifty restaurants within a fifteen minute walk. I'm not trying to taunt and life has a location hold at times, but if you can make the jump, we as developers are in a very fortunate position right now, and you can have a job within days/weeks around here if you've got the skills. Best to you.

mhomde4• 14 years ago

Apparently I live right next doors to their office. Explains why I keep running in to Notch wherever I go, almost started to think he was stalking me :)

Personally I wouldn't had gone in the "gentlemen's club"-direction, feels a bit old and stuffy as well as having some bad connotations (if it isn't meant to be ironic that is) but each to their own I guess :)

Shorel• 14 years ago

Can you elaborate on the bad connotations?

Prohibition era gangsters?

stusmall• 14 years ago

Men only

mhomde4• 14 years ago

The theme they picked (this is from an article that ran in swedish media) is a british "Gentlemen's club". I don't know about you but for me that is a male-only upper-class establishment. I'm not so sure that's a vibe you want your indie gaming company to project.

Then again, you can't politize everything and it's probably meant to just be different and be in "good fun", shrug

Guess the good thing about having your own company is that you can do what you want :)

zerostar072• 14 years ago

No light No light

This is some kind of ultimate mancave, I can't imagine a girl working in there.

citricsquid3• 14 years ago

They have a couple of female employees, their finance manager is female and has worked there for about a year, their "director of fun" (manages events, media relations) is also female and has worked there for about 8 months. They both talk highly of the office so I guess it's more than just a "man cave".

trotsky• 14 years ago

I'm sure they could love it, but honestly - what else would anyone say when asked publicly about their famous bosses' big money decorator binge?

JackC2• 14 years ago

Hey, I don't know why you assume Mojang doesn't employ women. They totally have ... uh ... two female employees out of 28?

http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Mojang_AB#Current_employee...

Oh, so that's why.

Incidentally, I don't mean to call you out in particular, but when you call grownup female programmers "girls," lots of very cool women will decide to hang out somewhere else -- sort of for the same reason black men in the US aren't going to love it if someone calls them "boys." Not trying to police your language, just something to think about.

paulhauggis• 14 years ago

"sort of for the same reason black men in the US aren't going to love it if someone calls them "boys."

Why oh why do you need to point this out? I use the words girls and guys all the time and it doesn't mean anything racist or sexist.

king_jester3• 14 years ago

> Incidentally, I don't mean to call you out in particular, but when you call grownup female programmers "girls," lots of very cool women will decide to hang out somewhere else -- sort of for the same reason black men in the US aren't going to love it if someone calls them "boys."

I agree with you that calling female programmers and coworkers as girls is demeaning, but it IS NOT the same as calling a black man a boy, which has a long history of racist oppression.

zerostar072• 14 years ago

My bad (English is not my native). I hope i haven't offended any women.

Also, I did not mean to imply anything about Mojang, it's just that the place looks masculine [1].

[1] https://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&safe=off&...

knowaveragejoe• 14 years ago

You have a pretty serious misconception of aesthetic tastes of females. I know many that would -love- to work/hang out in a place like this, and they aren't geeky/nerdy/"gamer girls" either.

constant_change• 14 years ago

I appreciate seeing an office for a successful indie company that doesn't consist of brick facades, exposed ventilation and a big open room filled with people, computers, video game consoles and foosball tables. I just appreciate the slightly more mature look than I'm used to seeing glorified in office pictorials for tech companies.

That being said, I don't see ANY computers there, so maybe they just didn't picture their brickwork in this photo shoot.

ido2• 14 years ago

isn't that more of an American/English thing? I've never seen that style anywhere in continental Europe.

kscaldef• 14 years ago

Maybe they have private offices.

Tipzntrix• 14 years ago

Eh, the place would be amazing to relax in, but I feel like it would be too distracting to work. Notch might be different though.

zalzane• 14 years ago

Yeah, I feel like this would be a huge issue. I can't that kind of office wringing any kind of productivity out of his employees with how it's set up.

Not that providing some entertainment for employees isn't a good thing, however this seems way overboard.

andyjohnson0• 14 years ago

Slightly OT, but lots of pictures of other offices here: http://www.officesnapshots.com/

timdiggerm• 14 years ago

I wonder if they got the space checked out by an architect, or some kind of inspector. Probably not, as that would be destroying the open platform of building whatever you want.

logn• 14 years ago

"many leather-bound books, and... smells of rich mahogany"

hnriot• 14 years ago

I can't imagine getting any work done there, but since there are no computers, I'm assuming nobody does, and this is really just a set for some HBO drama. To me, this is a huge waste of time and money. Good for the economy though I suppose.

TazeTSchnitzel• 14 years ago

There are computers in the room at the back of the third photo, and at the right of it.

Also, I expect many of them use the rest of the space to dream up ideas, plan, and work on laptops.

tibbon2• 14 years ago

An interesting observation, on Kotaku the comments are focusing on a weird jealousy over Notch's success. Comments about people suddenly regretting buying a license to Minecraft, saying how tasteless the offices are, or how bad things are in Africa.

MartinCron4• 14 years ago

Pro tip: Never read the comments on Kotaku.

You're welcome.

pycassa• 14 years ago

"meanwhile in Africa.." thing might be a joke.. come on, you can't possibly think that the guy posted that comment is jealous..

lucasdailey3• 14 years ago

As a (steel & glass) architect I'm certain this is not an expensive office when compared to other tech companies. I think most people are being fooled by the "high-class americana" style, but really this does not cost more than a high-end minimalist office.

Question the style choices, sure, but the assumption that is in anyway more expensive than average is completely false.

bluthru• 14 years ago

Same here. It seems as if the color palette is throwing people off.

lucasdailey3• 14 years ago

Agreed, though I think the dramatic lighting is responsible for most of it.

tomjen32• 14 years ago

If the price is about the same, why does anyone go for glass & steel? This is so much better.

evan_• 14 years ago

wood and leather are less durable and harder to clean probably

lucasdailey3• 14 years ago

Personal preferences, design philosophies, lots of reasons. I find that office to be pretty unappealing, personally.

MartinCron4• 14 years ago

While it's refreshingly different to look at, I think that this look would get pretty tiresome after just a few week.

There's an ad agency here in Seattle called the Wexley School for Girls that has a crazy office space with an all-white room and a Chinese restaurant section, etc. Written about here: http://www.seattleite.com/creative-spaces-unique-seattle-off...

when I walk by, I always think it would be cool to work in a place like that, but I don't think I would enjoy it, long-term.

caycep• 14 years ago

I can't see how any work gets done in this office whatsoever!

Nux• 14 years ago

Nice, but it looks more like a place for pleasure than for work.

nhebb• 14 years ago

Something about the lighting makes it look odd - like a showcase at a furniture store.

nilsimsa• 14 years ago

I guess you can save a lot of money not hiring texture artists.

dromidas• 14 years ago

Notch = John Ralphio?

Nice office but it's almost too try-hard :P There are better ways to make good work environments than make it look like something out of a sitcom.

You won't believe how nice Notch's office is

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