An anonymous source has emailed us two images showing what appears to the be initial stages of in-game block building. The source claimed that the images were obtained from a test Switch left on the seat of a train of the Tamsui-Xinyi line in Taipei, around the time of WC Asia 2024’s afterparty.
The images show a part of the Block Editor’s UI hovering in mid-air in a Minecraft world.
More specifically, the Block Toolbar, with the Block Chip and other formatting tools.
It’s not clear what the rest of the canvas is, which indicates that this is a very early view of what will be a much more sophisticated interface.
We’re able to make out that the blocks used are from the exisiting set, including white, black and grey concrete blocks.
Automattic confirms the existence of Project PressCraft
The existance of the project was confirmed but no details were shared.
Avril De La Premierjour, Automattic’s lead developer for Project PressCraft, explained:
We’re interested in extending the block paradigm in every possible direction, including in-game. Teaming up with Minecraft was the natural choice: what better user experience is there for building with blocks in a world made out of blocks?
When we asked De La Premierjour for more information about how this was going to work, she explained that their research shows that by 2031 86% of developers will be working in virtual environments using immersive technologies such as Apple’s Vision Pro.
If we’re are all going to be building websites in some kind of 3D environment then the best UI for the block editor is one that is tried and tested by millions, and that’s Minecraft. Just one word of warning: if you’re working mission-critical projects, keep away from zombies and lava.
WordPress product companies will follow the development closely
WordPress for Minecraft will present both challenges and opportunities for ecosystem:
- Specialist WordPress providers will have to contend with established players in the Minecraft hosting space such as Shockbyte, and new measures such as Time To First Block
- New security products will need to be developed to deal with in-game dangers, as referred to by De La Premierjour
- Agencies will, no doubt, bring to market some form of in-world support and maintenance service
We also anticipate ongoing debates on X about the flexibility and efficacy of block building, the outputted the code and claims that any layout and design can be created using Minecraft WordPress blocks.
No release date was shared.
