Jens Peder Bergensten (born 18 May 1979), also known as Jeb or Jeb_, is a Swedish

video game programmer A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which f ...

and

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

. He is best known as the lead designer of ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before bein ...

''. In 2013, he, along with ''Minecraft'' creator

Markus Persson Markus Alexej Persson (; born 1 June 1979), also known as Notch, is a Swedish video game programmer and designer. He is best known for creating the sandbox video game ''Minecraft'' and for founding the video game company Mojang in 2009. Pers ...

, was named as one of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

'' 100 most influential people in the world. As an employee of

Mojang Studios Mojang Studios is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. The studio is best known for developing the sandbox and survival game ''Minecraft'', the best-selling video game of all time. Mojang Studios was founded by the independ ...

, he had been co-developing ''Minecraft'' with Persson since 2010, became the lead designer in 2011, and assumed full control in 2014, when Persson left the company after its acquisition.

Career

Bergensten started programming his first games at 11 years old, using

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

and

Turbo Pascal Turbo Pascal is a software development system that includes a compiler and an integrated development environment (IDE) for the Pascal programming language running on CP/M, CP/M-86, and DOS. It was originally developed by Anders Hejlsberg at ...

. By age 21, he was a

mapper MAPPER, now known as BIS, is a fourth-generation programming language from Sperry Univac. Mapper originated in the 1970s based on some work in the 1960s, but has been kept current. It was renamed and also given an extension named ICE - Internet ...

and modder for the

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

game ''

Quake III Arena ''Quake III Arena'' is a 1999 multiplayer-focused first-person shooter developed by id Software. The third installment of the ''Quake'' series, ''Arena'' differs from previous games by excluding a story-based single-player mode and focusing prima ...

''. He worked as a C++ and

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

programmer for the game developer Korkeken Interactive Studio, which went bankrupt and became

Oblivion Entertainment Oblivion may refer to: Film * ''Oblivion'' (1994 film), an American space Western * ''Oblivion'' (2013 film), an American post-apocalyptic science fiction film Literature * ''Oblivion'' (''Power of Five''), a 2012 novel by Anthony Horowitz * ...

. After the insolvency of Oblivion Entertainment, Bergensten moved to

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popula ...

and earned a master's degree in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion

Early standalone projects

During his time working at Korkeken, Bergensten led the development for the

online role-playing game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

''Whispers in Akarra'', which entertained a small playerbase of several hundred players. He later discontinued this project after straying from the team's original creative vision for the project. Bergensten publicly released the world editors and source code for ''Akarras server client in 2008. Afterwards he founded the indie game development company Oxeye Game Studio with Daniel Brynolf and Pontus Hammarber, who wanted to create a spiritual successor to ''Whispers in Akarra''. The studio's first project was ''Dawn of Daria'', a self-described "massively-multiplayer fantasy life simulator". After several public alpha tests, the project was discontinued like its predecessor, and Oxeye Games Studio switched their focus to various game jam project and tech demos. The company was soon recognized known for the

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to pla ...

game '' Harvest: Massive Encounter'' and later the

platform games Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system ...

Cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, ...

'' and ''

Cobalt WASD ''Cobalt WASD'' is an action video game developed by Oxeye Game Studio and published by Mojang Studios released on 30 November 2017 for Microsoft Windows. Gameplay The player plays as either a "Metalface" or a "Protobot". The Metalfaces try t ...

''. Until 24 November 2010, Bergensten worked for the online knowledge community; ''Planeto''.

Mojang Studios

In November 2010, Bergensten was hired as Mojang's back-end developer for '' Scrolls'' (now known as ''

Caller's Bane ''Caller's Bane'' (originally named ''Scrolls'') is a strategy digital collectible card game developed by Mojang, which aims to combine elements from trading card games and traditional board games. ''Scrolls'' was originally conceived and dev ...

''). He later began programming increasingly significant parts of ''Minecraft'' until he became its lead designer in December 2011, taking over from

. Bergensten was part of the team that developed '' Catacomb Snatch'' as part of

Humble Bundle Mojam Mojang Studios is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. The studio is best known for developing the sandbox and survival game ''Minecraft'', the best-selling video game of all time. Mojang Studios was founded by the independen ...

, a

game jam A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. The event duration usually ranges from 24 to 72 hours. Participants are generally program ...

. In recent years Bergensten has been featured in the teaser videos for Minecraft Live along with

Agnes Larsson Agnes or Agness may refer to: People *Agnes (name), the given name, and a list of people named Agnes or Agness *Wilfrid Marcel Agnès (1920–2008), Canadian diplomat Places * Agnes, Georgia, United States, a ghost town *Agnes, Missouri, United ...

Personal life

Jens Peder Bergensten was born on 18 May 1979 in

Örebro Örebro ( , ) is the sixth-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Örebro Municipality, and capital of the Örebro County. It is situated by the Närke Plain, near the lake Hjälmaren, a few kilometers inland along the small river Svartån, an ...

, Sweden. On 11 May 2013, Bergensten married photographer Jenny Bergensten ( Thornell). On 10 December 2015, Bergensten had a son, Björn.

Games developed

* '' Harvest: Massive Encounter'' (2008) * ''

'' (2011) *

(2014) * ''

'' (2016) * ''

'' (2017)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergensten, Jens 1979 births Indie video game developers Living people Lund University alumni People from Örebro Swedish computer programmers Video game designers Mojang Studios