Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson may have found his next inspiration. In a tweet today, the game designer said "Minicraft 2 is being worked on, for no good reason. It needs a better name, though." Before you go getting all crazy, read that carefully. As Persson subsequently pointed out, that's mini with an "i" on the end, not an "e" for mine. Minicraft is the game he created the weekend before Christmas as part of Ludum Dare 22. On his blog Notch described the game as "a Zelda-ish top down game with crafting influences from Minecraft."

Though it's unclear at this point how far Notch intends to go with the idea, from the sounds of things he's playing with the idea of expanding on the concept. When asked by a follower about the direction of the game, he said, "action roguelike with crafting and modifiable terrain." For a better idea of where he's coming from, play his Minicraft entry (requires Java to run) to Ludum Dare 22.

The Ludum Dare competition gives individual designers 48-hours to develop a game from scratch, based on a theme suggested by the community. Freed from those constraints, the sky's the limit. And if there's one thing Minecraft shows us, once Notch gets going, he can expand a seemingly simple design to epic proportion.