Minecraft: Dungeons was developed in a different engine than most other games in the franchise. In an interview with Mojang at E3 2019, Creative Director Mans Olsen confirmed to PCGamesN that the upcoming Minecraft RPG – due out in Spring 2020 – uses the Unreal Engine.
The original block builder was developed in Java, but with the arrival of Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Mojang introduced the new Bedrock engine. This engine was later ported to non-mobile platforms for the new Windows 10 edition of the game, as well as the Apple and Fire TV editions, and the Gear VR edition. All of these titles are now simply referenced by Minecraft, rather than their individual editions.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that Dungeons is moving away from more traditional Minecraft haunts. After all, the game doesn’t borrow much from its iconic namesake’s block-building, but from a number of other classic PC games.
According to Olsen, games like Diablo, Torchlight, and even Left 4 Dead helped inspire Minecraft: Dungeons. These titles bear little resemblance to the game that gives the new game its name, which means the decision to use a new engine might make more sense than we initially thought.
There’s no set release date for the game yet, but we can expect to hear more in the coming months.