Editing Creeper (Minecraft) (section)

== Characteristics and design ==
Creepers were created as a result of a coding error when creating the pig mob in the pre-alpha stages of ''Minecraft'''s development in 2009.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gesualdi|first=Vito|date=October 15, 2012|title=Notch Calls Minecraft's Creepers "a Mistake"|url=https://www.gamezone.com/news/notch-calls-minecraft-s-creepers-a-mistake/|access-date=August 23, 2020|website=GameZone|language=en-US}}</ref> ''Minecraft'' creator [[Markus Persson|Markus "Notch" Persson]] mixed the dimensions of the pig model up, swapping the length and height. This, combined with the AI of looking at the player, led to the creeper becoming a hostile mob.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal|title=Glitch Sorting: Minecraft, Curation and the Postdigital|last=Apperley|first=Thomas}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xKrSCQAAQBAJ&q=minecraft+creeper&pg=PT5|title=Minecraft, Second Edition: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game that Changed Everything|last1=Goldberg|first1=Daniel|last2=Larsson|first2=Linus|date=June 16, 2015|isbn=9781609806866|access-date=January 17, 2020}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Guthrie|first=Robert|title=The History Of The Creeper, Minecraft's Most Infamous Monster|url=https://kotaku.com/the-history-of-the-creeper-minecrafts-most-infamous-mo-1789304071|access-date=August 23, 2020|website=Kotaku|date=June 5, 2017 |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=May 15, 2017|title=Meet the Creeper|url=https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/meet-creeper|access-date=August 24, 2020|website=Minecraft.net|language=en-US}}</ref> On September 1, 2009, the monster was officially named "Creeper" and was added to one of the early pre-alpha versions of the game,<ref name="auto">{{Cite news|url=https://www.vg247.com/2014/09/01/minecraft-creepers-happy-birthday/|title=Happy birthday to Minecraft's Creepers!|newspaper=Vg247 |date=September 1, 2014}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://kotaku.com/the-history-of-the-creeper-minecrafts-most-infamous-mo-1789304071|title=The History Of The Creeper, Minecraft's Most Infamous Monster|first=Robert|last=Guthrie|website=Kotaku|date=June 5, 2017 }}</ref> officially designated ''0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST_03''.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/minecraft-creeper-skin-secret-found/|title=Minecraft Fan Discovers Secret To Creeper Skin|date=May 23, 2021|website=ScreenRant}}</ref><ref name="auto1"/> In 2011, the Minecraft [[logo]] was redesigned to integrate the creeper face into the letter "[[A]]".<ref name=":0" />

The original color of the creeper was dark green.<ref name="auto1"/> In 2021, an investigation revealed that Persson simply took the texture of leaves, one of the building blocks of Minecraft, and painted on it a characteristic face.<ref name="auto2"/> With the new updates, the hostile mob received a new texture, sound, and unique behavior. Initially, creepers attacked players directly like zombies and exploded only when they were killed, but Persson decided that this was not enough and made the explosion a basic mob attack.<ref name="auto1"/>

In ''Minecraft'', the player exists in a large world made up of cubes. The world contains a number of enemies, of which creepers are commonly encountered. A creeper is practically silent until it comes near the player, at which point it emits a quiet hiss<ref name="auto" /> and detonates after a short delay. The explosion kills the creeper, can kill or injure the player, and also destroys surrounding blocks.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://screenrant.com/minecraft-creeper-origin-design-how-avoid-mob-attack/|title=How Minecraft Creepers Originated From A Pig Accident|date=February 16, 2021|website=ScreenRant}}</ref> In an article for ''[[Games and Culture]]'', Daniel Dooghan characterized the creeper as a "[[Suicide attack|suicide bomber]]".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dooghan |first=Daniel |date=June 29, 2016 |title=Digital Conquerors: ''Minecraft'' and the Apologetics of Neoliberalism |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1555412016655678 |journal=[[Games and Culture]] |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=67–86 |doi=10.1177/1555412016655678 |s2cid=148037543 |issn=1555-4120}}</ref>

Over time, the developers decided that creepers were not unpredictable enough, and increased the destructive power of their explosions by having creepers become charged if a lightning strike occurs near them. Mobs killed by charged creepers, including other creepers, drop their heads, which can then be worn in the player's head armor slot as a disguise against mobs of that type.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-creeper-skin-farm-head/|title=Everything you need to know about Minecraft's Creepers|first=Jason|last=Coles|website=PC Gamer|date=December 24, 2020}}</ref><ref name="auto1"/>