In what can only be seen as a bit of irony, a game under the direction of Markus "Notch" Persson that involves a universe on the brink of extinction is now going dark itself. The Minecraft creator has confirmed that he will no longer continue development of 0x10c after putting the title on hold earlier this year due to a "creative block."

Persson made the announcement during a recent Team Fortress 2 livestream. Naturally, that didn't sit well with gamers that had been looking forward to the title's eventual release.

Notch didn't elaborate on why he chose to abandon the game and according to project lead Shane Dalton, he and his team didn't really ask questions. Instead, they've decided to take it upon themselves to make sure the game - or something like it - becomes a reality.

In an interview with USGamer, Dalton said it is now a community project. The new game won't use any of Notch's code nor will it go by the same name. Moving forward, it'll simply be known as Project Trillek and there are no plans to monetize it once it's ready to launch.

It's not the best outcome for gamers that were looking forward to 0x10c but perhaps it's better than nothing. Project Trillek will still retain the same gameplay concept of humans navigating space and managing a spaceship. It's not exactly a new concept but some features, like a fully functional 16-bit CPU, have certainly piqued the interest of diehard fans.

No word yet on when Project Trillek will be complete.