Feb. 16, 2011 at 3:01 PM ET
How does one game developer ask another game developer to tie the knot? In a video game, of course.
And with molten lava. Lots of molten lava.
But Joel Green, a sound designer at BioWare, didn't just ask his co-worker Heather Rabatich to marry him in any ol' game. He asked her to marry him in the awesome indie game "Minecraft." And the video of that proposal, posted on YouTube this week, has been warming gamer hearts everywhere.
Green and Rabatich first met while working on "Mass Effect 2," according to the Vancouver Sun. And they are huge fans of "Minecraft."
"Minecraft" is a computer game that was started by one guy named Markus Persson (aka Notch) and has gone on to become a gaming phenomenon. It's a block-building game in which you can construct anything from the resources you find in the world and, in fact, mold the entire environment to your suiting. It's also a game in which you have to survive an onslaught of deadly creatures every night.
Green says he spent 15 hours working on his in-game propsal, hunting for the materials he would need to build everything.
The YouTube video Green posted shows off the castle tower he crafted along with a waterfall and a nearby field he filled with lava flows that spell out the words "Marry Me?"
That lava wasn't easy to find, Green told the Vancouver Sun.
"I had to bring it up from the bottom of the world, bucket by bucket, to fill up the letters," he said.
Green also built a giant diamond ring within the game — and he gave Rabatich a real diamond ring as she played. She said yes, of course.
Yey for love! And yey for "Minecraft!"
Yes, the pixelated graphics may look old school, but that's part of "Minecraft's" charm. The game is a finalist for this year's Independent Games Festival grand prize and very deservedly so. With almost nothing in the way of marketing, it has inspired legions of passionate players. And the crafting aspect of the game has inspired an astounding amount of creativity.
Check out this Rube Goldberg Machine a player made within "Minecraft."
And check out this riff on "Halo." It's called "Halocraft."
And this is what happens when "Minecraft" and Kinect come together:
In short, if you haven't tried "Minecraft" you really really should, and you can do so right here.
But don't worry, you won't be required to marry anyone.
For more gaming goodness, check out:
- Festival celebrates experimental and unconventional games
- Sesame Street to get the Kinect treatment
- Windows Phone 7 will soon Kinect with Xbox
Winda Benedetti writes about games for msnbc.com. You can follow her tweets about games and other things right here on Twitter.