Notch Adding Phases of the Moon to Minecraft

As everyone knows, in Minecraft, when the sun goes down, the mobs come out.

Before today, the moon in Minecraft had been a simple blocky square.  Now, it appears as if the the moon will go through eight lunar phases: Full Moon, Waning, Gibbous, Last Quarter, Waning Crescent, New Moon, Waxing Crescent, FirstQuarter, Waxing Gibbous.

"I'm making the moon and the sun round. I am very sorry," Notch said today, shortly before he revealed an image of what the eight lunar phases will look like.

Adding cycles of the moon allows players to keep track of the passage of time in Minecraft via the Lunar caldendar after Beta 1.9 Pre-Release version 4.  A full cycle of all eight moon phases is equal to one Lunar month or Lunation.  Twelve lunations is equal to one lunar year.  Get it?

Minecraft 1.9 Pre-Release 3 went live earlier this week, and Notch stated that from now on only pre-releases will be implemented before the MineCon convention and official launch of Minecraft in November.