Minecraft getting friendly snowmen

While Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson's openness about development does allow obessive fans to terrifyingly chart his movements, it also gives us delightful peeks into his creative process. "Got frustrated with [Amazon Web Services]," Persson wrote yesterday on Twitter, "so I made a new mob!" Thus was born the snow golem, a craftable companion.

Persson explained the snow golem over a series of Tweets. Our chilly craftable chum tosses non-damaging snowballs at enemies to provoke them, and spreads snow as it moves around. Sadly, our frozen friend melts in hot biomes.

"The snowmen are ridiculously suicidal, throwing snowballs at creepers and spiders, annoying them to attack the snowmen. It's funny." Persson said.

Mojang has just launched a "pre-release" version of Minecraft 1.9, and plans to do a "full" release after player feedback. The much-anticipated Adventure Mode continues to be spread between more updates, with Persson now saying parts will arrive in version 1.10.

If the idea of the snow golem doesn't fill you with glee, you're dead inside, but, also, fear not, as Mojang may always change it. That's what's happening to the spooky Endermen, at least. Persson said on Tuesday that he plans to "nerf" the Endermen's ability to move blocks, noting that "It was a horrible idea."