“But it must have been crowded for them towards the end, more than 20 people and just one bathroom,” adds colleague Stefan Hörberg, and points. “There’s something almost religious about Minecraft’s and Mojang’s successes. For example, an American family knocked on the door one day,” continues Mikael S Eriksson. “At first, tourists would show up here wanting to see the place. There is a small piece of the chunky Minecraft imagery wallpaper that’s been salvaged and framed, along with a coffee cup with the word ‘Mojang’ on it. “It was really warm when we moved in, and they probably hadn’t aired the place that much,” says Mikael S Eriksson, who runs Rithuset, a company located at the same address that one of Sweden’s most talked about Internet companies took its very first steps towards an unlikely gaming empire in the 21st century.

In the run down, four room apartment on Åsögatan that usually resembles a youth club, there are today three illustrators working quietly at their desks. The entry phone that has apparently never worked is still playing up and I eventually dash in the next time it opens, climb a flight of stairs and knock on the door. There’s a cold wind blowing through Södermalm in Stockholm.

Minecraft the legend of notch