You just killed a god. Or a dragon. Honestly, by the time you've spent three hundred hours tunneling through deepslate and losing your mind in the Nether, the Ender Dragon feels less like a mythical beast and more like a final chore. But then you jump into that central portal. The screen goes black. And suddenly, two voices start talking about you.
The Minecraft end credits scene isn’t really a "scene" in the cinematic sense. There are no high-budget explosions or post-credit teasers for a sequel. It’s just a long, scrolling wall of text known as the "End Poem." It’s weird. It’s philosophical. It’s almost uncomfortably personal. While most games use credits to show you a list of names you’ll forget in five seconds, Minecraft decides to have a meta-conversation about the nature of reality and the fact that you, the player, are currently sitting in a chair staring at a piece of glass.
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Who Actually Wrote the End Poem?
Most people assume Notch wrote it. He didn’t. The entire narrative portion of the Minecraft end credits scene was penned by Julian Gough, an Irish novelist and musician. Back in 2011, as the game was prepping for its "full" 1.0 release, Notch realized he didn't have an ending. He reached out to Gough, who reportedly wrote the entire thing in a frantic, inspired burst.
Gough has been pretty vocal lately about the fact that he never actually signed a formal contract giving away the rights to the poem. In late 2022, he even released the poem into the public domain (Creative Commons CC0) because of a long-standing disagreement with Microsoft’s legal team. It’s a fascinating bit of gaming history. The most profound part of the world’s best-selling game is technically "open source" now because of a handshake deal that went sideways.
What the Voices are Actually Saying
The poem is a dialogue between two unidentified entities. Some fans think they’re gods. Others think they’re the universe itself. They refer to the player—that's you—as someone who has "achieved a higher level."
They talk about how you’ve lived a thousand lives in the game. How you’ve built and destroyed. But the kicker is when they start talking about your "real" life. They mention the "long dream" of reality. They basically tell you that the world you live in—the one with taxes, cold coffee, and itchy sweaters—is just as much a game as Minecraft is. It’s heavy stuff for a game made of cubes.
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The structure is intentionally rhythmic. One voice is short and clipped. The other is more flowery and expansive. This creates a back-and-forth that feels like a parent watching a child sleep. They love you. They’re proud of you. It’s one of the few times a video game feels genuinely affectionate toward the person playing it.
Why People Skip the Minecraft End Credits Scene
Let’s be real. It’s long. It takes about 8 to 10 minutes to scroll through the whole thing. In an era of TikTok-shortened attention spans, sitting through a philosophical poem while "Alpha" by C418 plays in the background feels like an eternity.
Plus, Minecraft is a sandbox. Usually, when we "finish" a game, we want a reward. We want a new skin or a secret weapon. Minecraft gives you a poem and kicks you back to your spawn point. For a lot of players, the Minecraft end credits scene feels like a wall between them and their next build project. But skipping it means missing the only moment where the game acknowledges your existence as a human being rather than just a collection of player data.
The Technical Weirdness of the Credits
Did you know the credits are actually a "dimension" of sorts in the game code? It’s not just an overlay. When you enter the portal, the game handles the credits as a specific game state. This is why, in older versions of the game, players found ways to glitch the text or even bypass the transition entirely using beds or specific portal mechanics.
The text itself is hardcoded to pull your username. Seeing "I see the player you mean. [YourName]" makes it feel like the game is breaking the fourth wall. It’s a simple trick, but it works. It turns a generic script into a private letter.
Misconceptions About the Ending
A big myth is that the Minecraft end credits scene explains the "lore" of the game. It doesn't. Not really. It doesn't tell you where the Endermen came from or why there are ruined portals everywhere.
Instead, it’s a commentary on the experience of playing. Julian Gough has stated in interviews that he wanted to write something that made the player feel better about being alive. He wasn’t interested in "Game Theory" style lore. He wanted to talk about the universe. If you’re looking for a secret explanation of the Wither or the Ancient Cities in those lines, you’re going to be disappointed. You’re looking for answers in a poem that’s trying to tell you that the answers don’t actually matter.
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How to Actually Trigger the Credits (And How to Exit)
To see the Minecraft end credits scene, you have to jump into the exit portal in the center of the main End island after the Ender Dragon dies.
- To skip: Just hit the
Esckey on PC or the equivalent "Back" button on consoles. It’ll dump you right back at your world’s original spawn point or your last slept-in bed. - To re-watch: You can't just walk back into the portal if it's already open and expect the poem every time (depending on the version). Usually, you have to respawn the dragon using four End Crystals, kill it again, and then jump through.
- The Music: The track playing is "Alpha" by C418. It’s nearly 10 minutes long. Even if you don't like the poem, the song is a masterpiece of ambient electronic music that perfectly captures the "coming home" feeling.
The Impact on Modern Gaming
We see a lot of "meta" games now. The Stanley Parable, Undertale, Doki Doki Literature Club. They all play with the idea of the player's relationship to the game. But Minecraft did this back in 2011 in a way that was quiet and humble. It wasn't trying to be edgy. It was trying to be kind.
The Minecraft end credits scene remains one of the most polarizing moments in gaming history. Half the player base thinks it’s pretentious nonsense. The other half gets teary-eyed every time they read the line "and the universe said I love you because you are love."
Next Steps for the Curious Player
If you've never actually read the whole thing, do it once. Don't look at your phone. Don't alt-tab. Just read.
For those who want to dive deeper into the legal and creative drama behind the text, look up Julian Gough’s blog post titled "The Minecraft End Poem." It’s a long read but provides incredible context on how such a weird, beautiful piece of writing ended up in a game about hitting rocks with pickaxes. You can also find the full text of the poem online since it is now in the public domain, allowing you to use it in your own creative projects without fear of a Microsoft lawsuit.
Once you’ve experienced it, head back into your world. The poem tells you to "wake up." The best way to honor the ending is to go build something you actually care about.