During Build 2015 today, Microsoft announced the release of a new tool to help people easily build Minecraft mods in Visual Studio.
The tool is an add-on for Visual Studio that allows users to create their own mods from scratch or using one of three templates provided with the add-on. Importantly, the add-on isn't meant to replace current tools, but is instead meant to give developers extra options for creating their mods in Visual Studio's development environment.
The integration with Visual Studio comes roughly 5 months after Microsoft acquired the popular game franchise and its development studio, Mojang, for $2.5 billion. Since Minecraft is so popular among young gamers, one of the obvious perks of this integration is that Microsoft could use the game as a gateway to get children interested in coding at an early age.
If you're a developer and Minecraft fan interested in trying out the new Visual Studio add-in, you can hit up the source link below to learn how to get started.
Source: Microsoft