diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 4f353db7cf372642f1dfbddfa72de6ecbed3de39..48ff63d14221b1e9e6510ad86bc2e85a83dabf6f 100755
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -166,6 +166,7 @@
                 <configuration>
                     <doCheck>true</doCheck>
                     <doUpdate>true</doUpdate>
+                    <shortRevisionLength>5</shortRevisionLength>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
@@ -173,8 +174,8 @@
                 <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                 <version>3.1</version>
                 <configuration>
-                    <source>1.7</source>
-                    <target>1.7</target>
+                    <source>1.8</source>
+                    <target>1.8</target>
                 </configuration>
             </plugin>
             <plugin>
@@ -214,6 +215,11 @@
                 </executions>
             </plugin>
         </plugins>
+        <resources>
+            <resource>
+                <directory>resources/build.properties</directory>
+                <filtering>true</filtering>
+            </resource>
+        </resources>
     </build>
-
 </project>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/comandante/creeper/Main.java b/src/main/java/com/comandante/creeper/Main.java
index 40ff3f2d525e196734bb5d8a20eb88b3a6e06bb2..e2058d3cdfc72bf85949ac68ca7abe8a1a195eee 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/comandante/creeper/Main.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/comandante/creeper/Main.java
@@ -24,11 +24,16 @@ import org.mapdb.DB;
 import org.mapdb.DBMaker;
 
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.HashSet;
+import java.util.Properties;
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+import java.util.jar.JarInputStream;
+import java.util.jar.Manifest;
 
 public class Main {
 
@@ -36,10 +41,21 @@ public class Main {
 
     final public static MetricRegistry metrics = new MetricRegistry();
 
-    final public static String CREEPER_VERSION = "0.7 ALPHA";
+    final public static String CREEPER_VERSION = getCreeperVersion();
 
     final public static Set<Character> vowels = new HashSet<Character>(Arrays.asList('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'));
 
+    public static String getCreeperVersion() {
+        Properties props = new Properties();
+        try {
+            props.load(Main.class.getResourceAsStream("resources/build.properties"));
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            log.error("Problem reading build properties file.", e);
+            return "0";
+        }
+        String someProperty = props.getProperty("build.version");
+        return someProperty;
+    }
     public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
 
         CreeperConfiguration creeperConfiguration = new CreeperConfiguration(buildConfiguration(args));
diff --git a/src/main/resources/build.properties b/src/main/resources/build.properties
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d3336e7dc825074bd1657348ca15054db88ca770
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/resources/build.properties
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+build.version=${buildNumber}
\ No newline at end of file