Minecraft Revisited

Hello!

Happy Tuesday i reckon'. Today I wanted to take a few minutes to revisit my Minecraft post from wayyyyy back in the early days of the blog. (Psst, go check it out if you haven't already CLICK ME!)

My dream castle is coming along slowly. I grew to really dislike the look of the cobblestone blocks, so as you can see I redid almost the entire structure. Take a look and let me know what a great job I'm doing!

Errm, this isn't quite finished...

The revamped roof area.

The moat is currently a waterfall until I finish it. Here you can see all the blocks used to create just one outer wall.

The moat is still a work in progress...

Another angle.

One of the newly designed interior rooms.

The full frontal view of the 3 levels.

Sky bridge with side entrances.

My favorite feature, the sky

bridge.

I plan on putting more work into this eventually. It has been a huge undertaking to conduct all the terraforming by hand. I'm actually starting to have flashbacks to my SNES days of playing another game that features terraforming...

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Paladin-Bias

Beginning of a Minecraft Kingdom...

Hello! So I have been putting a lot of time into the game Minecraft recently, playing around with the terraforming capability as well as the crafting ability, and I am excited to unveil images of my fortress!

High atop the tallest mountain in the realm of Paladinbiasistan, sits a heavily fortified tower looming over the lands below.

From the front you can see the stonework used to craft the walls, as well as the terraforming utilized for the stairs leading to the door (as well as the entire piece of land the fortress rests on, believe me it took a lot of shoveling to make it flat!).

Stepping inside, you'll see how well lit I like to keep my fortress, a method of deterring attacks from pesky zombies and skeletons. You'll also notice a storage chest, furnace, and crafting table.

My favorite feature of the fortress is the moat in front of it that I painstakingly dug, and filled with water. Believe me, this was an undertaking, I lugged buckets of water all the way to the top of the mountain for this.

But the best part of the moat... It's not just an aesthetic! It actually works as a defensive structure! (Notice the zombie approaching from the distance in the picture below).

Poor little guy, if only he could jump high enough to get out... Oh well, hope he enjoyed marinating in my moat until the sun came up and he exploded from the light.

I also built a dungeon beneath my castle. At the moment it serves no real purpose, but I'm sure I'll find a use for it if anyone decides to question my rule over these polygonal lands!

In the back of my castle I built a secret tunnel for rapidly descending and ascending. It's dug straight down into the ground and has a ladder system running along the inside of it, periodically illuminated by candles.

To get an idea of just how long the secret tunnel is, in the picture below the door is where the tunnel eventually ends. At the very top of the picture, partially obscured by the clouds you can see my fortress, and the height where the tunnel begins.

I have plans for expanding the fortress by building a sky walk to an adjacent mountain. In addition I want to possibly build sentry towers. My excitement really is a gauge of how entertaining a sandbox game like Minecraft can really be (and how nerdy I can be).

With an open world, limitless options (both constructive and destructive), and an easy to use interface- Minecraft is a good example of how much fun a simple game can be when it prioritizes a player's imagination as an integral part of the game experience.

What's all the buzz about Minecraft?

If you're like me, you've been hearing references to the new game Minecraft all over the internet. If you're a fan of web comics you may have seen it referenced in concurring strips from the popular web series Penny-Arcade.

I decided to check into the game and find out what all the buzz was about for myself.

A waterfall in Minecraft.

MINECRAFT

First, upon arriving at a dilapidated website for Minecraft I was greeted by a message explaining the condition of the site. Apparently a surge in popularity overwhelmed their servers, resulting in them having to go with a bare-bones webpage just to stay online.

After a few seconds I had the game downloaded, and as I often do (for better or worse) I jumped straight into the game without doing any research about how to play.

The game world is pretty massive.

THE MINECRAFT CONTROLS

The games controls are pretty intuitive. The "W" and "S" keys move your character forward and back respectively, while "A" and "D" strafe left and right. The space bar makes your character jump.

In addition the "I" key will open an inventory where you can view any items you previously gathered. Items are gathered by walking over them. In addition this screen allows you to craft new things. I use the vaguest terminology possible when I say "things" because the range of items you can create in this game is extremely vast and impressive (but more on crafting later).

Your view and the direction your character moves is controlled by your mouse, while right clicking (holding it down) with your mouse interacts with anything in the environment (usually destructively).

Gather wood from destroyed trees.

THE MINECRAFT WORLD

When you begin the game, you are plopped down into a massive world full of trees, animals, ore, plants, and (as you find out at nightfall) horrific creatures like zombies, skeletons, and spiders.

Unless you enjoy zombie encounters, avoid caves like this.

The key aspect to this game and its world is that everything is destructible. The trees, the ground, the rocks, and even the animals can all be bludgeoned into smaller, usable components. THIS is where the game gets interesting.

Create a workbench!

By smashing up trees you can gather wood, which can be turned into lumber using the inventory, which can then be turned into sticks. From this point a player can craft a work bench which allows the creation of chests, swords, pick axes, shovels, ladders... virtually anything!

Creating a shovel.

In addition to the multitude of things craft-able from wood, the game also features iron ore which can be used to forge armor and weapons, all at a forge that you make!

Prepare to spend your first night hiding in a make shift shelter.

These weapons and armor are needed, because at night the lands of Minecraft become overrun by monsters. Be prepared (specifically on the first night) to be hunkered down in a makeshift shack as zombies attempt to eat your polygonal brains!

Yes, this is a zombie.

And yes, he wants to eat your face.

The amazing amount of freedom the game allows is refreshing. Players can choose any path they'd like. Some people have produced works of art using the game world, while others have erected massive fortresses.

I'm currently in the process of building my own fortress, and will post pics when it's ready!

With no defined goals, the game truly is limitless and has massive potential as an entertaining time sink. I can already see myself losing far too many hours to this game!

Check out the game at: www.minecraft.net.

Lava.

Lava is hot...

I ain't sayin' you're a gold digga'... but you should be!

Mooooo!

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Paladin-Bias