by Stone Marshall | Mar 1, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, Stone Marshall Books |
MINECRAFT fans on the Isle of Wight have been invited to take part in a project to build their own virtual version of Newport.
Devised by Chris Gutteridge, computer programmer at the University of Southampton, Project Newport is a full scale reproduction of Newport in the computer game Minecraft — a computer game about designing and building anything from a simple house to a castle in the sky.
The project ties in with Joanna Kori’s Future reCollections exhibition at Quay Arts which looks at the past and present uses of the Quay Arts building.
Chris’ contribution was to expand on that idea with the whole town, and also consider what it’s future might be.
It’s a blank version of the town, fit for adaptation and Chris wants people taking get creative and build their own vision of Newport.
“They might want to rebuild what Carisbrooke Castle was like at a certain time in history, and have to look up how tall the walls were, or where the stables would have been,” said Chris.
“Or maybe fill the town with zombies. I reckon a couple of them will accidentally learn something,” he joked.
For Chris, the aim of the project is to help provide the engineering oriented education that wasn’t afforded to him when he was growing up on the Island.
There are dozens of amazing artists on the Island, he says, but when it comes to engineering and computers, there is very little for children to engage with.
Using open source data from the environment agency and OpenStreetMap, Chris wrote a program to combine the data and generate it in Minecraft.
In all, the project took him around 70 hours, compared to his previous endeavour which involved manually building Ventnor seafront and took around 500 hours.
Chris will be hosting a free drop-in at Quay Arts tomorrow (Saturday) between 1pm and 4pm.
He is also involved in the University of Southampton science and engineering festival which runs from March 11 until 19 and Chris hopes will encourage younger people from the Island to become involved in science and technology.
For more information, and to download Project Newport, visit: users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/cjg/newport/
Chance to make your own Minecraft Newport
by Stone Marshall | Feb 28, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures |
CHICAGO: After spending four years building Chicago out of virtual blocks, an 18-year-old from the north suburbs unveiled an intricate Minecraft map of downtown.
Ryan Zull, a New York University student who grew up in Deerfield, Illinois, posted the model on Reddit under his username, Koodoo25. At a 1-to-2 scale, it’s among the most detailed models of the city ever made in Minecraft.
Minecraft, which was first released to the public in 2009 and bought by Microsoft in 2014, is one of the best-selling videogames ever, according to Time. The game is a sandbox video game, which means it has no rules and it’s up to gamers to create their own experiences. It allows users to build and explore worlds where they can compete or work alone or together.
Zull said he first started working on the model in July 2013, though the work wasn’t continuous, and the project sometimes sat untouched for as long as a year.
He’s not the first to publicly release a Minecraft model of Chicago – another Reddit user posted one in 2015. But Zull’s is more than twice as detailed as that model, by scale.
“I started by making Mies van der Rohe’s Federal Plaza and eventually worked my way outwards from there,” Zull said in an email. “All the buildings and streets were created directly within Minecraft. … All the design is done by measuring dimensions of buildings and streets in Google Maps and fitting them into the Minecraft world as proportionately and accurately as possible.”
He unveiled his Chicago map on Reddit recently and quickly gathered acclaim. But Redditors were also instantly curious about the project’s future and were quick to request additions. One user asked if Navy Pier and Lincoln Park would be built, while another asked about CTA lines.
Zull said the model is a work in progress and that he plans on building all of downtown.
“There may be a few tiny details or dimensions a little bit off, but everything down to the placement of streetlights and trees was done to recreate what I saw in Google Maps Street View as accurately as I could,” he wrote on Reddit.
Minecraft players can download a playable version of the map themselves on Planet Minecraft. — Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service
From trees to towers, this ‘Minecraft’ model of Chicago is incredibly detailed
by Stone Marshall | Feb 27, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Books |
Furthering the running gag that Microsoft is slow to the draw and deficient in apps in regards to its smartphone platform, Minecraft: Pocket Edition is just now heading to Windows 10 Mobile.
Though previously available on Windows Phone 8, Minecraft developer Mojang dropped support for Microsoft’s older mobile OS back in October of last year.
Minecraft: Pocket Edition’s arrival on Windows 10 Mobile now means those who’ve upgraded will also finally catch up on major updates that they have missed out on since, including Achievements and support for Realms, add-ons, and texture packs.
A Minecraft in every phone
The ultra-popular brick building game coming to Windows 10 Mobile may as well just be a formality at this point, with the game already selling over 100 million copies and counting, and the handheld Pocket Edition and console ports outselling the PC original almost 2 to 1.
That said, it’s still amusing to think that one of the latest systems to just now get in (or rather, back in) on one of gaming’s biggest, best-selling brands is Microsoft’s own, considering it owns Minecraft after purchasing Mojang for $2.5 billion back in 2014.
Thankfully for owners of the previous version, anyone who purchased the game for Windows Phone 8 will be able to download the Windows 10 Mobile version at no additional charge.
by Stone Marshall | Feb 13, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News |
“Minecraft” is this generation’s Super Mario. It’s an international phenomenon. Unless you’ve been living on the moon, you probably already know these things.
It’s on computers, phones, tablets, and game consoles. It’s at your local mall, occupying kiosks with plushies and T-shirts. There’s a semiannual convention (“MineCon”) and an education initiative that’s got it in schools (MinecraftEDU).
But why is it so popular? We’re talking about a game that looks like this:
Microsoft
Keep in mind that there are games coming out on modern video game consoles that look like this:
Quantic Dream
And what do you actually do in “Minecraft?” Build stuff? Perhaps you’ve seen some of the incredible worlds people have created from within “Minecraft,” like this one of King’s Landing from “Game of Thrones”:
YouTube
Not bad! So how does a world go from a flat, grassy meadow to a pixelated re-creation of Westeros’ capital city? The answer to that question is half of the reason people love “Minecraft”: creation. The castles above were built block-by-block.
Think of “Minecraft” as virtual LEGO. LEGO does.
It’s a system for fitting pieces together to create something — sometimes amazing somethings — from nothing. “Minecraft” provides endless building blocks and a blank canvas. It’s up to you to create something incredible, or silly, or referential, or whatever, using the tools it provides. The tools are blessedly user-friendly, as are the systems for employing those tools.
The most basic unit of measurement is a single block. This is a dirt block:
Microsoft
This is the literal and figurative building block of the game. You start with nothing but fists and a massive, unexplored world, ripe for creation. You walk forward; you punch the ground below you and it begins to crack. Why is it cracking? And suddenly, POP! Where the ground once was is now an empty, square space. It looks like this:
The word “minecraft” is a portmanteau of two verbs: to mine and to craft. Punching a dirt block and retrieving a dirt block to build with is the first verb — the mining. When you start “Minecraft,” it’s the first thing you should do.
Once you’ve retrieved enough blocks, the second thing you’ll need to do is craft: combine the resources you’ve mined to create more complex tools. “Mining” for wood (punching a tree) enables you to create basic tools. Those basic tools enable you to mine more complex resources, which enable you to create more complex items and tools.
It’s this highly satisfying cycle of mining resources and creating from those resources that draws in millions of players around the world. And that’s the most basic level of “Minecraft.”
The other side of “Minecraft,” sadly not encompassed in the game’s title, is exploration. Every time you start a new world in “Minecraft,” it’s unique. That is, levels are randomly generated based on a set of parameters. There are some constants:
- The levels always contain the same materials (dirt, trees, water, etc.)
- There is a day/night cycle
- At night, enemies appear and will attack you
- You can only dig so deep below the world’s surface before hitting bedrock
- The world that spawns always has stuff to discover, whether it’s crazy jungles or mountains or underground caves or whatever
Yes, there are enemies. You’ve almost certainly seen the iconic “Creeper” at your local Hot Topic. This guy (or lady?):
Microsoft
These green, exploding monsters are exclusive to the “Survival” mode of “Minecraft” — if you just want to create ad infinitum, there’s a “Creation” mode that enables exactly that. No day/night cycle. No enemies. No mining if you don’t want to mine. Just endless creation.
But be warned: If you don’t choose “Survival” mode, you’ll never experience the joy of discovering a labyrinthine cave network by accident, full of rare resources (diamonds!) and life-threatening lava. You’ll never know the thrill of narrowly escaping a mob of spiders, zombies, and Creepers into the ramshackle hut you’ve composed just in time to hide for the night. You’ll never know the heartbreak of a Creeper sneaking up and exploding the side of your carefully constructed homage to John Travolta’s face. Up your nose with a rubber hose, Creeper.
So forget all the hype. Forget the billions Microsoft spent buying “Minecraft” from its creator, Markus “Notch” Persson and his team at Mojang.
“Minecraft” is so incredibly successful and popular because it’s delightful. It’s relaxing. It’s joyful. It’s goofy. It’s an amazing interactive canvas to build anything you want.
Yeah, you’re “just punching blocks and placing them in different combinations.” And here’s a re-creation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous “Fallingwater” home:
Minecraft Forum
You can play “Minecraft” online with friends, with strangers, or all by your lonesome. Some of the more complex worlds were created by whole teams of people working for months. Westeros wasn’t built in a day, you know!
Personally, I prefer the relaxing experience of playing it alone while listening to podcasts. The game’s music is a mix of soft, atmospheric melodies that can be easily kept at low volume, leaving me to concentrate on the project at hand.
Unlike so many other games, “Minecraft” enables an outlet for artistic expression — however shallow — that makes time spent in its worlds feel meaningful.
Why ‘Minecraft’ is the most popular game in the world
