Minecrafting: Deck the Halls

Part 4 of the ongoing adventure in the mysterious world of Minecraft . . .

~                   ~                    ~

As I squint nervously into the darkness around me, I realize that I was probably asking for something like this to happen when I decided to explore such a large cave. What's done is done, though, and I'm going to have to work fast if I want to survive for any great length of time. The tunnels around me stretch into darkness in several directions, and I can distinctly hear growls and clattering bones from a short distance outside of my torchlight.

Thinking fast, I slap down a quick barricade of dirt - it's not enough to deter any skeleton archers out there, but at least the spiders and zombies won't be able to get to me.

Next, I start building a dirt staircase to the hole I entered from. It's ugly, but fast, and it does the trick. I scramble up the makeshift stairs, expecting arrows to come hurtling out of the darkness at any moment. Fortunately nothing bites me, and I pop out of the hole and back into the tunnel where I'd originally fallen through.

This cave is still mostly unexplored, and after that scare I'm inclined to cut my losses and get out while I still have a large stockpile of iron. There's no telling when something nasty is going to come charging out of the darkness to eat me . . . and with my luck, it'll probably happen sooner than later.

I poke my head down yet another dead-end passage, and nervously dig up yet another iron vein.

"GRRRrrrrrrrr!"

I nearly jump out of my skin, but the owner of the gargling growl is nowhere to be seen. I take this as a sign and sprint back to the surface, where I can see faint rays of sunlight filtering through the clouds above me. I also notice even MORE iron, which I had somehow missed during my frenzied early exploration of the cave system.

This cave has TONS of iron. Did I mention that?

Now burdened with a hefty load of ore, I happily trot back to my cliff dwelling, which looks quite homey after my recent work. The sun's setting, so it's as good a time as any to settle in and do more crafting. Besides, it's Christmas, and I'm feeling like getting into the spirit of the occasion.

Back inside, I load the ore into my furnace, only to realize that I'm completely out of coal, and that in my zeal to grab every piece of iron I could find, I somehow completely neglected to mine any of the plentiful coal deposits. Well, darn it.
For lack of anything else to do, I switch to third-person view to check out my newly modified skin (partly of my own doing, and partly based on a downloaded model), complete with a sinister gas mask. In so doing, I notice something curious about my back:

Is that . . . a Christmas tree? I've never seen a cape on my character before . . . I guess Notch decided to be festive.
In an attempt to pass the time productively, I dig a side tunnel from my WIP giant staircase/mine. Several minutes of fruitless digging later, the rock in front of me suddenly gives way to a blast of water. The sudden wave tosses me back down the shaft, and I lose ground for a few seconds until I orient myself and manage to splash back to the hole. I seal it with a handy piece of cobblestone, while a spider on the other side of the gap voices its indignation (presumably at the sudden riptide I've caused).

At first, I think I've dug into the lake near the surface, but digging around the edge of the water gives me a clear look at what is in fact a long, low cavern just over the surface of an underground pool. A skeleton takes a couple of shots at me, but I duck behind a dirt block and deftly slice his shins.

The cavern is attractive, albeit small and lacking in resources. Strangely, the spider I heard earlier appears not to be inside, but I can hear him - and he's very close by. Noting that the ceiling is entirely dirt, I begin to suspect that the surface may in fact be just above me. One short staircase later, and I pop out on the sunny surface, only to be greeted by everyone's favorite green-skinned, armless kamikaze critter.

Ow.

Another creeper leaps down a nearby hill towards me, but he and his comrade (hiding behind a nearby tree) are safely dispatched. The spider, noisy though he is, doesn't bat an eye, so I leave him to his wanderings.

I trundle back to the ore cave and mine up a hefty load of coal. Seriously, how did I forget all this?

I also spot a new underwater cavern . . . a good site for future adventures, perhaps?

Now well-stocked with coal, I set my furnace blazing. With this task finally done, I grab a few ingots, make a bucket, and continue my ongoing side project of building my indoor farm - once finished, I'll have a renewable food source.
I make a hoe and scrape away at the grass outside. A few seeds pop up, and I tote my bucket down the hill and fill it at a nearby lake. I empty the bucket into a hole in my new alcove, and till up the soil around it.

Then I add the seeds. With the water nearby, the soil will turn dark and rich, and my plants will grow happily in the torchlight.

Now, at last, I can put some energy into something suitably Christmas-y . . . but what, exactly?

Next: Christmas 'Crafting!

Minecrafting: Spelunking 101

Part 3 of the ongoing adventure in the mysterious world of Minecraft . . .

~                   ~                    ~

Today, I'm going on the offensive.

I still haven't forgiven those creepers for blowing me to pieces, and I need to start building my resources, so I decide on killing two birds with one stone by raiding a cavern. That decided, the real question is . . . where is a cave, anyway? It doesn't take long to find a likely spot to begin my subterranean expedition.

It's not quite what I had in mind, but this underwater hole looks like it could serve our purposes nicely. I can hear zombies in the depths, so I'll have to proceed cautiously. I start mining a staircase down around the whirlpool, and find an iron deposit in the process. I also almost fall into the wet darkness.

I block off the waterfall, carve the rest of the stairs, and mine the ore, but it looks like this is a rather small cave. 

There's no sign of the zombies, but I can hear them moaning nearby, so I grab my pick and start digging. Several blocks in, there they are:

Perhaps a direct assault is not the best idea. I dig another tunnel, several blocks higher. Nope, still a bit close for comfort.

Unfortunately, the sun is setting, so I beat a hasty retreat to my cliff dwelling, where I spend the night digging a staircase into the earth. I find some more iron, too. Finally, I make myself a bow, and dig up a couple of seeds for use in my future indoor farm.

Things heat up fast when I walk outside - two creepers detonate ineffectively, and a pair of burning zombies lurch after me. Another creeper jumps out from behind a tree, but I chop him up easily enough. I also slice a passing cow for a bit more leather, which I turn into a hat. With this, along with the sunglasses I added to my character model, you have to admit that I cut quite the dashing figure.

You can stop laughing now.

On returning to the cave, I take a different approach. I carve an entirely new tunnel from the surface down to the cavern roof, where I break through a take a quick look around. It looks empty.

I chisel some stairs and look carefully around the cave. It is empty, and is almost as small as the earlier section. No ores, and strangely, no more zombies. Perhaps they knew I was coming. 

The sun's going down again, and I'm making my stately way back to base when I pass this:

Now THAT is a cave.

Once again, I spend the night mining, and have my mood improved by finding deposits of iron, flint, and even gold as I continue downward. 

By morning, I'm loaded with new arrows and ready to fight. I give the rising sun a minute to cook the wandering undead, then polish off a nearby creeper. On returning to the lake where I found the two caves, I spot another creeper swimming, and dispatch him as well.

I decide to explore the upper passage of the cave first, and grab my torches. Unfortunately, I slip and fall into the beginning of the larger lower passage, and immediately hear the sound of flying arrows. The skeleton, who had apparently been waiting in ambush behind an outcropping of dirt, chases after me with unnerving speed. I abandon any semblance of dignity and scramble out of the cave as fast as possible, leaving the skeleton to roast in the noonday sun. He doesn't die fast, though, and a couple of his arrows find their mark.

Sore and annoyed, I try once again enter the cave. I nervously scuttle down the upper tunnel, placing torches as I go. It turns out to be fairly short, but I do find one respectable iron deposit. 

I proceed to clamber down the piles of gravel into the next tunnel, which is a bit more impressive.

Whoa.

The room turns out to be a spiral, and leads down to a tight tunnel culminating in an overlook of another large room, complete with a creeper. A side tunnel (with no creeper) leads me deeper, and ends with a nice iron vein. I happily grab my pick and dig it up.

As I break through the last piece of ore, I'm suddenly struck by the horrible realization that I've broken one of the most important rules of mining:

Never mine straight down.

The ground crumbles beneath me, and I plunge into darkness. Fortunately, I survive the impact, and enough light filters down from the hole above me that I can see a little bit around me. Maybe I'm not so bad off after all, I think to myself.

That's when I hear the growls.

Next: "Help!!!"

Minecrafting: No-Win Situations

Part 2 of the ongoing adventure in the mysterious world of Minecraft . . .

~                   ~                    ~

As I fly through the air, several thoughts are bouncing around in my adrenaline suffused mind: "What hit me? Will I survive this fall? Why does this always happen to me?"

 Turns out the cliff wasn't as tall as I had originally thought. I slam into the ground, losing a few hearts in the process, but I'm still alive. Unfortunately, the creature that masterminded this ambush decides to rear his ugly head . . . it turns out it's that same spider who'd been camped on my roof all night. Figures.

Weakened and disoriented, I scramble to arm my new sword and vacate the spider's landing ground as it crashes ingloriously into the hill beside me. He charges me, hissing madly, but his moment of hesitation after landing costs him. Several seconds of furious slicing later, I'm victorious (if just a bit weaker than before).

He also drops some string, which I happily stow in my pockets for later use.

Now that I've successfully resolved the crisis, I start pondering what my next course of action ought to be. Whilst doing so, I catch a glimpse of something green moving in the corner of my vision, accompanied by a distinctive, dreaded sound.

"Sssssssssssssssssssss . . . "

"BANG!!!"

Sure enough, a creeper explodes right next to me. I'm fast enough to dodge the brunt of the blast, but it takes a chunk out of the hillside and leaves me even more rattled than before.

Disgruntled, I dice up a swimming pig and carve out a large deposit of coal while deciding my next move. I'm just hiking over another hill and fiddling around in my inventory when . . .

"SssssssssssssssssssssBANG!!!"

This time, there's no avoiding it. I'm instantly blown to smithereens, and my inventory is tossed across the landscape. I respawn . . . and now I'm well and truly riled up. I trot back to my death site, and witness what's left of my previous incarnation:

I gather up my slightly trashed belongings, and spot yet another creeper trying to sneak up on me. I furiously slice-n'-dice him into green slivers, but he doesn't drop any gunpowder.

I'm not satisfied yet, though. It's time to bring the fight to the enemy.

Next: Claustrospelunker.

VVVVVV

This retro indie gem (which I acquired on Steam almost by accident) is, in short, one of the finest examples of the platforming genre that I have played. VVVVVV is deceptively simple in design - you have four controls: left, right, activate, and the ability to invert your personal gravity - but showcases an impressive number of clever stages based on several simple mechanics.

Your goal is simply to move through the levels, while avoiding spikes and enemies on your way to the next checkpoint. In VVVVVV, you will die many, many, many, many times while trying to avoid these hazards, but tons of conveniently placed checkpoints mean you won't have to replay long sections after each death. In fact, I died over 200 times on the final level of the game alone. Even after you complete the relatively short main game, replayability is increased by the presence of hard-to-reach trinkets, which sit just tantalizingly out of your grasp.

Getting to these trinkets requires you to complete the hardest puzzles in the game, some of which may make the faint of heart weep in despair (especially the level sequence "Veni" - "Vidi" - "Vici", seen here).

VVVVVV also features a superb 8-bit chiptune soundtrack by Magnus Palsson, aka Souleye. Upbeat and relentless, the music evokes feelings of nostalgia while perfectly complementing the fast-paced gameplay. You'll be dancing along to "Positive Force" even after you've sent poor Captain Viridian to his frowny-faced death for the thousandth time.

Short but sweet, VVVVVV does pretty much everything right. A cute, clever retro platformer with a minuscule learning curve, it deserves to be sent back in a time machine to be a hit NES title.


Rating: 9.5/10


Update:

I BEAT VENI VIDI VICI!!!!!! *happy dance*

Minecrafting: Tabula Rasa

If I'm going to build a world, there's no better place to start than at the beginning.

Anything I do with this Minecraft world will be documented in some form on this blog, so I'll try to keep it as interesting as possible (or at least edit the boring parts). I haven't set any self-imposed special conditions for my world (for example, I'm not limiting myself to one death), but if you have any fun ideas, let me know and I'll try to incorporate a few.
That said, I randomly generated several worlds, and picked the most strange-looking of the bunch in the hopes that it'll have some dark secrets to uncover.

Without further ado, here goes . . .



I materialize on a beach, a nameless, blocky fellow in a blue pants/shirt combo that leaves something to be desired. A new Minecraft world does give you a feeling of insignificance when you first arrive in the untamed wilderness - you begin the game with absolutely nothing but the clothes on your back. You might think that the randomly generated world, composed entirely of 1-meter cubes, would be dull to look at, but it's not. In fact, it's almost scary in its unpredictability.

Still, in your average RPG you can at least start with a knife, or something. At least there aren't any giant rats, either . . .

On the flip side, the aforementioned wilderness looks pretty darned interesting, if I do say so myself.

I'm startled from my pondering by what is unmistakeably a plaintive 'oink'. And that's how I meet my first local:

Cute, ain't he?

Turning around, on the other hand, gives me a bit more of an adrenaline rush, until I realize what that thing is.

Pre-carved pumpkins, and it's not even Halloween! Truly, 'tis a bountiful land I have found.

Once again, I find myself losing track of time, and the sun is rapidly making its way through the sky. I'd rather not be caught outside without shelter, especially considering what comes out at night in these parts.
First things first - I really need some tools, and with only my hands to work with I can't be picky. Mustering my not-inconsiderable strength, and flexing my low-res arms, I proceed to level a tree with my fists.
No, really, I do.

I accidentally punch a passing sheep, too, and apparently knock his hair off in the process. He looks rather ashamed.

After demolishing several trees, I'm starting to build a foundation of resources from which to make something at least mildly useful. Putting the blocks of wood into the 2x2 crafting grid in my inventory allows me to instantly convert them into stacks of planks, some of which I then convert into sticks in by
arranging them in a 1x2 space in the same grid. I'm also starting to wonder if I've got some beaver genes in me, judging by how fast I can plow through all this wood.

 
I also build this:

This is my handy crafting table, which allows me to access a 3x3 crafting grid from which a vast number of items can be produced, including anything I can already make in the grid in my pack. Seeking any security I can find, I decide that arming myself is the first order of business. 

Appropriately, the one weapon I've got the resources to make is a wooden sword. Legend of Zelda, anyone?

I also make a wooden pickaxe. Hey, they're better than nothing. Sort of.

Confident in my dominance over all I survey, I hoist my plank sword and smite some nearby cows. My sketchy-looking sword does the trick, and now I've got the leather for a new pair of boots. Note to self: Avoid PETA members.

The sun is starting to set, so I head for a tiny vein of coal I spotted in a nearby cliff. I build myself a small tower of dirt blocks to stand on, then proceed to carve the coal out of the cliff face with my splintery pickaxe.

By the time I'm done, though, it's pretty dark, and I still don't have anywhere to hide . . . or do I? On second thought, the hole I just made looks big enough for a person to stand in, and there won't be anywhere for enemies to reach me, so why not?

I carefully hop inside the hole and craft my coal and sticks into torches, one of which I place on the wall. In Minecraft, enemies will spawn anywhere that is dark. This not only includes caves (natural and man-made), but also the surface at nighttime. Torches, by increasing the level of light, give you a safe area where enemies won't spawn, and overlapping their areas of light allows you to gradually make an area spawn-free. Of course, there's nothing to stop wandering critters from entering the light, but that's why I'm sitting in the side of a cliff.

I've got a long night ahead of me, so I hollow out a small room in the rocks behind me. I'm sitting on the corner of the cliff, so I'm able to punch holes through the dirt to make a couple of low-budget windows. Finally, I add a new workbench to the corner.

Unfortunately, my wooden pick soon disintegrates from wear and tear, so I need new tools. Now that I have cobblestone (from expanding my hole), I have the resources to make stone tools, which are a much better all-around choice than wood. In addition to several picks and a shovel, I also make those leather boots. Comfy!

In the interest of having a better way to get out of my new home than base jumping, I start carving a staircase to the surface, but I can hear inhuman moans and shrieks just above my head. Apparently my new neighbors aren't the friendly type. I dig upward until I can see the roots of the grass, but it sounds like whatever is making that noise is right on top of me, and I'd rather not find out what it is at this point in time . . .

Fortunately, the sun is about to rise. I poke my head out of my cave just in time to see a zombie below me (waiting for me to emerge, presumably) start to burn in the sun. On the other hand, I can see other sinister forms lurking in the shade of the overhangs behind him, so I decide to proceed with caution.

Instead, of descending back into the valley, I finish my staircase, only to be greeted by this:

Now we know who was making all that noise last night!

Having foiled the spider's ambush, I proceed downstairs once again to better equip myself. I make a shiny new stone sword, and stow the wooden one in my vast pockets (in case of emergencies, or something). Feeling smug for outsmarting the single-minded arachnid, I trudge back up the stairs and am surprised to see that the aforementioned creature has apparently moved on, but I won't complain. Instead, I finish digging to the surface, and take a look at the awesome view around me.

"SHRIEAAKKK!!!"

It's the last thing I hear before I'm hurled off the cliff and into the void.

Next: "Look, ma, no parachute!"