by Stone Marshall | Jun 28, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Minecraft's World Ocean Day efforts to help restore coral reefs have seen enthusiastic success. Along with a $100,000 donation to The Nature Conservatory, Mojang partnered with creators and community to help rebuild coral reefs in Mexico in its iconic, blocky style.
The efforts began with the Minecraft Update Aquatic, which brings a variety of sea life to Minecraft's previously rather barren oceans. As a part of that update, Mojang challenged players to place ten million coral blocks underwater — a goal that was accomplished in only a few days. To celebrate, the studio made its donation to The Nature Conservatory, a non-profit working to save and rebuild coral reefs around the world. In addition, net proceeds from the new Coral Crafters Skin Pack also go to the organization.
“With the Update Aquatic, we're filling Minecraft's oceans to the brim with kelp forest, shipwrecks, deep sea trenches, fish, turtles, dolphins and colourful coral reefs,” reads an official blog post of the announcement. “In the real world, however, it's the opposite: climate change, destructive fishing methods and pollution of the water are killing off our planet's amazing marine life. Coral reefs, one of the Earth's most precious natural wonders, are under threat.
“Coral reefs are home to some two million species – roughly a quarter of all marine life. We're only just unlocking the secrets of these amazing organisms, and yet the World Wildlife Fund estimates that nearly a third of coral reefs worldwide are already damaged beyond repair. If trends continue, we will soon lose 60% of the world's coral in the next few decades.”
In addition, Mojang partnered with three popular Minecraft YouTubers — Rabahrex, Logdotzip, and Stacyplays — to design real-life structures that would help rebuild faltering reefs. The three worked with the community to design “biorock” structures in Minecraft that were then recreated in the real world and transported to the reef in Cozumel, Mexico, where they will be used by The Nature Conservatory to regrow coral and restore the reef.
Both Logdotzip and Stacyplays took design ideas from online communities. Rabahrex worked with students at the American Institute in Monterrey, Mexico and held a class competition to design the biorock installation. The winning design was an axolotl, which was placed with the other two designs and installations of Minecraft icons Alex and Steve off the coast of Cozumel.
by Stone Marshall | Jun 27, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
A lot of players have been, ahem, diving into the latest add-on for Minecraft with the new Update Aquatic, exploring the deeper waters and taking advantage of cool items. But did you know this update is also helping out oceans in the real world? Now that’s deep.
Mojang posted a new update explaining how Update Aquatic is lending a hand with oceans, in an effort to fight back against “climate change, destructive fishing methods and pollution of the water” which are “killing off our planet’s amazing marine life.”
Earlier in the month, the developer threw down a challenge for players to place ten million coral blocks underwater and promised to donate $100,000 to the Nature Conservancy if it was met. The team noted that “just a few days later,” players smashed “that coral-placing target.” As a result, Mojang kept its word and made the donation.
The video above breaks down how the developer is lending a hand and even though you missed the challenge, you can still lend a hand. The team has explained that you can purchase the Aquatic Skin pack for Minecraft here with proceeds going to the Nature Conservancy.
Mojang intends to support the project over the next few years with more awareness and potential donations to assist further with what’s happening with the world’s oceans so be sure to keep an eye on this page for more information.
The U[date Aquatic arrived earlier this season, bringing a number of new additions to the game sucha s trap doors, pressure plates and buttons, along with coral block and a variety of underwater life as well as cool items like turtle shells, tridents and phantom membranes. It’s been a big hit across the board, keeping Minecraft’s millions of players coming back for more. You could say there’s an…ocean’s worth of fans? (Okay, that’s one pun too far.)
You can check out the Update Aquatic now across all versions of Minecraft. The game is available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC, as well as mobile and older platforms.
Don’t forget that you can engage in online play across Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch platforms!
by Stone Marshall | Jun 27, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
This sweeping timelapse video shows the construction—out of thin air—of Novigrad, the great city of The Witcher 3 (and Witcher lore in general, I guess).
Built by Elysium Fire, this video not only looks amazing as the city emerges out of the countryside, but also gives you a very good look at just how many bricks (and how much planning) went into it.
Note that it’s not a recreation of the city as it appears in the game; it’s a “tribute” that hits the main landmarks, like the city’s walls, Great Temple and elevated walkways, while going into greater detail than the game could afford to in areas like housing and the surrounding countryside.
If you play Minecraft and want to take a look yourself, you can download the map https://www.planetminecraft.com/project/novigrad-timelapse-download/
by Stone Marshall | Jun 26, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Minecraft: Story Mode is coming to Netlfix later this year.
That's according to an exclusive report from Tech Radar.
That's not a new TV show, it's a video game developed by TellTale, the studio behind the popular Walking Dead games.
Of course, whether TellTale makes games or “interactive stories” is up for debate, and Netflix is insisting that the company doesn't consider this a video game.
“We don’t have any plans to get into gaming,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement. ”There’s a broad spectrum of entertainment available today. Games have become increasingly cinematic, but we view this as interactive narrative storytelling on our service. ”
You say tomato, I say tom-ah-to. Whether Minecraft: Story Mode is a game or an interactive story hardly matters. Games are, in essence, interactive stories of one kind or another. And while TellTale's “choose-your-own-adventure” games may be less gamey than Call of Duty or Super Mario Bros. they're still games as far as I'm concerned. Call them whatever you like.
Credit: TellTale Games
Minecraft: Story Mode
It doesn't sound like Netflix is interested in adding gamier games to the streaming service, which is probably for the best (at least for now.) But this could pave the road for lots more interactive stories, whether those are walking simulators like What Remains Of Edith Finch or other TellTale series like The Wolf Among Us. And that's great. One of the great things about games (even interactive story games) as opposed to TV shows and movies is that they invite us to participate. We aren't just passively consuming our entertainment, we're engaging with it.
In any case, Netflix has already expanded into the ‘choose-your-own-adventure' category with offerings like Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale. I'd love to see them take that effort further and develop full-fledged interactive stories for grown-ups. I'd love some of the old fantasy choose-your-own-adventure books to come to life on Netflix.
In related news, TellTale is reportedly developing a Stranger Things game. Or, well, an “interactive story” version of Stranger Things.
That could be neat, though I think the studio needs to evolve the way it makes games. Other offerings, like Dontnod's Life Is Strange, have pushed the envelope and TellTale needs to rise to the occasion.
by Stone Marshall | Jun 26, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Minecraft has been big business for Mojang and Microsoft, but they’re not the only ones making money off a game that’s almost ten years old. There are others who have grown up with the game, learned its strengths and weaknesses and now found opportunities to make a living doing what they love.
20 year-old Florian Funke is one of those people. He’s the Managing Director of Spark Squared, an outfit that describe themselves as a “Minecraft production company”, and who offer their services—for a fee, of course—to anyone who wants them to build, develop, mod or render anything within the game.
Build worlds, basically.
“‘Building’ means that we create different landscapes, buildings, recreations and more”, Funke tells Kotaku. “We design gaming environments for Minecraft players, educational environments for students or work on recreations for our enjoyment.”
“During ‘Development’ we code custom tools and plugins for Minecraft servers, YouTube series and other. Additionally, we create Minecraft ‘Mechanics’ and ‘Mods’ for minigames and adventure maps, including ‘3D Models’ of monsters, machines and more. And lastly, we render images of all the work in 3D rendering software.”
Spark’s client list is pretty varied. “We work with a lot of the most popular Java and mobile edition Minecraft servers and create various gaming and lobby environments for them”, Funke says. “We have also worked with the mobile live-streaming service Mobcrush on creating products for Minecraft’s official Marketplace.”
“Furthermore, we are working on expanding more into the educational space and have already worked with ‘English Highways,’ an official UK government company that is in charge of building and maintaining highways. We created a world with the goal to get young children more interested in engineering and trying to fill that skills gap.”
While on paper that might sound like basic mod work of an existing game, something that can be handled by a couple of people in their spare time, in reality it’s relatively big business. Since its creation five years ago, Spark has grown from a couple of teenage schoolboys dabbling in a hobby into a company that now employs a range of staff full-time, from management to developers to artists, as well as calling upon a roster of around 40 freelancers.
NM Corporation, a map based on the work of Paul Chadeisson
I came across Spark’s work the other day when an artist I’m a big fan of, Paul Chadeisson, tweeted out some images showing how Spark (as a fun personal piece) had turned one of his works into a massive 3D space in Minecraft.
You can see that creation above (Funke rates is as one of the company’s favourite efforts), but I’ve also included other examples of their work as well, ranging from sci-fi worlds to medieval kingdoms to ancient Rome.
You can see more of Spark Squared’s projects at their company site.
by Stone Marshall | Jun 25, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized |
Since 1979’s The Castle of Cagliostro, Hayao Miyazaki has delighted audiences around the world with his imaginative vision and ability to create fully realized fictional worlds. And even among Miyazaki’s pantheon, few settings can rival Spirited Away‘s bathhouse. A microcosm of capitalist inequality, the bathhouse manages to engage not just the imagination, but the rational mind. It’s a perfect match, then, for one of the world’s foremost crossovers of creativity and rationality, Minecraft. Thanks to Youtuber Alan Becker, you can experience the bathhouse and its surrounding areas in a completely new medium.
Alan Becker went above and beyond with this project, which he’s been working on for years. Not only is this the most realistic looking Minecraft server I’ve ever seen, but Becker put just as much detail into areas that might never be seen as he did into the main attractions. In the video, Becker explains that he went on dozens of Japanese house tours to mimic the Japanese style inside each home surrounding the bathhouse.
Like these houses, dozens of areas that appear only for a split second in the background of the film are completely finished and furnished. Becker even uses reflections in Chihiro’s parents’ car windows to make an educated guess as to what an area would look like.
In the video, Becker takes us through the movie scene by scene, pointing out the locations of nearly everything onscreen. No Face may have eaten up most of the bathhouse, but Becker took note of everything.
