The word Teotihuacán comes from the Aztecs and translates to birthplace of the gods. The ruined city was built in a hill-enveloped valley 2,000d years ago and collapsed around 550 CE. We know that Teotihuacán was the largest city in the Americas and one of the most populous on Earth in its heyday, but nearly everything else is a mystery. Who built it, what was their language, why did their great metropolis fail? The de Young Museum in San Francisco recently opened a show about the city titled Teotihuacán: City of Water, City of Fire. Objects form recent excavations are leveraged as a starting point to examine how the modern conception of the city is formed by surviving artworks. To build some buzz and expose more people to the show’s themes, the museum concurrently released a scale Minecraft map of the city. The map allows anyone with an internet connection (and $27 for a Minecraft account) to dive in and run around amid and within the unblemished splendor of the temples. In the words of the show’s curator Matthew H. Robb, “Hopefully that leads to a greater appreciation for the achievements of the people who built [Teotihuacán] in ancient times.”
Scene from the Minecraft map of Teotihuacán
The map makes a good first impression. You begin in a room of red stone, columns, and a few torches. On the wall opposite is the name of the show and the museum in pale blue-green. I’m a Minecraft novice, so the very first thing I did was get a primer from my brother-in-law about the controls and whatnot. It’s standard gaming fare: Run, jump, punch, repeat. I was warned that doing something dumb like jumping off one of the buildings or immolating myself in one of the fire pits would lead to my doom. Armed with this new knowledge, I set out to explore.
Beyond a couple nice vantage points for screenshots, there wasn’t much to see. I think I started on the Pyramid of the Sun and walked along the Avenue of the Dead, but those are just guesses. I was basically turned around and directionless after running in and out of a few temples. Inside one of the temples is a small pool that my character appeared to swim through, but it was difficult to tell. Alcoves and torches and flowers and trees appear ad nauseum. The only place to interact with the environment (that I found, anyway) was with the show title and museum name on the wall. I punched it just before turning off Minecraft, and it became a painting in my inventory. But … there wasn’t anything to do beyond that.
Gameplay left me with so many questions. What temple did I start on? What did they burn in the fire pits? What were the pools for?
Using Minecraft to map Teotihuacán was a great idea and I genuinely felt like I was in the city. The experience left me less excited for a museum show and much more excited about the idea of planning a trip to see the ruins in person. The museum plans to maintain the map as part of its holdings and (I hear) is readying a future release with murals and art objects in situ. But that seems like something which should have been ready for the initial release. Since one of the walls is already labeled with the show’s name, it’d also be cool to be provided with the names of the temples and some kind of explanation about their functions.
Scene from the Minecraft map of Teotihuacán
At present, the current iteration of the map rings a little hollow. Providing more opportunities for players to interact with the unblemished temples and bucolic environment will only serve to strengthen this ambitious and worthwhile project.
FOR a year Ipswich children have spent countless hours digitally rebuilding the Ipswich CBD as it was more than 120 years ago.
The group of about 25 children used the 3D, interactive, and reportedly addictive, game Minecraft to reconstruct Brisbane St and surrounds as it was before the Great Flood of 1893.
On Wednesday, the children watched their hard work being washed away as the Great Flood was digitally recreated sending torrents of water through their city.
Siblings Ty, AJ and Jess Biffin were among the group that regularly attended the Minecraft sessions at Ipswich City Library.
Ty said while the whole experience was “really fun”, he wasn't looking forward to Wednesday's finale when the city was flooded.
“We spent a whole year building this awesome city centre and then it's destroyed in a flood,” Ty said.
“All that hard work, gone. It's heartbreaking.”
The Minecraft project is one of many interactive sessions run at Ipswich Library and one the Biffin children thoroughly enjoyed.
Mum Deb said the project not only taught the kids about working together to build the city, but gave them a new perspective on an historical event.
She said it helped them understood the real loss previous generations suffered during the Great Flood.
“It's bitter sweet for them,” Deb said.
“The loss they are feeling is a virtual loss but it's opened to the door to talking to them about the actual loss people had to endured back then.”
This was the second time the Biffin children took part in an ongoing activity at the library and they're already keen for the next one.
Yesterday we talked about Scott Cawthon developing a Pizzeria Simulator that he “swore” was just a little minigame for the community, but, of course, no one bought that. And we were right to be skeptical because Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator is a Five Nights at Freddy's [$2.99] game disguised as a minigame. (Spoilers) Once you start the game, you play through a simple minigame where you fling pizzas at little children until the whole game short circuits and you find yourself the owner of a new pizzeria that you have to decorate.
The decorating part is pretty simple: you can only buy a couple of items that you then get to place on the pizzeria floor. Your starting items are a box of balloons and a box of rubber balls. Each time you place an item, you get to play an associated minigame, and I do mean minigame. The box of balloons one has you clicking one button to win, and the rubber balls one has you trying to dive into the box (very difficult one that I'm not even sure you can beat). And then it's time to let the guests come in and enjoy your masterpiece while you have to keep an eye on everything from the (you guessed it) control room.
This is where the actual game begins. FNAF players will immediately recognize the control room gameplay. You have to keep yourself safe from animatronics hidden in the pipes by using motion detectors and your flashlight. The whole time you're in the control room, you have to try and keep the fan running as little as possible since it can block noise and lead to a lovely jump-scare. But if you turn that fan off, the temperature rises. So, you have to play it smart. You can also switch the power generator off to, again, reduce noise, but then you can't run your computer the way you would want to.
If you make it through the night, you get to continue managing your pizza with new items and new minigames, and then it's back in the control room. People on reddit have noticed that the save file for this game is called “FNAF6,” so many are already calling it FNAF 6. Overall, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator is a fun take on the FNAF formula with some extra elements that make it stand out from some of the more recent uninspired sequels. The game's only on Steam currently, but I expect it to hit mobile just like every other FNAF game.
I love all of Colin Lane's and his vast array of collaborators' games, as they're largely multiplayer-focused, physics-based, and totally silly in some way. And that is certainly true of his latest upcoming game, Big Shot Boxing, which has been in the works for quite some time but was only officially announced this past April when Lane put out a call for beta testers. Now the game is finally complete and an official release date of December 7th has been revealed. Hey that's just a couple of days away! While it's certainly a silly take on boxing with competitors who have absurdly long arms, what's interesting to me about Big Shot Boxing is it looks to have a bit more meat on its bones than your typical arcadey sports game. More on that in a second though, first check out the most recent trailer for Big Shot Boxing.
So, what makes this different than the more arcade-style sports games Lane has released previously? Well, it has a pretty deep career mode where you'll earn money by accepting challenges and winning fights, and then turn around and put that money into upgrading your fighter. Pretty standard stuff, but what's really interesting about Big Shot Boxing is that your fighter will actually age as your career progresses and you'll lose stats over time because of it. Dealing with the effects of aging is a really neat wrinkle to the typical career mode, and there will also be a bunch of random elements thrown into the game to keep things spicy. As Lane himself describes, “You can win or lose any fight at any time.” Big Shot Boxing will be free with ads and a one-time IAP to remove them, and I'm really looking forward to checking it out when it arrives this Thursday.
Minecraft [$6.99] is getting ready to celebrate the holidays by giving free stuff to everyone. Starting December 21st and for 12 days after that, Minecraft will have a free present for you every day on the Minecraft Marketplace. The first present will be a Noxcrew offering called Ready Sled Go!, a mountainous sled slalom perfect for the holidays and great for taking on your friends. Mojang will advertise the presents on Twitter, so either keep an eye on that or just jump into Minecraft once a day to make sure you grab your free present. Free stuff's great after all, so why leave it on the table?
If you're looking for Minecraft-related presents or stocking stuffers, Mojang's got you covered. Head over here to find all kinds of Minecraft presents, ranging from LEGO Minecraft sets, clothing, toys, posters, and all kinds of other items. When I see the list, I'm reminded of how big Minecraft is right now and how tiny it was when it started. And it's still growing even after all these years. Well, enjoy your Minecraft holidays everyone.
The Minecraft team had a bunch of news at their MineCon Earth convention, but the biggest news may be what's not happening. Mojang and Microsoft have delayed the launches of both the Super Duper Graphics Pack and cross-platform Switch multiplayer to sometime in 2018. They're not elaborating on the reasons behind the delay, but in both cases the features simply aren't finished. More information on the graphics delay is coming “soon,” according to the creators.
Instead, the biggest improvement (beyond the Better Together release) is The Update Acquatic, which refines underwater adventures. There are new water physics (such as buoyancy), dolphins, coral and a water-appropriate weapon (the trident). There's no release date just yet.
This certainly isn't going to trigger a crisis for Minecraft players, but it does suggest that the graphics pack and Switch update were more than a little ambitious. It's going to take a while for the world-building game to grow significantly beyond its roots.
