by Stone Marshall | Jul 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 |
Berlin music producer and composer C418 dropped a single, “Beton,” from his upcoming album Excursions Thursday.
C418, also known by Daniel Rosenfeld, is perhaps best known for his work on the immensely popular “Minecraft.” Rosenfeld created the score for the PC game, and by its initial release in 2011, he had already built his own discography and self-published it on Bandcamp. His initial offerings “ranged from melodic electronic dance-pop to gentler ambient pieces” according to the press release.
Rosenfeld’s later release, Minecraft Volume Alpha, helped the artist cement his status as a musical talent, as the CD and vinyl releases were well-received by music critics. The Guardian even called his music a “perfect accompaniment” to the game.
Rosenfeld’s new solo album, Excursions, will be the first project he’s releasing as its own work separate from “Minecraft.” Excursions is completely original material, made with a different approach from Rosenfeld’s previous work.
The album won’t release until Sept. 7, 2018, but we do have a track list:
1. Excursions
2. Cold Summer
3. TXL
4. Tingle
5. Beton
6. AMS
7. Thunderbird
8. Aviva
9. Figure 8
10. Fake Triplets
11. Nest
12. Home
You can sample the album by giving Beton a listen over on Soundcloud.
Rosenfeld gave some insight into his creative process while making Excursions.
“All the big loud housey songs came from the idea of ‘I want to create the same song over and over again’,” Rosenfeld said, “Except that I’ve created each one in a different location, or a different mindset. And just purely based on that, they all turned out unique in their own way.”
Read more here: https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/minecraft-composer-new-album-1202878121/
by Stone Marshall | Jul 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 |
Video games can help people get through some tough times by providing a distraction from the real world. Games can also bring people closer allowing people to bond of their mutual love of their hobby. Hot Fuzz star Simon Pegg has explained how Minecraft helped him do just that, givinhim bond with his daughter.
Pegg, who has starred in Shaun of the Dead and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, stated in an interview with Radio X that video games are a fantastic way to keep in touch with your kids when you can’t be with them in person. As an actor, Pegg will be away from his family for extended periods of time, so video games help him connect with his daughter whilst he’s away filming.
Whilst doing press for the upcoming Mission Impossible: Fallout, Simon Pegg talked about how he can connect with his daughter through Minecraft whilst he’s away filming.
“Now she’s old enough to play computer games, we play Minecraft together. We’d meet in these games, so we could have a kind of strange physical interaction. We could build a house together! It’s a great way to stay in contact with your kids, if you can get a console when you’re away, mums and dads. It becomes a really good way to spend time with them. That’s what they want to do, rather than inhibit their time on it. But you’ve obviously got to give some time over to reading and learning, or whatever!”
Minecraft is a sandbox building game that launched in 2011 and it took the world by storm. People praised its blocky art style and the ability to create pretty much whatever you want. The game originally released on PC but has since seen releases on consoles and mobiles. Developer Mojang continues to provide frequent support and content to the game.
Minecraft is available now on PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, New Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Minecraft: Pocket Edition is available now on Android and iPhone.
Read more here: http://www.gamerevolution.com/news/408889-minecraft-helped-simon-pegg-bond-with-his-daughter
by Stone Marshall | Jul 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 |
Max Brooks’s Minecraft book The Island was a bestseller last year. Now there’s a second official tie-in novel: Minecraft: The Crash.
Amazon Prime Day deals: see all the best early offers right here.
This action-packed thriller centres on Bianca, who ends up in hospital she and her friend Lonnie are involved in a car crash. Almost paralysed by her injuries, she decides to try a new VR version of Minecraft that responds to her every wish. Teaming up with two kids who are also playing on the hospital server to explore its virtual realm. Is Lonnie in there with her too? And can Bianca help him to return to reality?
Minecraft: The Crash is available to buy in hardback, ebook and audiobook formats now. Thanks to publishers Century we have five copies to give away, plus five signed copies of Minecraft: The Island; five lucky winners will get one of each. To put your name in the hat for the chance to win them, simply answer the question below.
Read more here: https://www.gamesradar.com/win-the-new-minecraft-novel-the-crash/
by Stone Marshall | Jul 24, 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 |
Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1882 classic Treasure Island tells of Jim Hawkins’ adventures on board the Hispaniola, as he and his crew – along with double-crossing pirate Long John Silver – set out to find Captain Flint’s missing treasure on Skeleton Island.
Now, more than a century later, children can try and find it themselves, with the bays and mountains of Stevenson’s fictional island given a blocky remodelling in the video game Minecraft. It’s part of the new Litcraft project aimed at bringing reluctant readers to literary classics.
From Spyglass Hill to Ben Gunn’s cave, children can explore every nook and cranny of Skeleton Island with Litcraft, a new partnership between Lancaster University and Microsoft, which bought the game for US$2.5 billion in 2015 and which is now played by 74 million people each month.
The Litcraft platform uses Minecraft to create accurate scale models of fictional islands: Treasure Island is the first, with Michael Morpurgo’s Kensuke’s Kingdom just completed and many others planned.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
While regular Minecraft is rife with literary creations – the whole of George R.R. Martin’s sprawling setting for Game of Thrones, Westeros, has been created in its entirety, as have several different Hogwarts – Litcraft is not all fun and games, being peppered with educational tasks that aim to re-engage reluctant readers with the book it is based on.
The lead researcher, Lancaster University English and Creative Writing Department head professor Sally Bushell, calls it “an educational model that connects the imaginative spatial experience of reading the text to an immersive experience in the game world”.
She says, of the Litcraft Treasure Island: “We hope it will motivate reluctant readers – we can say, ‘We’re going to read the book and then at one point, we’ll go play on the ship’. I would have loved it as a kid. It is an empathetic task – you do what the characters did yourself, so you understand why they act they way they did in the book.”
The Treasure Island map in Minecraft.
The Treasure Island “level” has been extensively road-tested by children such as Dylan, whose school is set to adopt Litcraft in 2019. “It’s really fun,” he says. “I enjoyed it because I’ve read the book, but you have to follow rules in that. In games, you can explore. Now I know exactly what the book looked like.
“I like that you get to see the pictures. You don’t have to make them in your head. And I liked the ship, Ben Gunn’s cave and the parrots. And there was that weird pig that kept jumping off that cliff. That wasn’t in the book!” (“That was a game glitch,” says Bushell).
The project, which is featured on Microsoft’s Minecraft education website, is currently being presented to schoolteachers and librarians across the United Kingdom.
Treasure Island in Minecraft.
Dylan, like many nine-year-olds, enjoys books but is more enthusiastic when talking about Minecraft, which he does with the casual expertise that many children have with their favourite games. He’s already made his own Hunger Games world in Litcraft, but couldn’t get some of his traps to work.
This know-how seems to both frighten and impress less tech-savvy adults – which Bushell hopes will not deter schools from adopting it. “The kids know how to do it more than the teachers do,” she says.
“It inverts the relationship: you’ve got kids who know more than the adults. You need quite confident teachers. They’re more worried about it. I want to say, ‘Don’t be worried, because all your eight-year-olds will know how to do this’.”
Libraries are particularly interested in the possibilities of multiplayer, Bushell says, adding that one of the future projects will be Lord of the Flies: “In that case, you want all the kids in there playing out a scenario and asking philosophical questions. We hope they do some reading, then play the game, then do some empathetic writing based on what they did in there.”
Lord of the Flies cover.
The Kensuke’s Kingdom map, based on Morpurgo’s story of a boy washed up alone, is particularly aimed at engaging reluctant readers.
“The library resources we are putting together include audio and in-game reading and writing as well as graphic novels as a step to the full text,” says Bushell. “The resources are designed to encourage them to either return to or connect with the book through the immersive experience.”
Bushell says more literary Minecraft islands will follow. “Treasure Island is the first world for Minecraft but they anticipate a series. Most likely, the next will be The Swiss Family Robinson, The Tempest and Robinson Crusoe,” Bushell says. A recreation of Dante’s Inferno, with a map for each level of hell, is also in development.
But what book does Dylan hope to see next? “The Hunger Games,” he says with no hesitation. “A proper one.”
Read more here: https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2154945/minecraft-does-treasure-island-game-brings-classic-novels-life-new
by Stone Marshall | Jul 24, 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 released it's most recent update on Tuesday, Update Aquatic Phase Two that lets you explore the oceans at greater depths in the Minecraft universe. The update will be on Windows 10, VR, mobile devices, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch immediately.
Microsoft and Mojang launched the first part of the Update Aquatic back in May, but the second phase adds an extensive list of added features and changes to the gameplay.
Autoplay setting: On
Some features include Sea Turtles now being in the ocean for you to protect their eggs, while underwater zombies who lurk in the deep waters called The Drowned will come up to attack you. Bubble Columns give you the ability to create upward or downward bubbles and Conduits can now be constructed underwater out of Heart of the Sea and Nautilus Shells.
A long list of changes includes themed menu backgrounds, undead mobs walking on the bottom of the ocean, improved player swimming at the surface, tridents can become enchanted with Mending and Unbreaking, skeleton horses can now be ridden underwater, and others.
Autoplay setting: On
A major change in this update is that Realms are now available on Nintendo Switch, giving players the opportunity to use private servers like other
Read more here: http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/07/10/minecraft-launches-update-aquatic-phase-two
by Stone Marshall | Jul 23, 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 is a bastion of creative ingenuity. Its player demographic is huge – children, adults, students, architects – and there are people from all walks of life with varying levels of skill and creativity who play this game across a number of gaming platforms. Anything you can think of, you can create.
8 amazing Minecraft creations that will blow your mind
1. Minas Tirith
Six million blocks and 20 hours later, this re-creation of Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings was born. This project is absolutely enormous, and we cannot help but be wowed by the enormous attention to detail the creator put into it, all on his own.
2. Planet Earth
Even our very own Earth exists in Minecraft, albeit at a 1:1,500 scale. Time, passion, a lot of love and fiddly corners were put into this project which, although not as detailed as Minas Tirith, is impressive in its own right… it’s Earth, after all, and you can explore it in Minecraft!
3. King’s Landing
It was only a matter of time before Game of Thrones met Minecraft – one of the world’s most popular TV shows and one of the world’s most popular games were destined to cross paths at some point.
The project itself is astonishing, created over an eye-watering amount of hours by a team – yes, team – of builders who had to submit an application to join the project… it’s very serious stuff!
4. The Eiffel Tower
Although this design is more simplistic than some of the examples we have already seen, this is an example of the painstaking lengths some Minecraft architects go to, to create some of the world’s most iconic landmarks. It is no easy feat to create curved structures in Minecraft, and the fact that someone has gone ahead and built the Eiffel Tower – a windy, angular nightmare – is brilliant. This build even includes the real towers viewpoints and other intricate details… bonus points!
5. Flame Atronach
Image courtesy of Block_Fortress
Fans of Skyrim will instantly recognise this incredibly detailed re-creation of Flame Atronach. This is not just pixel art, this is a full 3D model of the fantasy character. We can only imagine just how long it took to place all those blocks to create such an amazing level of detail.
6. A 16-bit Computer
Using Minecraft’s answer to circuits, logic, and electricity – redstone – this player created an animated, sound-enhanced and color-coded fully functional 16-bit computer. The sounds, animation, and colors help you visualize the computer in action, and get an idea of just what is going on… sort of.
7. The Shire
This blocky re-creation of George R. R. Martin’s The Shire may not be technically correct (hobbits live in holes, not houses) but this creation is still a beautiful attempt at re-creating Bilbo and Frodo’s home. It is part of a wider ambition to re-create, you guessed it, Middle-Earth, and they seem to be doing rather well!
8. Razul
Razul is an adventure map inspired by Skyrim, and if you’re a huge fan of Bethesda’s monolithic game, you will absolutely be able to make the connection due to the Nordic architecture style and fantasy theme. Like many of the creations featured here, it was built single-handedly.
Read more here: https://en.softonic.com/articles/8-amazing-minecraft-creations-that-will-blow-your-mind
