Nearly a decade on, Minecraft is still bringing us jaw-dropping creations, including massive cities of such scope and scale that they shouldn’t be possible inside a humble block builder. But they are, and in an effort to justify the time we’ve spent browsing these creations on the clock we’re going to share some of the coolest things we’ve found with you.

The image at the top comes from the Sayama City Project, which Kotaku shared back in August – though the project itself has been going on for years. Every time it comes back up, it’s astounding, and as everyone has repeatedly remarked, it’s tough to tell the difference between this Japan-inspired Minecraft city and a real-world photo. You can download the town for yourself via Planet Minecraft, or check out a video if you prefer to admire from afar.

Now you’re probably thinking ‘sure, this all looks pretty, but how realistic can a Minecraft city be?’ Luckily, YouTube’s City Beautiful has us covered there. The channel breaks down urban planning in digestible ways, and its biggest hit came a few months ago with a quick let’s play of SimCity 2000. Now we’ve got a set of reviews on Minecraft cities.

Those projects include the Vancouver-inspired Mattuopolis, the self-proclaimed “largest city in Minecraft,” Greenfield, and perhaps most intriguing, the GDMC Competition, which aims to build Minecraft settlements through AI generation. You can follow those links to mess around with them yourself, or you can watch the video below to get some walkthroughs with a dose of education on real-life city building.

Check out the best Minecraft maps if you’re looking for more cool creations – whether those be cities, castles, adventure maps, or horror excursions. Be prepared to lose your weekend amid this reminders that Minecraft is very cool.

Sega and Paramount Pictures have released the first teaser image for the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie, due to arrive next year – and, well, Sonic’s weirdly lithe new look will certainly be haunting my dreams tonight.

Inexplicably, the production team has opted to transform Sonic’s smooth, slightly rotund classic look, into something resembling an excessively hirsute human with a bulbous Sonic-shaped head and a punishing anaerobic fitness regime. Who is also blue. The overall effect, I’d argue, is more ‘limbering up for a sweaty night out down at the fetish bar’ than ‘endearing reimagining of a beloved video game character for a new family friendly movie franchise’.

Sonic’s teaser reveal comes via IGN, and is accompanied by a few words from executive producer Tim Miller. On the subject of Sonic’s top-to-toe fur makeover, Miller suggested, “It would be weird and it would feel like he was running around nude if he was some sort of otter-like thing. It was always, for us, fur, and we never considered anything different. It’s part of what integrates him into the real world and makes him a real creature.”

More fascinating still is Miller’s brief mention of Sonic’s eyes, not shown in the reveal image. “I don’t think Sega was entirely happy with the eye decision, but these sorts of things you go, ‘It’s going to look weird if we don’t do this'”, he explained. So goodness knows what nightmare-inducing ocular monstrosities could be lurking among the shadows.

Sonic The Hedgehog is being directed by Jeff Fowler, and stars Parks and Recreation’s Ben Schwartz in the lead role. The movie is currently scheduled to launch in the US on November 8th next year and on December 26th in the UK.

Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy 15’s multiplayer expansion, known as Comrades, will finally get its previously announced standalone release today, December 12th, in the US, and tomorrow in the UK.

Comrades, which originally launched at the tail-end of last year, unfolds six months after the concluding events of the main game. Players take on the role of a Kinsglaive soldier (conjured into being via a flexible character creation tool), and, starting at their base in Lestallum, must collect meteor shards to restore power to the kingdom of Lucis.

Meteor shards (as well as money for upgrading weapons and the like) can be acquired through missions, all playable co-operatively with up to three friends. Missions are predominantly focussed around monster hunting, using a modified version of the core game’s combat system, and turning in meteor shards will unlock new missions and more areas of the map.

When Comrades originally launched, it was available as part of Final Fantasy 15’s season pass on PS4 and Xbox One, or on its own for £15.49. Those that played it seemed to quite enjoy its distinctive take on brisk co-operative questing, despite its fairly unintuitive demands when attempting to gather friends together in order to actually start a multiplayer session.

Although Comrades previously required a copy of Final Fantasy 15’s base game to run, its new, completely standalone version on Xbox One and PS4 won’t. Square previously announced that this separate version will add new creatures, such as the powerful Daemon Melusine, and that all new features will be available as a free update for those that already own Comrades.

Last month, Square Enix announced the departure of Final Fantasy 15 creator Hajime Tabata, resulting in the cancellation of the majority of DLC episodes planned for 2019.

Microsoft has announced a new initiative to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund through Minecraft, starting with the launch of the new Paws and Claws costume pack.

Paws and Claws’ release follows the recent arrival Minecraft’s latest update, which adds bamboo blocks, scaffolding, and, more importantly, pandas and redesigned cats. The costume pack (or “Cosplay Pack”, as Microsoft would have it) features 17 cat and panda skin, and all net proceeds on every sale – that’s 62.5% – will be donated to the WWF until December 11th, 2021.

Additionally, Microsoft has pledged to donate another $100,000 USD to the World Wildlife Fund once players have managed to place a total of 10 million bamboo blocks in Minecraft. This follows a similar event last year, in which a donation was made to The Nature Conservancy after Minecraft players laid down 10 million coral blocks.

In order to get involved in Microsoft’s charity initiative, either via some dedicated block placing or by purchasing the Paws and Claws pack, players will need to be using Minecraft’s Bedrock Edition, which is available on Windows 10, Xbox One, Switch, iOS, and Android.

Markus Persson, the creator of Minecraft, may be not as busy in the world of video game development as he used to be, but he is quite active on Twitter where he has 3.69 million followers.

As you may know, Persson — also known as “Notch” — has found himself amidst controversy due to some of the content he has tweeted out in the past. For example, in 2017 he had some unpleasant words to say about people who don’t support Heterosexual Pride Day, though he eventually walked back the Tweet.

Later in the same year he once again found himself on the other side of a barrel of criticism for tweeting out “it’s ok to be white.”

Fast-forward to this month, and Persson is once again vocalizing some controversial and political takes. Here’s a drive-by of some of it:

Notch
✔
@notch
There clearly is an agenda against white men.

Jonathan Morales
@JonathanM0ral35
Replying to @notch and 2 others
notch why are you like this please stop acting like there’s an agenda against white people

8,483
4:01 AM – Dec 9, 2018
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2,397 people are talking about this
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Notch
✔
@notch
They are what everything else that isn’t perfectly in line with the hard left is: russian nazi cis scum bots.
It’s literally evil versus the rest of us.

Pedro Paco
@MillionMistake
Replying to @notch
what about the right? where do they stand on the morality scale?

525
6:06 AM – Dec 6, 2018
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Notch
✔
@notch
If we were allowed to discuss IQ differences between populations, there’d be fewer conspiracy theories.

🇵🇱Scrable🇩🇪
@TherealScrable
@notch Do you love jews?

6,012
4:10 AM – Dec 7, 2018
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Notch
✔
@notch
Reminder that the creator of Atari missed out on a lifetime achievement award because sexist dickfaces made up (proven lies) about him because gaming hadn’t “had it’s metoo moment yet.

If you’re still on the left, PLEASE wake up. You are evil.

6,861
5:54 AM – Dec 6, 2018
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As you may know, Persson is no longer involved with Minecraft. Back in November 2014 when Mojang — the company behind Minecraft that Persson helped create — was acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion, the creative left the company he helped propel to the top of the video game development world.

Since he departed Mojang, Persson has been much more, let’s say, vocal, on Twitter, and in a heightened political climate that has seemingly seeped into every facet of life, he has found himself in a fair share of controversy. Or, at least Internet controversy. Suffice to say, without being tied to Mojang — or more importantly, Microsoft — he has been able to share his takes as freely as he likes, which aren’t always inherently political.

Notch
✔
@notch
· Dec 9, 2018
Replying to @notch
These people are politicians, they’re large corporations.
They’re your crazy ex and your demanding parent.

They’re you, last weekend.

Notch
✔
@notch
Money is paper you think you have to value.
Words are vibrations you think you have to honor.

Relationships, friendships, movement, are all labels you think you can’t change without good reason, so you sacrifice yourself for man made label.

779
4:07 AM – Dec 9, 2018
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Notch
✔
@notch
Boys and soys: do not fall for this narrative. Women are attracted to stable men who speak their mind and get stuff done. Be assertive in who you are and what your values are, be nerdy and excited about projects.
Your strongest currency is undivided attention.

emily dont care
@emichka7
Replying to @notch
dude u look like the classic fedora neckbeard type, just more put together because of the millions of dollars u have in ur back pocket, no ones gonna WANT to exchange contact info with u, in fact if someone that looked like u flirted w me id be extremely uncomfortable sorry lmfao

Read more online: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/12/08/minecraft-creator-markus-persson-twitter/

Today, Apple unveiled the list of the most popular apps and games (free and paid) for iPhone and iPad in 2018 and you’ll find below the top 10 charts for each category.

This year, Battle Royale-style games like Fortnite and PUBG Mobile dominated global gaming culture with exciting, last-player-standing action, while innovative apps like Fabulous, Shine, 10% Happier and Headspace expanded the practice of wellness around the world to make self-care more accessible than ever before, said Apple.

Atherton Research’s Take

In the free app category, Google’s YouTube was the most downloaded app on both iPhone and iPad, while Messenger, the Facebook app, Gmail, Netflix also appeared in the top 10 for both iOS devices.

On the iPhone, the most popular apps are predominantly for communication (Instagram, Snapchat, Messenger, Facebook, Bitmoji and Gmail), whereas apps on the iPad tend to be more video-oriented (YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube Kids).

On the iPhone paid apps side, selfie-editor FaceTune ($3.99) and drawing iPad app Procreate ($9.99)—which was also awarded best iPhone app of the year by Apple “editors”— took the top spots.

In the free games category, Fortnite is the absolute winner on both iPhone and iPad. Hole.io, Rise Up, Helix Jump, Love Balls, and Rules of Survival were also popular on both iOS platforms.

Froggipedia is an augmented-reality educational app which explores the life cycle and intricate anatomical details of a frog and won Apple’s 2018 iPad App of the Year award.DESIGNMATE

In paid games, Heads Up! ($2.99) won the crown on iPhone—it was also the #5 most popular paid games on iPad—while Microsoft’s Minecraft ($6.99) was the most popular on the iPad and the second most downloaded app on the iPhone. Geometry Dash, Bloons TD 6, and The Game of Life were also popular paid games on both iOS platforms.

On a side note, Apple also named its own favorites apps, selected by “editors” working at the tech giant.

On the iPhone, Apple selected drawing app Procreate Pocket and Donut County (a story-based physics puzzle game where you play as an ever-growing hole in the ground) as its app and game of the year, respectively.

On the iPad, the Silicon Valley company chose Froggipedia (an augmented-reality educational app which explores the life cycle and intricate anatomical details of a frog) and puzzle-game Gorogoa as this year’s app and game, respectively.

Top 10 Free iPhone Apps:

YouTube
Instagram
Snapchat
Messenger
Facebook
Bitmoji
Netflix
Google Maps
Gmail
Spotify Music
Top 10 Paid iPhone Apps:

Facetune ($3.99)
Kirakira+ ($0.99)
Dark Sky Weather ($3.99)
HotSchedules ($2.99)
PlantSnap ($2.99)
AutoSleep Tracker for Watch ($2.99)
Sky Guide ($2.99)
1 Second Everyday: Video Diary ($4.99)
The Wonder Weeks ($2.99)
Afterlight 2 ($2.99)
Top 10 Free iPhone Games:

Fortnite
Helix Jump
Rise Up
PUBG Mobile
Hole.io
Love Balls
Snake VS Block
Rules of Survival
Roblox
Dune!
Top 10 Paid iPhone Games:

Heads Up! ($2.99)
Minecraft ($6.99)
Plague Inc. ($0.99)
Bloons TD 6 ($4.99)
Pocket Build ($1.99)
Bloons TD 5 ($2.99)
Geometry Dash ($1.99)
The Game of Life ($2.99)
Papa’s Freezeria To Go ($0.99)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ($6.99)
Top 10 Free iPad Apps:

YouTube
Netflix
Messenger
Facebook
Amazon Prime Video
Google Chrome
Gmail
YouTube Kids
The Calculator
Amazon Shopping
Top 10 Paid iPad Apps:

Procreate ($9.99)
Notability ($9.99)
GoodNotes 4 ($7.99)
Toca Life: Pets ($3.99)
Duet Display ($9.99)
Toca Life: After School ($3.99)
XtraMath ($4.99)
Toca Hair Salon 3 ($3.99)
MyScript Nebo ($7.99)
Toca Kitchen 2 ($3.99)
Top 10 Free iPad Games:

Fortnite
Roblox
Kick the Buddy
Love Balls
Helix Jump
Color by Number Coloring Game!
Bowmasters – Multiplayer Game
Hole.io
Rise Up
Rules of Survival
Top 10 Paid iPad Games:

Minecraft ($6.99)
Geometry Dash ($1.99)
The Game of Life ($2.99)
The Room: Old Sins ($4.99)
Heads Up! ($0.99)
Bloons TD 6 ($4.99)
Goat Simulator ($4.99)
Five Nights at Freddy’s ($2.99)
Lego Jurassic World ($4.99)
Terraria ($4.99)
Jean Baptiste “JB” Su is Vice-President and Principal Analyst at Atherton Research, a global technology consulting and intelligence firm advising clients plan, build and deliver successful go-to-market strategies. You can follow him on LinkedIn (https://goo.gl/z5zGlx) or Twi… MORE
Author: Jean Baptiste is a Vice-President and Principal Analyst at Atherton Research, a global technology intelligence firm advising clients deliver successful go-to-market strategies.

Read more online: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2018/12/04/apple-unveils-2018s-most-popular-apps-youtube-fortnite-minecraft-and-more/#d59c1460dcd8

Minecraft has pretty amazing potential as a teaching tool. In general, it promotes creativity and problem-solving as it boosts engagement. But it also can improve achievement when confident teachers incorporate it into instruction.

It’s easy for students to become absorbed in Minecraft worlds, mainly due to the game’s “sandbox” nature–it’s open-ended and offers unlimited possibilities for math, science, and building challenges.

And the game isn’t just for STEM classes, either. It can help build social and emotional skills, it can illustrate concepts found in literature and history classes, and more.

If you need inspiration, or just a little help getting started, you might find it in one of the following examples.

1. Minecraft has a fascinating link with social and emotional learning (SEL). A report based on interviews, a global survey, and case studies shows that 98 percent of teachers say problem solving is the top SEL skill their students learn from Minecraft. Students also develop creativity (86 percent), critical thinking (93 percent), and collaboration (91 percent). Half of teachers say they think it also helps students build empathy.

2. Gaming, including Minecraft, can be a powerful motivator to students, leading them to greater engagement and achievement. Students frequently walk away from homework when it is too difficult, but difficult games are another matter–kids walk away from games when they’re too easy. Difficult games present a positive challenge for students. A challenging task “stretches” a student’s brain, and the more a person expects his or her brain to do different things, the more pathways that person’s brain will develop.

3. We don’t necessarily think of Minecraft as a literary place, but that’s where many people are wrong. Students can use it to build worlds or landmarks from novels they read in class. Other teachers have students create journals in Minecraft and leave the journals in their class-created Minecraft world so other students can find the journals and react to different prompts or ideas.

4. Students can recreate historical buildings or places as part of a history project, and they also can download them and drop them into a world. With a little bit of creativity, classes can relive historical experiences–they can re-walk the Oregon Trail or land a ship in a new place and figure out how to govern a society. Minecraft characters can die temporarily and need food to survive, making the game a good way to navigate some of these challenges.

5. Minecraft’s math applications are endless. For instance, students can complete a Minecraft-inspired math project that is related to volume, area, and perimeter. Or, they can work on a multi-project STEM challenge and rotate around the classroom. If students don’t have access to the game in their classrooms, teachers can create paper-based challenges (check out the resources on Teachers Pay Teachers).

6. Computer science and coding skills are in high demand in today’s workforce, but qualified workers are hard to come by. Students can use their love of Minecraft to learn how to code and build strong programming skills.

7. Minecraft can bring the “A” to STEAM, too. Check out Tate Worlds: Minecraft Reimagined, which takes famous works of art and recreates them in the block-based world. Students can tap into their creative side while also planning and organizing an art project.

These are only a few examples of the many, many ways Minecraft can change teaching and learning. Check out Minecraft’s Education page for even more resources.

Actually, 256 blocks is the limit. Anyway, look at this build!

Something tells me I wouldn’t do well in outer space. Travelling makes me nauseous, I never did learn to do the moonwalk, and how am I supposed to resist taking off my spacesuit helmet so I can play with my wonderful hair?

So if you ever do go to space, it’s probably for the best if you leave me on Earth. But while fettered to the same old planet, I can at least stargaze in awe at excellent builds like Futuristic Space Station!

This piece of interstellar ingenuity is the work of Polish builder, Milosz. “I love working on creative things,” Milosz tells me. “I’m always full of amazing ideas that I try to make into reality whenever I can!”

A catering student and aspiring DJ, Milosz was drawn to Minecraft as yet another outlet for his creativity. “I love the freedom of creation [in Minecraft]. I can use a big variety of building materials, which allows me to create whatever I imagine.”

“Also, its blocky appearance creates such a lovely, unique atmosphere.” Well said! We should put that on the back of the box!

Molosz claims that the “sky is the only limit” in Minecraft, but is it really?

Because this space station build seems to ignore all limitations, in both scope and detail. It looks futuristic and sci-fi, but also pleasingly plausible. If someone told me this build was based on an actual design for a real space station, I’d believe them! And not just because I’m an earthbound ignoramus who, as previously established, shouldn’t be let anywhere near a spacecraft.

The space station uses understated colours, making it something of a monochromatic marvel (which is what I would have called this article, if a better Minecraft.net writer hadn’t already used that).

Milosz achieved this stylish look by sticking to a consistent set of “black, grey and white blocks,” he tells me “such as quartz, polished andesite, bedrock, black glass, polished diorite, iron blocks and cyan terracotta.”

Keeping the ship to a strict set of blocks makes other uses of colour stand out more, like the red stripes across the satellite, or the cheeky comet that appears to be heading straight for the space station. Er, this thing does have force field shields, right?

But Milosz didn’t just choose these blocks for their dark palette. He also considered how they would look as part of such a massive construction: “The majority of blocks used to create my build have simple textures,” he explains “which makes everything look good in large scale.” Keep that in mind if you want to try a large-scale build of your own!

“I’ve also added some colour and light using sea lanterns,” Milosz points out, a smart use of some of the more recent blocks we’ve added to the game with the Update Aquatic. Maybe Milosz should fill this space station with Pillagers after our next update? Hmmm, actually, that’s probably astro-not a good idea.

Milosz says that the hardest part of the build was “connecting all the different elements” so they made sense as one coherent structure. At least he can rest assured that the toughest element of the build was also one of the most successful: I love how this feels like a logical construction, the kind of functioning facility you could imagine astronauts/pillagers-who-are-seriously-out-of-their-depth navigating through the cosmos.

So given that he knows how to design a great facility for such an endeavour, how does Milosz feel about going to outer space himself? Is it something he’d like to do someday? (Mojang’s lawyers have asked me to make it clear that we’re not offering to pay for this trip – spoilsports).

“Of course I would love to go to space,” says Milosz, unsurprisingly. “Although, only for a brief period of time. Something like a one-week space journey would be great!”

If any of the millions (billions?) of astronauts who check Minecraft.net every day are reading this, get on that!

Render made by Boxu

Read more online: https://minecraft.net/en-us/article/sky-no-limit

Get inspired by this new world, available free starting today!

Did you watch Minecon this year? It was our epic livestream celebration of all things Minecraft, where we announced so much new stuff, even I’m still catching up with it all (wait, pandas are coming to the game? Neatl!) Today, we’re releasing one of the things we announced, completely free, on the Minecraft Marketplace – Inspiration Island!

Inspiration Island is a floating theme park world filled with creative challenges, secrets and more! Plus it features a giant pencil. In these tumultuous times, I think we can all agree that every build should feature a giant pencil:

If you’re new to playing Minecraft in Creative Mode, this is the perfect introduction, as the island is covered in signs with helpful tips, chests stuffed with only-the-best blocks, and loads of suggestions for what you can build. Don’t worry, Creative Mode veterans, you’ll find a lot of inspiration too!

We know Minecraft can be a little intimidating, especially when you see amazing builds like this, this and this, that we’ve featured on Minecraft.net. But that’s exactly what Inspiration Island is for. We really believe that anyone is capable of crafting something amazing in Minecraft, and we want all our players to have the tools to do so. Inspiration Island isn’t just a tutorial, it’s a jumping-off point designed to help your creativity soar, and have you crafting new bold and brilliant builds in no time!

Now, who’s up for a quick tour?

Want to share the stuff you do on Inspiration Island? Hey, we want that too! Post your screenshots on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtags #minecraft and #inspirationisland. We may even feature some on Minecraft.net!

Head to the Minecraft Marketplace to download Inspiration Island. It’ll be arriving on all versions of Minecraft that have the Minecraft Marketplace today, so keep checking back if you don’t see it yet. Enjoy exploring, and don’t forget to share your creations!

Read more online: https://minecraft.net/en-us/article/inspiration-island-free-marketplace

ArchiGa’s Sky Gardens put the ‘culture’ in ‘horticulture’!

We do love a good Greek temple here at Minecraft HQ, and today’s build, ArchiGa’s Sky Gardens, really ticks that box. It’s the crossover we never knew we wanted: somewhere between a wedding cake and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon!

Built for a Skyscraper Contest on Planet Minecraft, Sky Gardens is a towering giant of classical Greek architecture, with a detailed interior and probably at least 100 pillars on the inside and outside. That’s a lot of pillars!

The blue and yellow colouring of Sky Gardens is inspired by the real-life Hanging Gardens, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, along with other long-lost structures like the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the Colossus of Rhodes. Many people have tried to recreate the Gardens, in paintings, drawings, and poetry, imagining what it might have looked like when it still stood. It’s not even the first time the Gardens have appeared in Minecraft – it’s a popular project for people looking to show off their skills!

But ArchiGa’s Sky Gardens – also known as Caelestes Horti, or “Sky Gardens” in Latin – is not exactly the Hanging Gardens. Although it is inspired by the legendary building, it’s not an exact recreation, says ArchiGa, who describes it as an “idyllic place to be in contact with nature and art… a physical and mental escape from the daily world.”

Taking inspiration from the architecture of Naples, the west coast of Italy where Pompeii and Vesuvius can be found, ArchiGa decided to build something in a classical style. “I wanted to celebrate my territory,” says ArchiGa, who lives in the area. “It influenced not only my creativity and personality, but was also very important for the spread of Western culture.”

ArchiGa even visited the Neapolitan gardens, ranging from “monumental royal parks” to “small gardens with a breathtaking view of the sea”, learning about the colours, style, and symmetry of the buildings while he planned the Sky Gardens build.

By far the most challenging part of this colossal build wasn’t the height, or the symmetry, or even the gardens themselves – but the frescoes that can be found on the walls inside (a frescoe is a painting done rapidly in watercolour on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling).

“Frescoes were intended to ennoble the rooms where they are,” says ArchiGa. Each fresco was planned and built by hand. One is a mythological design, based on the work of Neapolitan Baroque painter Luca Giordano, and another is a map of the Gulf of Naples. It’s tricky to make detailed art with blocks, but ArchiGa definitely managed it!

The most impressive task that ArchiGa took on, though, is the attention he paid to the baffling rules of architectural mathematics. When making builds, he tries to stick to the principles of proportion, which ancient architects would use to build things according to specific ratios. He even wrote a blog about it! “I wanted to amaze people,” ArchiGa admits, “and I think I did it!” I think so, too!

What’s even more impressive is that ArchiGa didn’t even plan out the Sky Gardens before building it. “I directly built my idea in blocks, and there were a lot of attempts at colours, or shaping the elements and the structure itself.” He admits that this took a lot of time – at least three hours a day for 20-25 days. “Composing the frescoes and the gardens was slow and careful work,” he says, but it definitely paid off! The interior is just as impressive, if not more impressive, than the exterior, with fountains, pools, arches and ten statues representing the six architectural values as well as the four elements: water, fire, earth and air.

The only remaining question is: why don’t we have hanging gardens any more? Wouldn’t the world be a lot prettier if we knocked down a few buildings and replaced them with gigantic fountain-filled wonders? I know if I ever build a city, I’m hiring ArchiGa.

Renders by Palliotto, Tinctorium and Omegafoxx

REad more online: https://minecraft.net/en-us/article/reach-sky

The first snapshot for 1.14 “Village & Pillage” is here, and oh boy, it’s a big one! With new items, new blocks, new mobs, new blocks, new enchantments, new blocks, new mechanics, even more new blocks, new commands, and not to forget all the new blocks – we’re pretty confident there’s something for everyone in this snapshot!

Best of all, this is just the first one! We have so many things coming to future snapshots, most of which you guys don’t even know about yet! Hurray!

However, as always the first snapshot is always the riskiest. We’re rewriting big chunks of the game with hopes of focusing on performance soon, so stability might be a little wonky at first. Please backup before opening your favourite worlds!

We’ve got a huge changelog for this snapshot, which we’re really proud of. If you scroll all the way to the bottom you’ll find instructions on how to play (spoiler: start up your launcher and enable snapshots!)

Now, without further ado, we present to you… a changelog!

CHANGES IN 18W43C
Improved stuttering in client & server
Improved performance! Still not quite where we want to be but this should help.
Stopped the mob-cap from growing infinitely
Added server tick-times to alt+f3 charts (in singleplayer)
Added min/avg/max tick-times to alt+f3 charts (helps find stutters!)
FIXED BUGS IN 18W43C
MC-137903 – /fill command doesn’t update light on client side
MC-137715 – /drop dropping minecraft:empty 1 time for player causes unexpected error
MC-137706 – Selecting obfuscated text in book crashes the game
MC-137697 – NBT list using “interpret” not comma delimited
MC-137602 – Block models do not render using Java 10 (ConcurrentModificationException)
MC-137580 – Shulker Boxes reset assortment of inventory when broken then placed down again.
MC-137571 – Cursor becomes misaligned after using ‘§’ in book & quill
MC-137537 – Walking into a different chunk causes lag
MC-137521 – Entities become invisible on low render distance
MC-137497 – Hundreds of mobs spawning
MC-137487 – Crash: Ticking memory connection – java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: -1
CHANGES IN 18W43B
We found a few memory leaks in the client and cleaned them up!
Some textures were outdated and have been replaced with the proper new ones
FIXED BUGS IN 18W43B
MC-137530 – Inserted text for %s in a translation string shows ‘null’
MC-137492 – Spruce trees drop leaves instead of saplings
MC-137457 – Crash upon opening the F3 menu
MC-137454 – Opening Loom GUI doesn’t darken surrounding background
MC-137443 – A few effect icons are swapped/missing
CHANGES IN 18W43A
Added Bamboo Blocks into the game
Added Bamboo Jungles in the world
Rewrote the book & quill editing to be more intuitive
Added Crossbows!
Added lots of new decorative blocks!
Added new dyes and flowers!
Added some community suggestions
Updated the credits list
Added in-game buttons for reporting bugs or giving feedback
Added Illager Beast
Added Loom into the game
Special banner patterns can now be crafted into a new item, Banner Patterns
We’re now using the new textures!
Added pandas!
Added Pillagers
Added suspicious stew – hmmmm!
BAMBOO
They call it exotic. Which is just people talk for awesome. Which it is, which is why we’re so happy that we added it to the game.

Can be found in Jungles and the two new biomes: Bamboo Jungle and Bamboo Jungle Hills
Can grow to a max height between 12 and 16 blocks
When bonemealed, bamboo will grow a 1-2 bamboo on the top
When struck with a sword, bamboo will instantly break
Two bamboo can be crafted into a single stick
Able to be used as fuel with 4 bamboo able to smelt a single item
Bamboo is able to be placed into Flower Pots
Bamboo can now be found in Shipwrecks and Jungle Temples
COMMUNITY SUGGESTIONS
As it turns out, you guys have great suggestions!

Leaves now have a small chances to drop sticks.
Chorus Fruit Flowers now break when shot by an arrow.
Dead Bushes can now be used as Furnace fuel.
Rabbit Stew and Beetroot Soup has now been changed to a shapeless recipe.
Creepers will now drop records when killed by Stray in addition to Skeletons.
Dispensers with Shears in them will now shear sheep that have wool in front of them.
CROSSBOWS
This is such a fun weapon that it makes us quiver!

Shoots arrows with base power slightly higher than the bow, but less durability
Three unique enchantments!
Fun, challenging advancements!
New loading mechanics!
Unique load animation!
ENCHANTMENTS
Choose between the following three enchantments for your crossbow:
MULTISHOT (I)
Ever wanted to shoot more than one arrow at once? Look no further! With Multishot, your crossbow splits your arrow into 3, shooting the usual arrow straight ahead and two more at angles off to the sides!
Cannot be combined with Piercing
PIERCING (I, II, III, IV)
With this pointy enchantment, arrows shot from your crossbow can travel through mobs, hitting more than one per shot
The number of mobs that can be damaged by a single arrow is equal to the level of this enchantment + 1
Cannot be combined with Multishot
QUICK CHARGE (I, II, III)
Each level of quick charge decreases the amount of time it takes to fully charge your crossbow by .25 seconds
LOADING MECHANICS
To charge the crossbow, hold down the “Use” button
Once the crossbow string has been pulled all the way back, let go
Boom! Your crossbow is now loaded and ready to shoot with a single click of the “Use” button
DECORATIVE BLOCKS
Oh my, a bunch of new blocks!

Changed all existing Stone Slabs to Smooth Stone Slabs (same look, new name!)
Changed all existing signs to Oak Signs (same look, new name!)
Made Smooth Stone Slabs craftable from Smooth Stone
Added spruce, birch, jungle, acacia and dark oak signs
Added Stone stairs and slabs
Added Granite stairs, slabs and walls
Added Polished Granite stairs and slabs
Added Diorite stairs, slabs and walls
Added Polished Diorite stairs and slabs
Added Andesite stairs, slabs and walls
Added Polished Andesite stairs and slabs
Added Sandstone walls
Added Smooth Red Sandstone stairs and slabs
Added Smooth Quartz stairs and slabs
Added Brick walls
Added Stone Brick walls
Added Mossy Stone Brick stairs, slabs and walls
Added Nether Brick walls
Added End Stone Brick stairs, slabs and walls
Added Prismarine walls
Added Red Sandstone walls
Added Red Nether Brick stairs, slabs and walls
Added Smooth Sandstone stairs and slabs
Added Mossy Cobblestone stairs and slabs
Made Smooth Stone obtainable by smelting Stone
Made Smooth Sandstone obtainable by smelting Sandstone
Made Smooth Red Sandstone obtainable by smelting Red Sandstone
Made Smooth Quartz obtainable by smelting Quartz Block
Changed the recipe of Nether Brick Fence to 4 brick blocks and 2 brick items
Changed the recipe of signs to require all of the same wood type, not any wood type
DYES
Dye all the things!

Separated Bone Meal, Ink Sac, Cocoa Beans, and Lapis Lazuli into their own dyes
Unified all dye names (Red, Yellow, and Green dyes no longer have special names)
Added new recipes to obtain coloured stained glass and coloured carpet
FLOWERS
Get your green fingers!

To celebrate our new dyes, we added… flowers!
Be careful of the Wither Rose… don’t let its subdued beauty lull you into a false sense of security!
ILLAGER BEAST
Ravager? Behemoth? Got a name suggestion? Let us know!

Fearsome new foe who packs quite a wallop, grab your sword and shield and prepare to get knocked around!
LOOM
Bröther, may I have some lööm?

New and easier way of being able to apply patterns to banners, can still only apply 6 max patterns to a banner
Generic patterns now only require 1 dye in order to create patterns instead of 1 – 8 (depending on the pattern)
Special banner patterns (Oxeye Daisy, Creeper Skull, Wither Skeleton Skull, Enchanted Golden Apple) can now be crafted. These patterns don’t consume the pattern item when used in the Loom
Old recipes for banners in the crafting table have been removed
NEW TEXTURES
The extraordinary Minecraft Texture Update has been available on minecraft.net for quite a while and now it’s finally available by default in the game

We’re renovating the old textures of Minecraft and polishing them up for a new beginning.
We’re still interested in feedback
Playing on Bedrock ? Don’t worry! These textures will come to the Marketplace in a near future for you to try out!
PANDA
We heed the call!

Pandas come in different variants and personalities! There is a rumour about a brown panda…
Pandas love bamboo… they kinda like cake as well
Pandas can be bred, and the variants are inherited by a special panda inheritance system
Pandas spawn natuarlly in the new bamboo forest biome
Pandas drop bamboo when killed
Most importantly: pandas are cute and terribly silly!
The babies are, in general, even more silly than their parents.
PILLAGER
Pillagers are new type of mob added to the game. For now, it can only be spawned with a spawn egg or commands, but they’ll do more things in a later snapshot.

A new type of illager that, well, pillages!
Pillagers wield a new weapon, the crossbow!
REWRITE OF BOOK & QUILL EDITING
The pen is mightier than the sword! Unless you’re fighting a Pillager…

Movable cursor for free text editing
Selection support
Copy & Paste
Keyboard and Mouse handling
Improved page filling and line wrapping
Increased book length (100 pages)
SUSPICIOUS STEW
Hmmmm…

Found in buried ship treasure chests
Also craftable!
Whoever eats this stew will be imbued with an unknown effect for several seconds!
Whoever crafts the stew will know what effect they gave it
TECHNICAL CHANGES IN 18W43A
Creative menu search box now accepts tags (starting with #)
Tooltip in creative search menu now lists item’s tags
New item model property custom_model_data, backed directly by CustomModelData integer NBT field
Extended NBT path syntax
New sub-commands for NBT manipulation and querying
New chat component for displaying values from NBT
Added entity type tags. They work exactly the same as other ones (blocks, items and fluids, etc). Stored in tags\entity_types\
Added a feature registry
Added a registry for decorators
Added a registry for carvers
Added a registry for surface builders
Item lore tag now uses chat component syntax
New Light engine!
drop command – drops items in various contexts
Block drops are now controlled by loot tables
Performance Improvements
Added schedule command for delaying execution of functions
Time arguments in time set, time add and schedule function can now have units (t – ticks, s – seconds, d – days). Fractions are allowed as long as result is integer (for example 0.5d)
ADVANCEMENTS
Entity type predicates now accept tags (#baz)
DAMAGE SOURCE PREDICATE
Damage source predicate now has option: is_lightning.

ENTITY FLAGS PREDICATE
Entity predicate now accepts flags field. Available tests: is_on_fire, is_sneaking, is_sprinting, is_swimming, is_baby.

CHAT COMPONENTS
NBT CHAT COMPONENT
Block variant {“nbt”: , “block”:{“x”: “y”:, “z”:}}
Entity variant {“nbt”: , “entity”:}
Additionaly, if field interpret is present and set to true, contents of selected tags will be interpreted as chat components
COMMANDS
type field in @ selectors now accepts entity type tags (type=#foo and type=!#bar)
Item frame contents can now be modified with /replaceitem
DATA
data modify Apply operation to selected fields
Basic operation: set – replaces value
List operations: insert before index |insert after index|prepend|append
Object operations: merge
Sources:
from – copies value from existing tag
value – uses NBT literal
DROP
General syntax: drop Sources
– `award` – uses advancement award context
– `fish` – uses fishing context
– `loot` – uses loot chest context
– `kill` – simulates entity drops
– `mine` – simulates block drops
Targets
– `world` – drops in world
– `player` – puts in player inventory (as if picked)
– `entity` – sets entity slots (same as `replaceitem`)
– `block` – puts (`distribute`, as if shift-clicked) or replaces/merges (`insert`) items in container
EXECUTE
execute if data (and execute unless)
when used as command, return count of matched elements
when used as part of command, continues on non-zero(if) or zero(unless) count
SCHEDULE
Schedules function or tag to run in gametime ticks. Returns trigger time. Any tag or function can be scheduled only once. Calling this command for already scheduled function or tag will replace older record.

NBT PATHS
Can now return multiple values. When used as target, modification will be applied to every element
When setting location and no elements are found, new matching element will be created:
For example writing to Items[{Slot:10b}] will either found element in Items for slot 10 or create new one
Add [{k1=v1,k2=v2}] to match objects in list that have matching fields
Add {k1=v1,k2=v2} to match objects (selects 0 or 1 elements, mostly as safeguard against mismatched entries)
Allow negative indices in [index] to select element from end (i.e. [-1] is last element, [-2] second to last, etc)
Add [] to select all elements from list
LIGHT ENGINE
We are de-lighted to have a new light engine!

Moved light storage from chunks to a separate structure
Moved light calculation from all over the code to a self-contained place
Moved light computation off the main thread (on the server)
LOOT TABLES
Block drops are now controlled by loot tables (stored in loot_tables/blocks/)
Tables and pools accept functions
Added new loot table entry types: dynamic, tag, alternatives, sequence, group
Added new loot table functions: apply_bonus, explosion_decay, copy_name, limit_count, set_contents, set_loot_table
Added new loot table conditions: entity_present, survives_explosion, block_state_property, table_bonus, match_tool, tool_enchantment and two special modifiers: inverted and alternative
Integer values can now specify random number generator (available types: constant, uniform, binomial). If omitted, defaults to uniform
Loot tables have optional type, used to validate function usage (available types: empty, chest, fishing, entity, advancement_reward, block). Using function that references data not available in given context (for example, block state in fishing table) will cause warning
New entity parameter in predicates: direct_killer_entity – allows access to projectiles etc.
MODIFIED CONDITIONS
ENTITY_PROPERTIES
Now uses same predicate syntax as advancements (like player_killed_entity). Parameters are now described in predicate field.

NEW CONDITIONS
ALTERNATIVE
Joins conditions from parameter terms with “or” (“disjunction”).

BLOCK_STATE_PROPERTY
Check properties of block state.

Parameters
block – id of block. Test will fail, if broken block does not match
properties – map of property:value pairs
DAMAGE_SOURCE_PROPERTIES
Checks damage source. Same syntax as entity_properties, but uses damage source predicate (see player_hurt_entity advancement trigger).

ENTITY_PRESENT
Returns true if entity is set (see entity_properties for list of entities).

INVERTED
Inverts condition from parameter term

LOCATION_CHECK
Applies advancement location predicate.

Parameters
predicate – predicate applied to location. Uses same structure as advancements.
MATCH_TOOL
Checks tool (available for block breaking and fishing).

Parameters
predicate – predicate applied to item. Uses same structure as advancements.
SURVIVES_EXPLOSION
Return true with 1/explosion radius probability.

TABLE_BONUS
Passes with probability picked from table, indexed by enchantment level.

Parameters
enchantment – id of enchantment
chances – list of probabilities for enchantment level, indexed from 0
WEATHER_CHECK
No surprise here.

Parameters
raining – optional boolean
thundering – optional boolean
NEW ENTRIES
ALTERNATIVES
Tests conditions of child entries and executes first that can run. Has no weight or quality, but may have conditions.

DYNAMIC
Gets block specific drops. Currently implemented:

minecraft:contents – block entity contents
minecraft:self – for banners and player skulls
GROUP
Executes child entries when own conditions pass. Has no weight or quality.

SEQUENCE
Executes child entries until first one that can’t run due to conditions. Has no weight or quality, but may have conditions.

TAG
Adds contents of item tag. Fields:

name – id of tag
expand – if false, entry will return all contents of tag, otherwise entry will behave as multiple item entries (all with same weight and quality)
NEW FUNCTIONS
APPLY_BONUS
Applies one of predefined bonus formulas.

Common fields
enchantment – id for enchantment level used for calculation
formula – type of used bonus formula
parameters – values required for formula (depend on type)
Formulas (based on existing fortune bonuses):
binomial_with_bonus_count:
parameters: extraRounds : int, probability : float
adds random value using binomial distribution with n < - level + extraRounds and p <- probabilty uniform_bonus_count parameters: bonusMultiplier adds random value using uniform distribution from 0 to bonusMultiplier * level ore_drops no parameters applies formula count * (max(0, random(0..1) - 1) + 1) COPY_NAME Copies display name from block entity to item (see enchanting table behaviour) EXPLOSION_DECAY Applies flat chance (equal to 1/explosion radius) for every item to be destroyed (items in stack are processed separately) LIMIT_COUNT Limits count of every item stack to range. Parameters limit: min - optional max - optional SET_CONTENTS Populates BlockEntityTag.Items (works for shulker boxes, chests, etc.) with items from entries. Parameters entries - list of entries (same as in pool) SET_LOOT_TABLE Sets BlockEntityTag.LootTable and BlockEntityTag.LootPoolSeed tags. Parameters name - id of loot table seed - seed (if omitted or 0, LootPoolSeed will not be set) PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS Improved performance of Redstone Wire when depowering. Improved performance of Fish. Mobs that would spawn and then despawn from being too far away from the player the next tick no longer spawn. WORLDGEN Most of the biome related features now have a registry and their configuration can be serialized. I wonder what this is going to be used for... Added "Bamboo Jungle" and "Bamboo Jungle Hills" biomes which behave like a normal jungle, but have bamboo! FIXED BUGS IN 18W43A MC-1578 - Cannot move backwards in Books/Signs while writing / Cannot copy anything from the book MC-1692 - Excessive lag on lamp de/activation across chunk borders MC-3329 - Naturally generated light sources (fire, glowstone, torches etc.) sometimes do not emit light MC-3961 - Water, Cobwebs, Magma, Leaves and other blocks save sunlight MC-4686 - Client movement when teleported MC-9188 - Fires can leave ghost lighting behind MC-11571 - Huge lighting updates lag the game. MC-76278 - Lighting not updating until walked up or block update MC-80966 - Lightcalculation of ChunkSelection faulty implemented resulting in client bugs (empty chunks don’t show light/render dark) MC-88097 - Snow blocks receive (useless) random updates and can get destroyed when there is a light glitch MC-91136 - Lighting update is delayed at chunk borders MC-102162 - Some light-emitting blocks (magma, lit furnace, lit redstone ore) 'save' block light MC-119932 - Light-emitting solid blocks (lit furnaces, magma blocks, glowstone, lit redstone ore) let light (sunlight, block light) through MC-124395 - Beacon block entity contains code for custom names, despite not storing it to NBT and the beacon GUI not having one MC-135453 - Crash while rendering block entity MC-136526 - Crash when generating near top of world MC-136759 - Spawn eggs do not make sure that the entity is valid for the egg, allowing for arbitrary command execution in certain cases MC-137229 - Book corruption when 1.8 world is loaded in 1.13 MC-137300 - ConcurrentModificationException thrown when upgrading world GET THE SNAPSHOT To install the snapshot, open up the Minecraft Launcher and enable snapshots in the "Launch Options" tab. Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. Cross-platform server jar: Minecraft server jar Report bugs here: Minecraft issue tracker!

If you’re a regular, loyal reader of Minecraft.net (the kind of reader who re-reads every article we’ve ever written, each and every day) then you probably saw that earlier this week we released one of our biggest Java snapshots ever – the first snapshot to include features from our upcoming Village and Pillage update!

(If you’re not familiar, Snapshots are early builds that let you try upcoming features in Minecraft: Java Edition. Playing the Windows 10, Xbox One or Android version of Minecraft and want to try early features too? Click here to learn more about Minecraft betas!)

This new snapshot contains * takes deep breath * flowers! Suspicious stews! Pandas! Pllagers! Iillager Beasts! Crossbows! Dyes! LOADS of new blocks! Updated textures! Ex-Labour MP David Blunkett! Impressively, only the last of those features was a lie – the rest of them, along with so many more, were all included in the new snapshot!

“After 1.13, we finally didn’t have a limit on the number of blocks in the game,” explains Nathan Adams, Lead Engineer on Minecraft: Java Edition. “Now that we have no limit, we’ve just gone crazy with adding everything we’ve ever wanted!”

“I love that we’re releasing new blocks,” agrees Agnes Larsson, game developer. “It’s so fun!”

Let’s look at some of the new decorative blocks you’ll find in this snapshot. Starting with the stairs:

OK, that’s it for stairs, let’s move onto – wait, there’s more?

Yes, great job team – that’s more than enough stairs for one snapsho-

ENOUGH.

Phew! And that isn’t even close to all the decorative blocks the Java team have stuffed into this snapshot for your designing pleasure. A lot of these are also available as walls, normal blocks and more! You can finally build that dream Nether Brick cottage and retire, like we’ve always talked about.

But if you are going to build a brilliant fortress with these new blocks, you’re going to want to be able to defend it, especially with The Illager Beast out there. That’s the perfect opportunity to test out the new crossbow.

“The crossbow itself is the only new weapon,” explains Cory Scheviak, game developer “but it has three different enchantments that are unique to it . There’s the quick charge where you can pull it back more quickly depending on what level it’s at, the multi-shot where you can shoot three arrows at one time using only one arrow from your inventory and then piercing which can go through up to five mobs in one shot!”

Cory then laughed in a not-at-all-scary-way and said “it’s pretty cool!” Yeah! The crossbow is pretty cool! If you replace the word ‘pretty’ with ‘very’ and the word ‘cool’ with ‘terrifying’.

The crossbow is coming to Minecraft to make a new enemy more of a credible threat. I speak, of course, of the Pillager.

Cory explains that the team felt they couldn’t update the villages without giving them a new challenge, which meant introducing this threat. “We had to add the Pillagers as a rival to the Villagers, and the Pillagers had to be intimidating in some way. So the crossbow is the weapon of choice of the Pillager.”

“Although… maybe not all of the Pillagers prefer to use their crossbows,” Cory adds. “Maybe some of them take more… pillage-y weapons…” Intriguing!

“The original design of the Illager Beast basically had a ballista on top,” Nathan tells me. “Which is a gigantic crossbow made for sieges. That just got shrunk down over time during development. Now it’s a handheld version!”

Let’s move on to something less violent and beasty. Something like flowers! Yay, flowers! Colourful wonders of the natural world, spreading cheer and joy in the fields of Minecraft! Flowers would never hurt anyone, right Java team?

…Why are the Java team suddenly coughing, pulling their shirt collars and refusing to make eye contact with me?

My suspicions increase when they tell me the three new flowers in the latest snapshot: The Cornflower (hooray!), the Wither Rose (hey, wait a second…), and the Lily of the Valley (horrified scream).

“One of the flowers we added was the ‘Lily of the Valley’ which in real life is very poisonous,” admits Cory. “It’s a very pretty flower, but it’s very poisonous. So we wondered – how do we show the player that this is a poisonous flower?”

At this point in the interview, my stomach started rumbling so loudly I couldn’t hear Cory anymore. But instead of complaining, the lovely Java devs poured me a bowl of Suspicious stew. Wow, thanks guys! I knew you liked me really! I slurp and munch it down while they tell me what it does in Minecraft.

The developers wanted to add dyes for every colour, so they decided to add more flowers which you could obtain those dyes from. “But for each of the flowers we added, we were like ‘could we add a special use to this?’” explains Cory.

“Nathan and I came up with this idea for a “Suspicious Stew” where if you take a Mushroom Stew and you mix in a flower from the game, one of the small flowers, then it gets a mysterious, suspicious aura and gives a small potion effect with it.”

…Uh oh.

“When you craft it,” elaborates Cory, as I look nervously down at my empty bowl. “You know what flower you’re putting in, you know the effect and what will come out, but when you give it to someone, all they see is “Suspicious Stew” – so they don’t know what effect they’re going to get from it.”

What kind of effects are there? Asking for a friend.

“We don’t want to mention that,” says Agnes. “But there are some good ones. And some bad ones. And some…”

“…Funny ones,” hints Cory.

“It was so fun to come up with effects!” says Agnes, as I start to sweat. “I mean, we tried to make them make sense with the flower, so…”

I think it’s time to wrap-up the interview now.

This only scratches the surface of the secrets this snapshot contains. I haven’t revealed the different suspicious stew effects, or how the Wither Rose is obtained (those are best discovered for yourself).

And this is only the beginning! We’ve got tons of more features to share with you in the coming weeks. But why ‘Village and Pillage’? Why were villages the next place to focus on after The Update Aquatic?

“It was the next area that we wanted to improve,” explains Nathan.

“We felt like there was a lot missing from villages and villagers and there was a lot of cool ideas we had floating around. We decided to put them all together and see what could we do to make them look a bit more alive and smarter, like an actual place inside the world of Minecraft and not just something to invade and then leave rotting in the dirt!”

Don’t deny that that’s exactly what you do to villages when you play Minecraft. You know what you did.

Click https://minecraft.net/en-us/article/minecraft-snapshot-18w43a to try the new snapshot!

Minecraft, Mojang’s crown jewel continues to refine itself with an all-new update that looks poised to get 2019 going in style.

With a series of tweaks including those in Update Aquatic, Village and Pillage will take the community by storm with a barrage of new features which breathe more life into the wealth of content already on offer.

Most notably is the introduction of Pillagers. Armed with crossbows and Illager Beasts, this new addition to the ominous Illager mob will prove a formidable foe to players as they lay siege on NPC villages across the world.

Aside from villages receiving a new feature, more focus has also been turned towards building, 14 new stair and slab blocks will be added, as well as 12 new wall textures. Scaffolding will be introduced, allowing players to quickly climb and scale any obstacles or projects they are working on.

Minecraft Developer Talk Reveals Village and Pillage Update Details – n3rdabl3

Much like its predecessor, the Village and Pillage update looks to further improve the game’s already diverse and colorful natural environment. This includes the introduction of two new animals: foxes, which can be found in Taiga biomes, and pandas, that can be discovered in Jungles. Edible berries will also be added as well as bamboo and new dyes.

The release date for Minecraft’s Village and Pillage update is assumed to be set for 2019 so stay tuned for further announcements. You can read the full developer update https://minecraft.net/en-us/article/java-developers-talk-village-and-pillage.

When developer Telltale Games laid off most of its staff in September, it temporarily retained a skeleton crew to finish up work on a Netflix version of Minecraft: Story Mode. The first three episodes of the “interactive adventure” are now available on the streaming platform.

The adaptation is not so much a fully-fledged game as a choose-your-own-adventure experience — you don’t actually move protagonist Jesse around, for instance. Instead, you’re occasionally given choices on how to move the story forward. The series starts with a character named Petra guiding you through a brief tutorial before asking whether you’d like to play as a male or female version of Jesse.

The final two episodes of the season will drop December 5th. It’s not clear, however, whether the second season of the game will be adapted for Netflix.

You can check out Minecraft: Story Mode on Netflix on iOS, smart TVs, consoles and computers. If you’d like to experience it on an Android device, however, you’ll need to grab the Minecraft: Story Mode app.

Read more online: https://www.engadget.com/2018/11/27/minecraft-story-mode-netflix/

Bluetooth headphones sound a lot better than they did a few years ago, but they’re still generally a pain in the butt to pair to multiple devices. Relatively few headphones allow you to be paired multiple devices, and even then, you still have to go through the pairing process with each new device.

Apple is the only company that’s really simplified the multi-device pairing process, tieing Bluetooth headphones with its W1 chip to your Apple ID, and allowing them to automatically work across your Apple devices – and only your Apple devices. Now Google is taking a page out of Apple’s book, implementing similar functionality on Android devices, with Chromebooks soon to follow.

According to Google, accessories that have implemented the company’s Fast Pair protocol will be tied to your account and be able to work on any of your current devices running Android 6.0 or higher. Support for Chromebooks is coming in 2019.

Fast Pair devices are still pretty rare, but naturally, Google says it’s working to implement the protocol on more headphones, citing Jaybird, Anker, and Bose in particular.

Of course, the new pairing abilities won’t solve all your Bluetooth woes, as you won’t be able to sync the headphones to your PC or Mac; I assume more people will want to sync headphones between their laptop and phone than between multiple Android devices.

Still, it’s a step forward. Who knows, maybe one day Bluetooth headphones will actually be as convenient as every company wants you to believe.

Fast Pair Update on Google

Read more online: https://thenextweb.com/distract/2018/11/28/netflix-gets-an-interactive-minecraft-choose-your-own-adventure-show/

The latest addition to Netflix’ roster of shows comes from the popular Minecraft gaming franchise, along with an interesting twist: you can actually choose your own ending.

Minecraft: Story Mode – which was developed by the last remaining employees at troubled studio Telltale Games before it tragically closed down – lets you make choices to determine how the story progresses across its five episodes. The first three are already out, and you can stream them right now.

So yeah, it’s not exactly a game, because you can’t control characters’ movements and actions. You’ll start off with a quick introduction to how the series works, before choosing a male or female version of the protagonist, Jesse, and taking off on an adventure to save the world with your crafting skills and your buddies. Oh, and comedian Patton Oswalt voices one of the characters.

Minecraft: Story Mode can be streamed on smart TVs, game consoles, iOS devices, desktops, and smart TVs via Netflix’ service for them; if you want to watch it on an Android device, you’ll need to grab the official app from Google Play to do so.

Via Windows Central

Read more online: https://thenextweb.com/distract/2018/11/28/netflix-gets-an-interactive-minecraft-choose-your-own-adventure-show/

Minecraft has been available for Android since 2011 when the Pocket Edition was launched. A demo version was also available until 2013 when it was removed. After 5 year Mojang has decided to offer Android users another chance to try the world-famous game. A new demo named Minecraft Trial has recently surfaced on the Play Store.

It appears that the app is only available in a few countries as a soft-launch is currently taking place. US users can’t download the trial for now but the situation will certainly change in the following months.

Demos for the other platforms have been available for years. The PC edition has two demos, one in the form of the JAVA edition, which is available since 2012 and the newer Bedrock version which can be found on the Microsoft Store but only Windows 10 users can access the app.

The Android trial version only offers a limited experience. Users that download the app are limited to the survival mode and there is a time limit. Even with the limitations the app still offers you plenty of time in order to decide if you want to pay for the full version.

Mojang did take their time before releasing a new Android demo but the trial has already attracted a large number of users. Most developers that offer paid apps won’t offer a trial and some of the reviews received by the Minecraft trial may justify their lack of enthusiasm. The top reviews beg for the game to go completely free, a scenario that is not likely to happen without the introduction of free-to-play transactions that are prone to become controversial.

Truth to be told, Mojang weren’t obliged to release a trial version and some of the reviews are actually thankful, as some users note that they will buy the paid version. Hopefully, this will encourage other developers to offer free trials or demos instead of forcing you to full price and then go through a refund process if you decide that you don’t like the game.

So by now, you may have heard about how a few lucky gamers have managed to already get their hands on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, thanks to some retailers in Mexico selling retail copies two weeks prior to release. But that’s also created an interesting conundrum for gamers, as several people have begun leaking out details about the game, including the World of Light story details, soundtrack samples and more.

Super Smash
While some fans are excited for what’s to come, others are angry about being spoiled about what Ultimate will be offering — particularly Nintendo. And as you may have learned from the past, to anger Nintendo is not a wise thing. Not in the least.

Reports are pouring in from last night that the company has begun hunting down Smash-related content online, striking streams and videos alike with copyright claims and forcing their removal. In fact, two popular channels appear to have been taken down, mainly because users were actively spoiling the game with soundtrack samples and story clips.

Crunchii and Dystifyzer, two popular YouTubers with over 70,000 subscribers apiece, found their channels shut down due to leaks of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate content. As a result, the channels will likely be taken down permanently sometime over the next week, even with the content already removed. And Nintendo isn’t done yet, as it’s hitting dozens of other videos with similar strikes. They are not messing around.

Reports indicate that both of these channels were hit with over 20-plus copyright strikes, making them severe issues for YouTube.

Crunchii, who goes by the name Crunchiitastic on Twitter, has argued against Nintendo’s practice on Twitter. You can see a sample of his rant below.

Stealth, a Nintendophile that consistently posts observant notes about the company on Twitter, also passed along the following note:

Stealth
@Stealth40k
· 16h
This is the Nintendo Anti-Piracy site that should be used for reporting the piracy activities surrounding Smash Bros. Ultimate. https://ap.nintendo.com/

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Stealth
@Stealth40k
Dystifyzer’s youtube channel with all the Smash Ultimate Music got hit like Crunchii’s did. Two 70k+ subscribed channels obliterated.

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10:27 PM – Nov 25, 2018
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This has left some interesting feelings in the gaming community. On the one hand, some believe Nintendo acted too harshly against these creators; while others believe they “deserve” what they got for spoiling the game days out from its release. What do you think?

If you’ve got an early copy of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, your best bet is to just enjoy it with you and your friends and try not to spoil it with others online. Just appreciate what you have, yeah?

The rest of us will experience Super Smash Bros. Ultimate when it arrives on December 7 for Nintendo Switch.

Tomorrow is going to be all about Cyber Monday, and finding a number of bargains for games and systems you may have missed out on during Black Friday. But it also looks like a huge opportunity for Amazon, as the online retailer is reportedly preparing some kind of reveal for Kingdom Hearts III to tie in with its savings.

Kingdom Hearts
The report comes from KHInsider, who tweeted out that the company will be showcasing some exclusive Kingdom Hearts content starting tomorrow, November 26, during Cyber Monday. The reveal is set to take place around 1 PM Pacific time during a special livestream, in which we’ll see a new trailer for the game, along with an exclusive downloadable content announcement. You can see the tweet for yourself below.

It’s unknown just what this DLC could be, although bonus characters and possibly even a new world to explore could be introduced. The announcement also hints at a potential Twitch Prime exclusive, with a new set out of outfits likely to be revealed for subscribers to the monthly service.

Hype for the long-awaited sequel has been building like crazy over the past few months, with reveals of worlds based on Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Tangled and, as of recent, Big Hero 6, along with the news that the game has officially gone gold, which means no more delays in getting it into our hands. No doubt this latest announcement should keep gamers happy, although we’re likely to see even more from the game in the weeks ahead, leading to its arrival early next year.

We’ll break down whatever news comes from the livestream as soon as it becomes available, as well as whatever benefit comes from being a Twitch Prime subscriber. Hopefully it’ll be worth the wait.

Kingdom Hearts III releases on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on January 29, 2019.

A Minecraft player has transported Fortnite’s Retail Row into the blocky game buy building a faithful recreation of that portion of the battle royale game’s map.

The YouTuber by the name of SeanBits created the video above that’s super satisfying to watch if you’re a fan of dropping at Retail Row or if you just want to watch a relaxing timelapse where everything comes together. With some smooth editing and a foundation that’s free of any extra objects or structures to detract from Retail Row, the video that’s just over 5 minutes and 30 seconds shows how the entirety of Retail Row was created in Fortnite.

A map that appears in the top-right corner every now and then moves as different part of the battle royale map’s areas are worked on, so Fortnite players who know the drop spot well can follow along there. SeanBits’ narration also names off each of the buildings that are often called different things by players. His timelapse concludes about halfway through the video where he adds some cars and trees while coloring in parts of the terrain with different objects. After that, a peaceful walkthrough of Retail Row shows how it all came together and what it looks like during the night and day, rain or shine.

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View image on Twitter

Sean Smith
@SeanBitss
Finally Got around to making another Fortnite Build, this time it is Retail Row

🔨Built on: @BuildersRefuge
📷Render by me: @SeanBitss

Video Link: https://youtu.be/YdhtDdDBT4Q

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10:00 PM – Nov 24, 2018
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For any Minecraft player who’s impressed by the creation and wanted to give it a go themselves, the Retail Row creator shared some information on the mods and packs he used in his game when creating part of the battle royale map. With the Replay Mod to capture the footage and the Better Foliage Mod to improve the foliage, the only other change was the BSL Shaders shader pack he used. He also answered ahead of any questions within the comments to say that the entire project took him around 7 hours to complete. The builder included a link to a free download for the creation within the video’s description for anyone who doesn’t feel like putting in the work themselves.

SeanBits has more videos like this in his channel where he created different parts of Fortnite’s map and other recognizable structures in Minecraft. Many people who subscribed to his channel likely saw one of his creations shared months ago where he put Tilted Towers in Minecraft with a similar timelapse and said he planned on creating a series where he worked through different parts of Fortnite’s map.