Archive for September, 2010

After dying in the depths of the caverns for the hundredth time, it was time for a new adventure.

My quest: to start from the spawn point with an empty inventory and go north.

That was it. Start with nothing and trek into the north to see what adventures awaited me.

The first day was fine. I headed off and stopped along the way to gather some essentials and make some tools and torches, just in case. As night fell I was on the beach at the tip of my starting island and decided the safest place to spend the night was on a small island where no monsters could get me.

A tiny, sandy island.

It was safe, yes, but also very dull, so I decided to swim north to a tiny bit of sand sticking out of the sea. Up ahead was a larger island but… uh oh…

Do you see it?

I could just see the telltale red dots of a spider’s eyes. I wasn’t about to risk cutting my adventure short, so I decided not to move until morning.

I spent the night right here.

As dawn broke, I saw that I was right to have stayed where I was. The spider was not alone.

Skeletons!

I made myself a sword and waited until they burst into flames under the rays of the morning sun, then swam across the gap. Unfortunately, it seems that spiders don’t combust at daybreak and it ambushed me from behind a tree. No screenshots, I’m afraid, as I was in a blind panic trying to save my life.

I hit out at it with my sword, again and again, and it died, but left me grievously injured. I had to find food. Food means pigs. I constructed a boat and set out across the sea to the next island. Right on the beach – a pig!

I shall call you Bacon.

Reader, I killed him. Sorry. He didn’t drop any meat, though. No ham, bacon or pork. Nothing. The next pig I killed didn’t oblige, either. After that, though, I found a few pigs that all gave up a lot of meat.

I didn’t eat it there and then, though. I decided I’d cook it up at night for something to do during the long hours of darkness.

As night fell, I looked for a cave, but all I found was a rocky overhang on a beach.

Not really a cave.

I cooked up my bacon and ate some of it. Bacon, as we know, heals all wounds.

There was still a lot of night left, though, so I decided to dig north through the island and see if I could get out the other side at daybreak.

It didn’t take long for me to dig through – and I nearly killed myself doing it.

Lava!

Luckily, I didn’t dig right under the lava flow and stayed put until morning. I dug round the lava and out on to the beach… where I was ambushed by another spider. Again, no screenshots – I was too busy swimming for my life. Spiders can swim too, but after a while it seemed to give up.

I found myself on another island, where something weird caught my eye.

What is that?

A black void, the like of which I’d never seen. I lit a torch.

Oh. I see.

It was just a cave. Oddly, when I removed the torch, it didn’t fade back into a void, but the let the sunlight shine in.

Another long trek over land during the day, then another night spent digging through a hill. When I found myself at the other side I made some glass so I could safely watch and wait for dawn.

Waiting for the sun.

I was a little scared, but when I left my hiding place there were no nasty surprises, just a burning skeleton off in the distance.

For the first time, though, it looked like I’d reached the edge of the world.

Following the clouds across the sea.

It took a while, even in my speedy little boat, but eventually I found more land.

Land! Whoa!

Another island, more walking to do. As night fell I discovered a cave.

It's actually just a large cavern, no passages, no monsters.

And that’s where I left it, another night underground.

Minecraft, then. It’s fabulous as a building toy. It’s great when you have a base camp and explore nearby caverns and start farming.

And it’s also wonderful just to head out and see what you find.

Sure, I won’t die if I’m careful, but it’s still an adventure. I know that if I die I’ll be back to the spawn point and will never see these lands again. This is fine, fine exploration. I can’t wait to see what updates bring. Different regions with different weather? Monster camps on land? Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes? Sea serpents? Maybe some of those, maybe none of them, but you never know.

Having walled off a huge expanse of land, I decided I should do something with it.

My latest creation.

I built a spiral lighthouse, then built a beardy face next to it. I tend to sign my work with variations on that abstract beardy face. Sometimes it smiles, sometimes it’s grumpy, sometimes there’s a nose, sometimes there isn’t.

Also, I installed a new texture pack. You can see it more easily in a daytime shot.

Batman, newly textured.

I like it rather a lot, but unfortunately lava and water aren’t animated, which is sad.

Anyway, if you want to try it, here’s THE LINK.