For the past few days, I’ve been playing Minecraft for hours on end. I’m not a big builder when I play the game. I’ve only recently taken on my first relatively large construction job, which is a sort of castle/cathedral mix. The building itself isn’t that tall, maxing out at probably 25 blocks.

To be honest, I’m not even very excited to build the building. I’m more excited to create everything around it: gardens, ponds, fountains, etc. I even happened upon a natural deep hole that I’m going to fill with water and turn into a well. Creating environments is definitely my favorite thing to do in Minecraft, not make Giant Structures.

I’ve been fascinated by the environments in games since I started playing them. When I was younger and wasn’t able to progress in games, I didn’t mind, because just running around the world was enough for me. Mario 64, Mario Sunshine, Ocarina of Time, and Wind Waker have probably impacted me more than any other game when it comes to this. I spent hours and hours traversing the world, exploring its nooks and crannies, but not actually doing anything. 

Those games have really influenced the way I play Minecraft. I want to build underground forests with light streaming down from holes in the surface. I want to build an entire village on a floating island in the sky. I want to build a glass castle beneath the surface of the ocean. (I do actually plan to create these things eventually.)

Maybe I should be a level designer for games. Or maybe I should just keep thinking up these things that I’ll probably never have the patience to do.