Working as Intended

Well, technically multiple in-game days, but shut up!

I'm rather late in jumping on the Minecraft bandwagon, but I thought I'd chronicle my time playing the game over the next... however long the game holds my interest. A few friends have been asking that I pick up this game, and while I like sandbox games, nothing especially seemed to appeal to me. Of course, almost everyone forgot to mention the survival/adventuring aspect of the game, which is what would've hooked me instantly.


Whoopsie-daisy.

Ah well, the point is I'm here and now friends can laugh at my more-than-likely idiotic displays in Minecraft.

If you don't know what Minecraft is, it's basically a Java-based game that has very 8-Bit styled graphics. You play as.. some bastard, as you explore a gigantic, randomly generated world and try to make a home for yourself. However, come nightfall (or in a dark cave at any time), all sorts of monsters start to spawn. So you have to manage your time very carefully and make sure you have the proper fortifications each night (or in the depths of caves) to prepare yourself against all the nasties.

Okay? Okay. Let's begin!

This was my first home in the game. I stumbled across a nice-looking cave pretty late in the game, after spending some time punching down trees with my fist (as is my custom). I took this screenshot later in the day, because I'm a lazy idiot and forgot to take one earlier of Wizards!


It's hardly a palace, but it was a great way to survive at night, as I could easily fortify the wall with stones and wait for the evil monsters to piss off to... wherever it is monsters go after the Sun rises. My guess is that they go have sexy parties with the Ghouls from FFXI. Why do I never get invited, huh? HUH?!

Pfft. Snobs..



Here's a picture of said fortification. I left the little slit open so I could peer out and wait for the moon to drop down. You pretty much live or die by the positions of various things in the sky in this game. Thankfully no monsters spawned, but I had a really dark cave behind me, so it'd be for the best if I found some coal.



The next day I managed to find some coal waaaaaaaaaaay up in the mountains.



Way, way up. Getting up here was not freakin' easy!



But with coal in hand, I could combine it with a stick and make a nice little torch. They're very useful for keeping monsters from spawning around you. And, as far as I can tell, they don't burn everything to the ground when you go to make your first wooden shack.

Assuming you make one. You can always stay as a hermit inside a cave.



I started to try and make a series of tunnels in the back of my cave, but I ran out of coal and I could start to hear moaning and scratching the further I went in. It's actually surprisingly creepy, as you can never tell if you're going to smash your way into a monster-infested cavern system or not.

I decided to go with the whole 'house-building' idea.



When the very blocky daylight first broke, I decided to cut down a lot of trees and get cracking on building my first little shelter! Day and Night take equally long periods of time to pass, so you don't get at lot of time to run around like a ninny.



This is about as far as I got on my first day building. It wasn't much, but it was getting there! I'd just have to squat in my little cave for a few more days. No big deal!

Oh, except that there's something wrong with my house..



Upon digging the foundation for it (because I'm silly like that), I discovered a tiny little hole. Which, as I continued to chip away at it, give rise to a gigantic cave. I could've just sealed it back up, but what kind of responsible adult would I be if I didn't build my house over a giant monster-infested hell-hole?

A fucking insane one, that's what.



I decided to head back to my old cave when I was set upon by a monster that crawled out of it. My house is pretty much just around the corner, so it's very likely that this... thing spawned in the tunnel system I made one  night. Which is actually kinda unsettling.

In any case, I did the sensible thing.



I circled around it (not having the weapons/health to deal with it) and sealed up the hole to my cave when it was inside. On the plus side, no more monsters! The downer? I had no bloody home and the day was already half-over. Shit!



So I very quickly started building the rest of the house, figuring I could do the inside work when night fell.



Night did end up falling, but my house was finished! I had no coal, though, so I had to seal up the entrance to the house every night, while I slowly worked around on the inside. The high-up windows are there to check on any monsters, as well as where the moon/Sun is.



Toiling away!

Toiling, toiling, toiling...



Come morning, it was done!

It wasn't much of a house yet, but it did its job perfectly fine.

I did need more coal for torches, however...



Back to the cave of coal!

I was actually planning on building a cave system connecting it and my original cave, but.. well.. the cave's gone and now..



So is the coal. Shit!

I was going to go further down and investigate, but half way down the little natural staircase there I started to hear gurgling and moaning. Unless monsters are incredibly weak to.. well.. a shovel and a block of wood, I probably wouldn't make it out alive.

Though, even if I left this cave alone I didn't much very many options.



I decided to.. uh, 'gear' up the best I could, make some torches from the little bits of coal I could squeeze out of the mountain cave and prepare to drop into this underground system that's underneath my comfy little house!

I'm so dead, aren't I?