Minecraft and the artist

For my birthday I finally bought Minecraft. I know most of you reading this have likely played it in the decade it has come out. I knew that it would absorb me if I bought it, and that I had other things to do with my life. The work with anthropology is just as absorbing.

On the other hand, I have discovered how much money I have not spent since I bougth the game. Why spend more when I have this game? The only game that I still play now is Gran Turismo 6, and that can be just as absorbing.

That is not why I am writing this article. This morning, as I planned things out in my mind, I realized how close the work was to writing. First you have nothing, and a lot of setbacks. Then you start to figure things out, and how they work. The work continues, and you start to mold things into what you want. Cheating happens to help deal with the problems. Then finally, you realize its a lot of work that is sort of boring.

When you play the game, you are jumped into a randomly made world that is mostly just fields, and animals. There is not idea how things work, or what to do. You do know its called minecraft, and there is digging involved. So you dig, and you dig, and collect items. Then you figure out that these items can be used to make a structure, a building of whatever you want.

There is also crafting, which helps you do things a lot faster. You can craft in special ways, like the picture shows. I am burning sand to turn it into glass. Glass is great if you want to see out of a wall, and not get hit.

As soon as it’s dark, you discover there are enemies, and they are not easy to deal with. Monsters roam and hit you as you travel to do work. Far worse, if you are not careful, you can lose all of the items you were carrying with you. There is a way to retrieve it but it is hard because you have to go back to the spot where the zombies and skeletons swarmed you.

Likewise, writing, or any creative endeavor really, starts with a lot of nothing. You have a block of wood, a blank page, and some ideas. You know that writing means to write, but you don’t know what to write about. There is crafting, and using tools you learned to making what you want.

For example, my skills with photoshop was step by step, trick by trick. Sometimes I open up a page, and not even know what it will look like as I start. I just want to try out these new things I know about, and see how they work.

Then dark times happen. You get busy with life, or have some kind of illness. For anthropology I got scared of people and their response. I was researching videogame culture, and trying to check out geek conventions to understand it better. Then Gamergate, and Sad Puppies made talking about it a minefield. I held Hugo awards, and was scared to talk about it because of all the creepiness to it.

It took a lot of work to regain my courage to write about it again. I had to come back, and type and work to talk about what I observed. There are still monsters raging about, telling people that we can only observe things in the way they describe.

If you really want to know, I have a video game project that was lost. I have tried rebuilding it, and other things, but my skills are not there yet. It sort of drives me nuts, because it worked great with the program I used. I have been slowly trying to rebuild ever since.

In the game, I think the big step for me was finding out about torches. I had been putting glass out as a way to let in daylight into the tunnels. Torches meant I could work in an area, and set the light as needed. I could burrow, and not worry about monsters showing up from the darkened crags.

This led me to create larger castle areas that looked amazing. I figured out how to stop the monsters from getting so close to me. I took down all of the areas around the castle so that they were underwater. It meant the castle looked grander at the same time.

I used water as a way to keep the monsters from getting close to the castle as well. It rushed them into the sea, and kept me safe.

Swords can help me fight them off, and this means a way out as I work to move to a safe spot. Actually I made tunnels from safe spot to safe spot with torches along the way so I could move quickly around. It is fun to hear the monsters groan, and yet they are unable to come near me.

In the same way, I figured out things about the culture, and worked to show my findings. I asked people what they knew, and how they knew things. When I wrote, I would slowly discover things about characters, and how they thought. This meant I could go back, and mention it in earlier parts of the story.

Common responses from headlines, and other ideas made me ask questions. Usually the answer turned out to be against the article. To give you an idea, women are totally part of conventions, and hold major parts in planning and organizing. Yes, there is a larger male population, but women are not denigrated. It turns out that women are the ones who are telling each other not to go to conventions, and all the scary stories that can happen in them.

I would not have found this, if I wasn’t asking questions, and discussing it with people. It was scary, but I quickly figured out that the people who talk about scary things in conventions, don’t go into them.

Slowly, my skills got better. Actually, now I am trying to figure out how to recover a castle I built right at the beginning. I need to place torches, and more storage areas into it. Also, some of the walls need to be rebuilt. It will be hard work, but I know I can do it now. The big problem is all of the monsters that swarm around it, I will have to go in, place torches, and then get out. The tunnel system is way better than the system of building new walls for the castle. I will likely make new walls, but only after the tunnels work better.

This means rebuilding floors, and making more layers to explore. I was just digging because that’s all I knew how to do. When I started to figure it out, I could see all of the mistakes being made. Now I can go back to edit, and make things better.

The biggest mistake I made, was not knowing I was respawning in the same spot. Once I figured that out, I was able to build a fortress right there. I could be killed, and go back to that spot really easily. The castle far away seemed like the best idea. There was one before it, but it was swarmed and blown up so badly, I hardly recognized it later. So the rebuilding means making a way to that spot, and then slowly moving around it.

In writing, we sometimes take on ideas without knowing where it will go. The story and ideas push us forward into this amazing thing. If you wonder, yes, writers cry at sad parts, because they didn’t know either. They sometimes skip a chapter because it has a part they know will make them sad.

But once the story is written, the process is not finished. You leave it for a little while, and then go back to edit. All of those terrible choices, or screwed up analogies are put to the test. You know what it should look like, and it’s time to see if it really does that. Once you shaped it up a little better, having dug as deep as you could, it’s time for monsters.

This time monsters are useful, if still very scary. They need to destroy your work. They need to tear down walls, and talk about how boring it was. In other words, they need to read your work, and cover it in comments. That is really difficult to take at times. It’s especially hard, because you may need a specific monster, and not another.

Or, you may need a fan of a specific genre, and not your mom. My Mom is wonderful, but she can’t figure out stories very well. If there are action scenes, and other parts she gets bored. In other words, a story about a little boy who can travel through time using memories is not easy for her. You need other readers. I have stories I know my Mom would think are terrible just because it’s not a genre she enjoys.

If you wrote horror, you need horror readers. They want to be scared, or find the intense parts of the story as important. They also know the tropes, and how things work to help you move along. It’s hard to find them, but they are so useful.

Editing in other creations means things like Beta or alpha testing a game. You are showing off a single level, or letting them try out specific mechanics to find problems. The alpha is for the larger stuff like how people use a game mechanic, and if it works. The Beta is more for perfecting and getting things working better.

After some time, I figured out that rules don’t need to be followed like in real life. There is no gravity for all objects. You can place something in the air, and it will just hang there. So I cheated, and made open air walkways to all of the structures. It is faster, and honestly nicer than the tunnels. The problem is the monsters are still around to shoot you. They can’t attack using regular means, but the shooting guys are deadly.

To make up for this, I placed block towers in spots I knew monsters spawned in. Then I put a torch on the top. The blocks beneath are taken down, so there is a hovering block with a torch on it. It keeps the enemies away, and I can walk on the high paths to view what work needs to be done. This way, I can slowly work towards the lost castle without being attacked.

Honestly, making a quick structure, and then tunneling back to the main tunnel seems like the best plan. I intend to explore that way, and use the airwalks as a quick way over. In fact, while planning it out, I discovered I could make a castle on tree leaves.

So I can have walkways, and paths from trees to castles, and enemies beneath don’t know how to respond. It’s not like the game doesn’t know about cheating. I have found structures just hanging in the air with nothing on them while exploring.

In writing, there are tricks to learn. We have websites that describe great ways to alter a story, or figure out things. TV-Tropes is one of them. Some try to not do the trope just to be original, while others realize why the trope exists in the first place.

Also, there are ways to skip parts of the story. That boring part where they walk for several miles doesn’t need a large description. Saying parts is enough to help people feel the slog of movement without having to do it themselves.

Art wise, cheating has become its own style. I can’t draw in traditional form. That sounds dumb, but if I bring it up with traditionalists, they can’t figure out how I make things. The reality is we have tutorials for new photoshop skills. We also have websites dedicated to letting you trace images for background things.

Using illustrator, I trace out the person I want, or the object I think I need. If I want depth, I make a 3D scene with basic shapes, and parts. Colors can be shown for places. Heck, there are websites that let you grab pictures for definition. Then I add the shot of 3D scene, the tracings, and colors to photoshop. Using photoshop I make the picture look like it is natural. In a few hours, I can have everything I wanted.

The same can be said for programming, or game design. Many indie game designers buy assets, and put them together for level design. There are code repositories for adding things you want to do. It means saving yourself from making false steps. It also means cheating really works.

The reality of all this doesn’t stop everything from being boring. Most of the game is really just digging a lot. I set up the safety structure in an area, and now am digging around it to get my needed design. The lower part of the castle I respawn at will be a giant see through glass structure that acts like a beacon in the dark. It will be well lit, and look awesome. To do this, I need to dig, and dig, and dig. Using my knowledge of how things work, I can plan out what needs to be done, and what needs to be done when. If it’s dark, I work in the digging part. When it’s light, I dig the outside area.

I want to create a long path over a gap, so the monsters can’t attack at all. So it means just digging row after row of dirt paths. The shovel helps, but I don’t always use one to save resources. Which means the entire structure takes forever to do, and I can only do it during the daytime, or stay in the well lit areas.

Slowly but surely, I am going to my original great castle, and working to turn it into an amazing structure. I have plans for it, and ideas that I want to try out. My first week was trying to build it, and failing. My next week was building the respawn area castle, and safety paths. I intend to fix the original, and expand them to great glory. The best part, is the next castle will be way better, because I know what I am doing, and planning things out for it.

Exploration by tunnels, and movement by air walkways is the best trick.

Writing, not matter what kind, means sitting at a computer for hours on end, just writing. It actually gets so boring, I need to take breaks. My dog comes in handy on that part. I am writing this, because the notes for the Emerald City Comic Con is taking forever to write. The worst is knowing the further I go from it, the harder it will be to remember everything. Trying to keep up means literal headaches from the brain strain.

Designing a game, or doing art is much of the same. You are still at a computer, doing planning and working to find the answers to questions. Sometimes it means taking a break. I didn’t know how to do something, so I left for a little while, and thought about it from time to time. Finally the answer came, and I was able to find a way to implement it.

Like the lost castle, I am working to make that game I was working years ago and lost. My skills aren’t quite there yet, but every time I work at it, I get closer. It is not the fast moving thing I expected it to be.

People see the final product, but rarely see the work it took to make it. When you first start, it’s an open field or blank piece of paper. Slowly the artist learns skills, and gets ideas on how to do things. Monsters like illness, and big things in life get in the way. Editing and getting critiques is not easy. Cheats, and quick ways to get around problems are found. In the end though, it is boring. Minecraft is a lot of digging with a purpose in mind. Artistic work is a lot of boring work with a purpose.

I will try to post pictures and maybe even a video of the work in progress on patreon. It really has absorbed me a bit. But that’s the final piece about art and minecraft.

The reality is, when you do something that absorbs you, the boring parts aren’t noticed. You play a good game, and the hours while away. You work on a good story, or try to figure out a piece of code, and it takes hours without notice. In fact, you have to work to tame that being absorbed, or you never step out of the office. It’s the reason why writers, and artists have health problems.

The work though is worth it. People see the amazing piece of art, and they love it. Most people don’t realize the years of work it took to create a single piece of art. They see the artist now, and the work they do so quickly. They don’t see the cheats, or learning at all.

To me, that’s a reality that Minecraft opens up perfectly.