Minecraft projects

I’ve been playing Minecraft for most of my life. I do a lot more than just playing survival, or building. I’ve always tried to push Minecraft to its furthest, without the use of mods.

I’ve always had this dream Minecraft feature, where any server you join, the game would automatically download the mods necessary to play, so each server could be an entirely new, different experience. Obviously this would never work, there are too many security and safety concerns. However, there are Plugins, and datapacks, that run on the server, to modify how things act, and it is possible to automatically download resource packs, when joining a server. Servers like Wynncraft, MCC Island, and Origin Realms, are all massive servers, that feel like completely different games, and the workarounds they have to use to make things work, is almost more difficult than just making a brand new game!

I’ve always been fascinated by this, datapacks, plug-ins, resource packs, are all very limiting compared to fully fleshed out mods, with a mod, it takes just a few lines of code to add in a brand new item, with its own item ID, and texture. with datapacks, it still isnt possible, the current workaround is to take an existing item, preferably one that isnt used often in game, and modify its item NBT data, or ‘components’, to change specific parts, like its sound effects, or name, or model. then you must make a completely separate resource pack, with very specific formatting, and its own metadata file to tell the game that the item with that NBT data, must use this model. this doesnt even take into consideration adding crafting recipes, which there still isnt much official support for. these methods are incredibly limiting, although, every update Mojang is working on adding support for new components, and nbt data.

I’ve worked on some servers that use these workarounds, some my own, and some for large events. I’ve dissected all the popular servers resource packs, which get stored locally on your computer, they contain the mcmeta files which can give you hints on how some assets work.

One of my largest solo projects, was my hat pack, which was just a datapack, and resource pack, that added ~50 wearable hats into your game. my first idea was for a public server, where people could either buy, or earn keys, to unlock crates, that would randomly give you a hat, similar to Team Fortress 2. These hats would come in different rarities, and could be traded, the idea was that there would be a legitimate market where people would trade their rare hats in exchange for other hats, or goods on the server. I eventually spun this off into its own pack, where the hats would have a very rare chance of spawning on hostile mobs heads.

Another project i worked on was a Minimap / World map plugin. Minimaps are a common client side mod that most minecraft players use daily, it renders a real time map of your surroundings, aswell as a world map which allows you to zoom out and see everywhere that you have been. It is a very useful mod, theres a reason so many people install them. however, I wanted to make a version that is entirely on the server. although this isnt truly feasible, it would cause the whole server to slow down if/when used by hundreds of people at once. But the concept worked. I would render the top down of the terrain generated, and display it on a map. maps in minecraft usually work by just, rendering a single section, if you move around, the map wouldnt follow you, and thats what this plugin changes.

Another purely visual project I worked on, was this custom tab menu. The tab menu in Minecraft is just a way to see players that are online, however it is often used by servers to advertise themselves, to show what server you are playing on. Tab menus can only be text, and they can be modified by the server, often times animated by changing the color and cycling each frame. I took this to the next level by adding images, but images arent supported, so I used a resource pack to add a bitmap image as a font file, putting that font overtop unused unicode characters that are normally untextured. after I created this, several large servers followed, making custom fonts, icons, etc. but I wanted to make something more unique, so I animated the image, by cycling through 20 different unicode characters on the tab menu, basically, a flipbook animation of unicode characters that are textured to look like full images. I also achieved the rank icons the same way, a custom texture, and the role just displays the unicode character in front of the usernames.

2D Unity RPG

To continue learning everything there is about Unity, I began this project, a simple 2D top down game, very simple graphically, 16x16 sprites, the only color used is white. drawing inspiration from baba is you, and other top down rpgs like zelda or pokemon. while it is simple, i think the post processing gives it charm, like playing on a CRT TV.

But the goal wasnt to blow anyone away with the visuals. I just wanted to learn the ropes of unity, there were so many simple things that I have no clue how they work, I can do materials, I can do shaders, but I have no idea what goes into making a main menu screen, or how to make an enterable house, or how to get text box dialogue to appear on screen, so that was the biggest challenge, programming.

In just under a week I was left with this, with basic sound effects, post processing, npc dialogue, collision, movement. I think of it as a possible framework to make a much bigger game. The biggest hurdle I had to overcome while making this was definitely the UI, it was incredibly confusing, but once I got the hang of it it was simple. another hurdle was definitely the movement, I did all the movement animations and sounds in the programming, not using Unitys built in animation controller.

Artistically while simple, I did have some trouble with it being too simple. There were lots of things I wanted to draw, and put into my game, but since every sprite was 16x16 black and white, they were too simple.

Unreal Engine Asset Level Design

This project was my first time using Unreal Engine for anything besides basic material editing. It had me design a mock-up for a level and turn it into a fully realized 3D world, utilizing provided assets, the floor, walls, and doors, and find fitting 3D assets on the Fab store. I also had to add in lights to make the level visually coherent.

This assignment taught me practical experience in how to design within a 3D environment, learning to consider factors such as player navigation and visual storytelling, how to stick with a cohesive style. What was surprising, was how tricky it became to populate even the smaller areas, with assets that felt like they belonged.