Creepy Castle

Are you afraid of ghosts? Do phantoms frighten you? I hope not, because today’s castle build, made by German builder Christopher as a tryout for the build team PixelBiester, definitely looks haunted to me. Especially when it’s all lit up at night, with the tall evergreen trees all around… just looking at it makes me shiver!

This might not have been Christopher’s intention, though. He was building on the theme of “dynasty”, trying to evoke the feeling of an ancient, powerful family. And his castle definitely does look like the sort of grand old home passed down from parent to child across generations. But I’m still pretty sure that’s how you get ghosts!

Christopher explains that he feels quite lucky that his castle turned out the way it did, due to a big factor of “randomness” in the project. But his build process seems very methodical, in my opinion!

“I started off with finding the right blogs and details, and then I started building tons of assets for the main structure,” he tells me. “After I was done with half of the assets, I made the terrain.” The base for this build came from an earlier map that he heavily adapted to fit this new style, with new textures to reflect the rural village feel. For example, he planned out all of the pathways and fields in advance.

“Not everything was built with assets,” he adds. “Unique details were made by hand and didn’t get pasted in.” For example, once he was done with the giant castle, he decided that the smaller houses needed to be similar, but that they couldn’t use the exact same blocks. “The market and the fields were made by hand, too,” he says. Those are some of my favourite parts of the build because they add a sense of realism – there’s no point having a fancy home if you’ve got nothing to eat! Some of the build's trees was also borrowed from PixbelBiester member Mulcho.

Christopher tells me that his favourite parts of the build are the structure assets, but that he also just found the process of building really enjoyable. “Seeing the way that it turned out in the end and seeing how everything starts to come together when you build is one of the things that kept me motivated,” he says.

He needed to stay motivated for a while – the build took two weeks with Christopher putting in several hours of work every single day. Plus, it was an application for a build team that he tried out for previously, so he was persevering in that way too.

In fact, he’s been building for about three years, for various servers and other build teams, always working to improve his skills bit by bit. Much of Christopher’s success with growing his style can also be credited to friend that has helped him along the way. “I’ve had huge help from my teacher Viernas, he taught me everything I now know about building. Without him I probably wouldn’t be in this position.”

With his hard work and this help from others, Christopher has managed to create a build to be proud of – even if it does put me on the lookout for ghouls every time I see it. Oh, the terror! Is he sure it’s not haunted?!

Renders by TheMrPinguin