Fishing for attention

Nowadays Thomas is a part of a professional team of builders that makes commercial builds, such as recreating the city of Florence for an Italian art museum or this world that portrays the excitement of science and chemistry. A creative job, but the road to it began with utter destruction.

“I started out by just playing on survival servers, but I never really enjoyed it since people [were] mean and destroyed [my] work,” Thomas remembers. “Because of this, I tried to find servers that needed builders. This eventually led to me trying out new blocks in an update on a certain creative server I fell in love with. Five years later I still work on the same server – now known as ‘Shapescape’.”

When Planet Minecraft held their own fish-themed tournament “BassCrafters Solo Competition”, Thomas was one of its participants. Being a competitive spirit, not only did he want to create the best possible build centred around the theme of the challenge – he also took the opportunity to convey a special message. While other participants focused on crystal-clear sceneries and daring catches, Thomas created “Dumpster Diving” – a dark glimpse of what the future might bring to not only fishing, but the planet as a whole.

To him, it’s simply more to building contests than just making “nice builds”. “You have to show people that you can be artistic with any concept, and the best way to do that is to consider the subject from all angles,” says Thomas. “I thought ‘well, if this contest is about fishing, what if I make a build where there are no fish to catch anymore?’”

Dumpster Diving takes the beholder to a dystopian cyberpunk world of decay and pollution. In this bay, chimneys are spewing out gas while a lonely fishing boat is doing its best to haul in some food for humanity. Above it, a huge arch connects the two sides of the harbour.

“I knew that I wanted something grand in scope, so I decided that a massive arch connecting two sides of structure together would be perfect for the composition and making the player feel that the boat is immersed in the middle of this dystopian scene. Personally, I love arches for this very reason; nothing is more immersive than being able to walk under a massive arch as you tilt your head back gazing at the curvature of the ceiling surrounding you.”

“Whether it be a silly twist on a common idea, or a symbolic representation of a very deep truth, your concept should be something that you care about or enjoy. Also, it doesn’t matter how popular your creation becomes or how many people know who you are. All that matters is that you create it, can self critique it, and can learn from it; you’ll make friends and an audience along the way who care about you.”

Wow Thomas, that really puts my own fishing contest into perspective. Perhaps I should start talking to my cousin again?

...Nah.

Renders by Bramboss and Splekh