New Year's Celebration: Caves & Cliffs Explorers

Our New Year’s Celebration is underway and the first free maps are dropping! Kicking us off is Spark Universe, who have created Caves & Cliffs Explorers for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition*, which allows you to delve into the Update Aquatic. No, I kid! This map will help you discover the exciting new features in the Caves & Cliffs Update. That update was really big, so this was a big help to me, personally. Did you know there were goats in there? You did? Well, bully for you.

Caves & Cliffs Explorers tells the story of a village that was built over a series of mines. One fateful day, the village collapsed because the mines were mined a little too enthusiastically. It’s up to you to rebuild the village through a series of quests, such as crafting lightning rods and saving a lost axolotl! This map has so much packed into it, much like the update that inspired it, that I couldn’t get through it on my own. That’s right, I needed information from the source so I would know where to begin! Spark Universe tell us what we need to know about this adventure! 

One of the most challenging and exciting parts of making this map was developing it alongside the Minecraft update itself. We would constantly be keeping up to date with Java snapshots, Bedrock betas and even interviews from the Mojang Studios developers. Because of this, we had a development process of constantly adding new quests and adjusting the visual look of the map. We really wanted to make sure we did everything possible to capture the most important parts of the update in a single map.  

What inspired this map?  

Chaos. Destruction. Total collapse of… well, maybe that is a bit dramatic. We essentially thought about what would be happening to our worlds once the update came. With this update, the entire landscape of Minecraft is being changed, from mountains to caves. So, we thought about the hypothetical idea, what would happen if a village collapsed into a cave after the update? 

What should players know before diving into this map?  

You can really jump into this map without any information! Dig straight down. No torches. All fun. Whether you have been keeping up with the update or not, we really crafted the experience to teach about everything from spyglasses to axolotls. You get to experience the fun highlights of the update all while listening to the sweet sounds of the new Caves & Cliffs music!  

Do you have any advice for aspiring map-makers?  

We think there has been no better time to make maps than with the latest 1.18. It really opens up a whole new world of unique behaviors and interactions for map-makers to experiment with. Even with our map, we are only scratching the surface of the update and we look forward to seeing the incredible stuff the community creates!  

What do you wish you knew about map making when you were first starting out? 

One thing that we wish we knew when starting out was the idea that you don’t have to do everything all by yourself. The Minecraft community is filled with talented and creative people who can help bring your crazy ideas to life. We are very fortunate now to have our company made up of some of the most talented people who all share the common goal of making incredible content together.  

Thanks, Spark Universe! Now go forth and quest, dear reader. This village won’t rebuild itself! You can find this map and the YouTube Creator Skin Pack in Minecraft Marketplace.  

*Requires Minecraft: Bedrock Edition with the latest updates (sold separately).  Limit 1 per person/account.