Overture Build Team

An overture can be many things. To a band geek like me, an overture is that beginning part of a song where the trumpet section gets to hog all the attention from the rest of the instruments including my noble and extremely important triangle solo.

To Hexcore and his team of builders Newth, Squarish, and Arieben, an overture is more like this: an introduction to something more substantial. Hexcore’s Overture Build Team is where players go to get something more for their Minecraft.

Overture member Hexcore made the jump from PvP to creative servers, getting his feet wet in the building community that taught him how to use such critical program tools like VoxelSniper and World Edit.

Though despite all his learning, building wasn’t his -ahem- forte. So he cobbled together a band of builders to help get his vision going. Overture itself was a merger between his Minecraft build team and the build team of another player, Hasan.

Newth is one those builders. “I was looking for a formal team to join. I passed the application process and together, with some of the best builders I know, we all created Overture.”

Overture makes just about anything you can think of, from spawn areas to individual assets and sculptures. And builds of course require builders. What’s that old saying? “If you do what you love you never have to work a day in your life.” Sorry to break it to you but that’s not true. Work is work, even if it’s fun. Sobs

Ariben loves Minecraft, but building to someone else’s blueprints, like what he does for Overture, can be a little tough. “Minecraft allows me to create worlds that I can immerse myself and other players in - you just can’t get that in most mediums,” he says.

“But the difference in building for Overture is the limitations - I can’t build exactly what I want. But as long as it’s not something mind-numbing, like medieval villages, then I don’t usually have any problem incorporating my style into it.”

“We’re building for someone else,” Squaris adds. “So we often have to change styles to something we might not be comfortable with.”

But time and experience working with others on the team helps all the builders grow. “Since I’ve been building with Overture for so long,” Squaris continues. “I’ve learned how to take what a client wants and blend it together with my own style to provide something unique, something a client may not be expecting but really likes.”

Churning out designs for others sounds more like factory work than fun, but Newth uses similar methods to sneak in bits of his own creativity, keeping what he does fresh and exciting. “I usually start with an overview that includes all the things the client wants then add my own kind of cartoony style on top.”

Working with a talented bunch of artists is of course its own reward, but building with Overture has some unexpected perks too.

Newth often builds lobbies and spawns for other servers, then he’d go play in them. “It was nice hiding secret chests on the maps and then using those to my advantage on the games I played there.”

So if you’re interested in being a builder, whether you want to hang out with your friends or leave caches of weapons throughout the spawn rooms of the world, brush up on those communication skills and watch a couple of tutorial videos. Hexcore offers this advice; “start with understanding the basics of color, structures, buildings, and start very small. Get creative. Express your inner child. Build that 100 block tall unicorn, it's fine if it looks pointy everywhere the first time.”

If you’re not interested in building - or your unicorns keep coming out pointy - that’s okay too. Build teams need leaders like bands need triangle solos, something to bring it all together.

“Whether you’re building or leading a build team,” Hexcore says, “the only thing that really matters is that you always strive to beat your last performance.”

Bravo!

Renders by OmegaFox, Fixxy, Kyriee, Rebelite, Timothy Chen, and LNeoX