New Year’s Celebration: Howl of the Wild

The New Year’s Celebration has kicked off this week, with a free YouTube Creator Skin Pack, a Minecraft Marketplace sale, and the first two free maps! We already took a look at the Minecraft: Bedrock Edition map, Caves & Cliffs Explorers, so now it’s time to see what’s going on over at Minecraft: Java Edition*!  

Mithey has once again created a gorgeous map for Java Edition, available for download here. Howl of the Wild transforms you into a lone wolf, navigating through a magical forest filled with puzzles to solve, areas to explore, and unlikely companions to team up with. This ambient adventure challenges you to collect, explore, and solve problems creatively while you take in the beautiful views. So get out there and walk around, or activate runestones and levitate orbs. But a word to the wise is to stay alert, because while this map focuses on puzzles and exploration, it’s still set in a forest where not all the creaturesare as friendly as you think. 

We sat down with the creator for some insight into this map, so take it away Mithey!  

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

How to use world edit effectively. It's a skill you can build on for years and will help you easily make really nice-looking environments and structures. It's pretty much a must for making adventure maps.  

Can you tell us a bit about the process? 

This often happens to me with other maps too, but sometimes you just get into the flow of working and building so much that out of nowhere you look at your to-do list and notice it's empty. You sit there for a minute realizing "hey you're done with another major section of the map" while flying through it, looking it over, and being satisfied with what you’ve accomplished.  

What inspired this map? 

Open world games that have a focus on an ambient atmosphere. Also, the Minecraft wolf mob as I like making maps based on mobs and what their stories might be. 

What should players know before diving into this map? 

Expect to go on an ambient journey as a fierce wolf, and have lots of things to collect! 

Do you have any advice for aspiring map-makers? 

Start small, have fun experimenting but also expect frustration at times while learning, learn world edit, learn how to organize, and be sure to break things down into focused chunks while making things.

Thank you so much, Mithey! You can download Howl of the Wild here, and in Minecraft Marketplace you will find the sale is still sailing along with giveaways, reduced prices, and daily doorbusters! 

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

How to install this map

1. Click this link to download the map resource pack. You'll now have a .zip file.

2. Extract the contents of the .zip file. You should get a folder with the same name – copy it.

3. Open Minecraft: Java Edition. 

4. From the main menu, select “Options” and then “Resource Packs.”

5. Select “Open Resource Pack Folder.”

6. This will open that folder. Now just paste the folder you extracted and copied earlier into this folder.

7. Once it's finished pasting, close the folder and go back to Java Edition. 

8. Under “Resource Packs,” you'll see a list of “Available Resource Packs.” Your new map should now be on this list! Select it and you're done!

NOTE: When we first posted this map, the resource pack was missing from the download. So please make sure you have the latest available version by redownloading it from the link above if you were here early on. Thank you for understanding and to everyone who pointed it out!

We've received some reports of players running into a filename length issue due to the size of the .zip file's name being too long after extraction. If you're experiencing this, simply shorten the .zip file's name before you extract it.