Towering Temples

If you’re building a temple to strange, alien gods, there’s no better block to make the roof from than diamond. It’s the fanciest material, after all. Perfect for showing off how powerful these extra terrestrials are, and it’s plenty pretty too. I hope you’re very rich though – diamond isn’t cheap!

Luckily, money was no object for builders Squity and Genty when they made their glittering blue-green city, Adulation of the Mighty. They built this map together in just three weeks, for Planet Minecraft’s Monumental Temple competition – and came in third place out of 88 entries!

“We chose to participate in the contest because we wanted to do a big project together,” they told me. “The theme ‘Monumental Temple’ also appealed to us so we started looking for inspiration and found some images that really inspired and motivated us.”

Fired up by the contest theme, they had to decide how they would make their build stand out from all the other entries. “The traditional Aztec and Mongol temples were the first to come up in our minds,” they explained, “but we wanted the temple to have something unique so we decided to use an alien style too.

"That’s the reason we made holograms.”

Genty and Squity designed and built a whole circle of holograms outside the temple, and they certainly add that sci-fi feel to the city. Each one represents a different alien god – and check out all those poses they’re striking!

But the hologram gods aren’t the only futuristic element of the build. Even the planet itself is alien, with blue crystals scattered over the terrain. And the architecture, with all those round towers sprouting from the ground like weird concrete mushrooms, is certainly unique. Plus the city lights up at night, glowing against the starry sky.

Last year, we featured another of Squity’s builds here on Minecraft.net - his beautiful Sapphire Ocean. Between this underwater paradise and the colour scheme of Adulation of the Mighty, I’m guessing that his favourite colour might be blue!

I asked him what he’d learned since we last spoke to him. “After Sapphire Ocean I wanted to give myself more time for a build and focus more on the atmosphere using a bit more detail. Most of the time I rush my projects,” he admitted.

“But for this project, we weren’t really able to show that because we had a deadline so we were forced to rush,” he added. Finishing a build as grand as Adulation of the Mighty in just three weeks is certainly speedy! The Monumental Temple contest that they entered had a tight deadline, and they had to make time for their rendering artists to take beautiful pictures too.

Turns out a tight deadline can sometimes be very helpful for a creative project! That’s probably also why Tom only gave me six minutes to write this entire article : (

“In the beginning we did feel a bit of pressure, but after a few days of building we noticed we had plenty of time left so we didn't really feel a lot of pressure anymore.” In fact, they finished with three days to spare! “My “rush-experience” was an advantage,” Squity said.

But even more advantageous was his friendship with Genty. “We got on the same wavelength really quickly, so the building went pretty fast,” they said. Squity explained to me how they worked well together, saying “I started planning out the layout and together we decided which style we were going to use. As soon as the layout was planned out Genty also started to work on the temple.”

And the pair doesn’t only share the workload. “We got to know each other a little over two years ago,” Genty told me. “We weren’t that good at building back then but we ended up in a group with a number of Dutch builders who all wanted to get better. Since then, Squity and I have always shared tips and ideas with each other and that is how we got on this level.”

So if you want to build something as magical as the shimmering temple in Adulation of the Mighty, be sure to share! Find yourself some creative friends and learn, experiment, and practice together, and who knows what you’ll be able to achieve!

Renders by Matteo Paolini, D34D_, Huntyk, Frogocomics and Squity