Smalltown Boy

What is your favourite activity in Minecraft? Wait, don’t answer that, I’ll tell you mine instead! I just love setting out on a long journey, travelling far away from home to the middle of nowhere, and then creating my very own village. Not only is it the perfect opportunity to lose my rubbish friends somewhere in the Overworld – it’s inspiring to create a collection of houses of my own design! "Perville", "New Pertham" and of course “Per Land(in)”. These are just a few examples of glorious new settlements crafted by me, Per Landin, ruler of these lands! BOW BEFORE ME NOW (or finish reading this article first).

Building a village is far from an easy task. There are lots of factors to consider, such as “what materials do I use?”, “which buildings do I need?”, and “does the village need fences to keep my friends out?” But above all else, a village has to look good! Why else would you want to live there?

Simon (or Dodecahedron as he’s also called) has taken this practice to heart. He’s a 25 year old master crafter in the village construction department. With colourful creations like Avalon, Willow Glades, or Jasper, he’s not just created small towns – he’s also given them each a unique design. He does so with a clear theme in mind, often taking advantage of the biome’s natural resources.

“I always create some sort of plot or story when I'm building a new village,” says Simon. “The theme is important for me because all the villages are unique in some way, so that there’s a reason for me to visit them and not get bored. I had a lot of villages wiped just because they were too boring.” Whoa, easy Simon!

“Lumeria is houses-on-poles craziness.” explains Simon. “There are several houses where you need to climb stairs to find their entrances, and the whole village is building up instead of sideways. I always enjoy finding different, creative ways to build upwards, and I'm also very fond of the nice warm colours of Lumeria. It looks peaceful and relaxing.”

Utilizing a biome’s visual appeal and natural resources, like he did with Lumeria, is standard practice for Simon. With Embergrove, a village located in the jungle, he thought it would be a good idea to use the tall treetops as part of his project. He has taken the idea of a treehouse and made an entire colony of them, each bound to a tree and connected through networks of rope bridges and stairs.

Simon believes that rushing isn’t good for builds, and that he gets better results from a calmer and more relaxed approach. “R. Buckminster Fuller once said ‘When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong’." Well said, Bucky-boy. Well said!