To the Theme Park!

Jeroen elaborates on his sprawling behemoth of a build. “There’s more than 10 different themed areas, all with their own roller coasters and many more attractions. I made sure every single area is unique right down to the minute details.”

Just from looking at this, you’d think this was one of many elaborate and detailed building projects. But for Jeroen, this was his first major build.

“For me, Minecraft was all about watching survival mode Let’s Plays,” Jeroen says. “I never really had the intention of buying the game myself because I was only interested in watching my favorite YouTubers. It was actually my sister that got me into playing. She noticed I watched people play the game so much that she just went ahead and bought it for me.”

Even after that generous gift, Jeroen let the game sit and collect digital dust. “At first I didn’t even want the game. I didn’t play it at all and continued to watch my YouTubers. But since it was a gift, I eventually decided it was worth a shot.”

So there you have it - the secret to getting into Minecraft is to not buy the game - just wait for someone else to buy it for you! Wait, I probably shouldn't say that...

Most builders cut their teeth on survival mode, playing with friends on modded servers. Not Jeroen. “First thing I did was hop into creative mode and started on my very first house.”

From there, Jeroen started watching a different kind of Minecraft Let’s Play: building tutorials. Almost everything he built in those first few days he picked up from a tutorial, proving that imitation is the highest form of flattery and one of the best ways to learn—in Minecraft at least.

So how did Soon™Land come to be? Jeroen explains it wasn’t a solo endeavor.

“When I was building on a server, I made friends with another builder named SunLord. She and I both really enjoyed building things and decided it’d be a great idea to make something together. After a few brainstorming sessions, we came up with the idea for Soon™Land.”

Everything’s better with company. (Except maybe bathroom breaks after consuming too many sticks of fried butter. Yes it’s a thing, theme parks fry everything.) Working with SunLord, Soon™Land started coming together nicely.

“For the first few months, we were on fire. In just a few days, we would build a brand new area of the park. We were just so hype.”

But even though their hype was very real, it unfortunately did not last.

“Somehow, I lost touch with SunLord and it really bummed me out because through her, my own building skills improved a lot. I wouldn’t have learned nearly as much without her. I stopped working on Soon™Land for a while, then I’d come back and tinker with it some more before leaving it again. Eventually it got to the point where I had built so much that I decided it was finished.”

And Soon™Land is stacked. There’s a Dinosaur World (called Jurassic Land for legal reasons, of course) a Jungle World, an Underwater World, and so much more. There’s a Wild West World too but it doesn’t look like anything to me (Ash are you confessing your a robot? - Terrified Minecraft.net Editor).

Jeroen’s favorite area is Jurassic Land. “I’m most proud of this part of the park. I’m just really pleased with how it turned out. You can walk in the dinosaur cages, look at the different kinds of dinosaurs, and all the while there’s a roller coaster above your head that weaves through the cages.”

As impressive as Soon™Land is, what's even better is that most of it was built by hand.

“The terrain and the foliage, that stuff was built using World Edit, but the rest--the rollercoasters, the shop interiors, all the decorations--SunLord and I built that all by hand. It’s just more fun that way.”

Soon™Land means a lot to Jeroen, it’s his baby. “During the building process, my skills improved so much. It led me to being accepted into a build team for the very first time. My friends saw my work, suggested I apply, I did, and I got accepted. I couldn’t have done that if I hadn’t tried this first.”

Jeroen credits his partner SunLord for helping him get this far. “With two people, you can make so much more progress than what you would alone. Working together allows you to build something you and your friend can be proud of.”

If you want to see Soon™Land up close and personal, click here!

Renders by Squity

Jerone also wishes to thank TeoVolicane, Ercraft2, Alexdegrote, Squity and Yoyamin for their contributions to the project.