We recently hosted our very first Dev Q&A on the Minecraft Discord server in honor of the release of the brand new Ben 10 DLC pack (available now in Minecraft Marketplace!).
Joining us were a few members of Blockception, including Alex, a project lead for the Ben 10 DLC, Kelsey, a 3d modeler and animator, and Daan, their project programmer and redstoner. We also had Wade, a Senior Producer from Cartoon Network!
Question: Why Ben 10?
Alex: It was only a matter of time before we made a Minecraft and Ben 10 crossover. Ben 10 is the longest-running show still being produced by Cartoon Network and crosses over many different ages. We love the idea of people from classic series reliving their childhoods and playing with newer fans. We felt it was the right time to bring our shape-shifting hero and his friends to the world of Minecraft in a big way paying respect to the present and the past at the same time.
Question: What alien did you enjoy implementing the most and why?
Daan: Personally, I liked implementing Cannonbolt, I think he came out the best as he feels really satisfying to play.
Question: Does Ben 10 eat chicken nuggets? (DarthPadji)
Wade: Ben got turned into a chicken by Dr. Animo's chicken ray gun. Even though that wore off, he has shied away from nuggets ever since. He does love chili fries.
Question: Ben 10 hardly fits the style of Minecraft, how were you able to overcome this challenge?
Kelsey: I took the approach of trying to keep things as simple as could be while designing the aliens. Minecraft itself has simple models, so I tried emulating that. How'd I do?
Question: Is there a lot of redstone involved in this project?
Daan: We managed to get 1000+ command blocks and 1000+ functions files into this map. And that is not mentioning the complex behaviors that have been developed to transform the player into all the aliens. I think in total, we have over 7000+ lines of commands.
Question: Why were higher resolution textures used on the models compared to the normal Minecraft textures?"
Kelsey: We felt that using a higher resolution would help us present the Ben 10 Minecraft designs more appropriately. For example, getting little details like Kevin's lock and chain necklace to appear on his skin.
Question: How many people worked on this?
Alex: Around 35+ People across everyone involved!
Question: How did you make the determination on what aliens to include?
Wade: We wanted to feature the current roster and focused development time on that. We discussed adding more aliens in future updates, so that's a possibility and something we hope we can do.
Question: How long have you played Minecraft?"
Kelsey: We all started with the Java Edition! I got the game late Beta, Alex during Beta, and Daan all the way back in Alpha.
Question: Did you work with the official Ben 10 team? If so, what was that like?
Alex: Yes we did! Everything has to be approved by them. From Models, to story lines, Aliens and scripts! They were super easy and fun to work with allowing us to get very creative and giving us the freedom to do exactly what we wanted!
Question: Did you watch Ben 10 as a kid?
Alex: I watched Ben 10 way too much as kid. The theme song is forever stuck in my head.
Question: Favourite alien?
Alex: Heatblast
Daan: Cannonbolt
Kelsey: Echo Echo
Question: What's the thing you're most proud of to have accomplished within the project?
Kelsey: I'm so proud that we were able to get 10 aliens in that have their own unique abilities!
Alex: Being able to complete almost everything we had set out to do at the start of the project.
Daan: I'm really proud of the Omnitrix system.
Wade: Most proud of: story mode.
Question: Is there any Ben 10 music in the world pack?
Alex: Yes! The Theme song is in the DLC along with over 200 different sound effects and 20+ custom music tracks made specifically for this pack.
Question: How did you find inspiration to make it?
Alex: A bunch of were always big fans of the series so when the opportunity arrived we literally started coming up with ideas that was always wanted for a Ben 10 game.
Question: Did anything funny happen while making the DLC? Any fun stories to share?
Alex: Jetray’s arms were upside down at one point! Oops!
These were just some of the highlights from last week’s Q&A. To go back and read the full chat, and to catch more Dev Q&As in the future, be sure to check out the official Minecraft Discord!
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