Strange New Worlds

While the possibilities of what you can build within Minecraft are pretty broad, to say the least, it sometimes takes a little something extra to make the game feel completely unknown. Galingueur’s Odyssey resource pack does exactly that, swapping out textures and models to transport the player to the surface of distant alien planets, populated by weird toothy creatures, beneath unfamiliar skies.

The skies, with their epic starscapes, are the work of another minecrafter - JerenVids - but combined with Galingueur’s lurid texturework and unsettling animals, they make for a truly extraterrestrial feel. It’s the perfect place to build a sprawling sci-fi complex using Galingueur’s smartly altered texture set, turning chests into space-age supply crates, crafting tables into teleporters, and familiar building materials into all manner of supermaterial panels, circuitry and bulkheads.

“With Odyssey, I’ve tried overhaul the game, without adding any new blocks, mobs or anything else,” says Galingueur. “If someone plays Minecraft with Odyssey, and has the sensation of discovering a new universe, my work is done!”

One of the cool things about the pack is how radically the biomes alter your sense of place. Galingueur describes each as a separate planet in itself. Extreme hills become a scorched, craggy landscape of blackened tufts, the mushroom biome is redrawn in exotic shades of violet and turquoise, while swampland becomes toxic, with rivers of unhealthy green fluid and a sky to match. There are 12 such environments to explore, and, currently, three new species to chase around in them. Kubo are the most familiar - small, red, chicken-things. The other two are decidedly more alien: the quadrupedal Cholorylus, with a face full of strangely angled teeth, would resemble a giant blue molerat, were it not for its spiny back. The goatlike Ogotan has a droopy mouth that dangles beneath a strangely elongated pink head. Kinda gross, really.

“I've always been fond of fantasy, steampunk, dystopian, post-apocalyptic and, of course, sci-fi worlds,” says Galingueur. “As soon as I began to play Minecraft, a long time ago, I tried to create my own sci-fi resource pack. Unfortunately, my first pack was rubbish, so I’ve worked a lot to become better at pixel art. One day, I wanted to build a sci-fi complex. I remembered a wonderful sci-fi pack called SMP's 2263. Unfortunately, this pack was abandoned by its creator and no other sci-fi resource pack has since captured the feeling I was looking for. So I decided to make my own version of a 16x16 sci-fi pack, inspired by it. Odyssey was born!”

Odyssey is currently in beta, and far from finished.

“I also want to add extra 3D models and items to add life into the buildings’ interiors,” Galingueur says. “Interiors are, in my opinion, the weak point of Minecraft when people build, so I want to balance it with Odyssey."

Eventually, Galingueur intends to replace all the mobs, along with every other Minecraft texture, be they GUI elements, blocks or items. "It's a challenge for me," he says. "I will be very proud once it’s done.”

Odyssey already looks otherworldly, but that's what we call going above and beyond.