Destructobot’s Roll-Out

“Destructobot 5000 is this map where you mount this massive mech-suit thing and defend the world from an invasion of these robots that have filled in the city,” explains Stefan. “And as you’re walking around the city, Destructobot is talking to you, giving you silly status updates on his progress throughout the mission. ‘Turn left at the next crossing!’ Little jokes like that.”

“We even made him beatbox,” adds Joe, still giggling. “I think the number one focus for our projects has always been fun and wacky first but making sure the gameplay is solid too,” says Joe. “I think we’ve managed to pull that off.”

They certainly have. Destructobot 5000 is some of the most joyous custom-made chaos I’ve ever experienced in Minecraft - but it’s not just throwaway jokes and robotic fistfights. It’s really noticeable how cleverly it’s been tailored to work on portable platforms, too.

“We definitely tried to tailor the gameplay to being able to play it five minutes at a time and not having it detract from your experience,” says Joe.

As well as being a substantial experience - there are ten dungeons you need to complete to reach the end of the main questline - it’s an intensely detailed world, too. You can easily pass through an area five or six times and still spot new things in it each time.

“There’s so much stuff, you’re just constantly getting distracted,” says Stefan. “We’ve completely reskinned all the mobs and redone some of the models and behaviours as well to try and fit into the fantasy world. Each different area has its own different monsters and theme. We made chickens into dragon whelps!”

“They will mess you up!” says Joe, laughing. “They are not fun.”

“We wanted to inspire the player to try and make those foundations into whatever they want,” Stefan says. “I think there’s this human trait that we all have where if we see something that’s not quite right and we have the ability to fix it, then we will, you know? We’ve left it in this vague broken state so that the way that you fix it is completely up to you.”

These four maps will not be the last we see of Noxcrew on Marketplace, you can be sure. Stefan suggests that what they’re working on next will dwarf any of their initial offerings - and their success on Marketplace has given the freedom they needed to embark on something yet more ambitious.

“I hope that we can really show what we can do with Minecraft and prove to people that this is the best thing for the map-making community that could have possibly happened,” says Stefan. “It’s re-energised our creative spark in a few of us for sure,” says Joe. “Without spoiling the project that we want to do next, I can say that we really want to pursue bringing the kind of mini-games that we make in a more mobile setting.”

“Here’s where me and Joe are different people - in a good way,” Stefan interjects. “Because I really love adventure maps and Joe really likes mini-games.”

“And the best thing about our working relationship is neither one of us is satisfied until we’re happy with the other one’s work!” says Joe. “Which means we spend the last two to three weeks of every project alone in a channel on Teamspeak screaming at each other - but we come out on the other side with something great!”

Keep on screaming, I say.

You can find Noxcrew’s awesome maps by going straight into the in-game Marketplace here