As you may know from the post I did a while ago, I like Minecraft, mostly because it’s a open, creative outlet that is also a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it’s also highly addictive. For the last few months (since before Christmas), I’ve been building a cathedral, based loosely on Notre Dame in Paris.
The reason it took so long is that I built it on Survival mode. For those of you who don’t play Minecraft, that means I have to go mine every single block before I use it to build with. In the case of the stone for the walls, I mine cobblestone, heat it in a furnace to turn it back into stone, then make stone bricks out of it and use them. For the stain-glass windows (over 3000 panes), I gather sand, heat it into glass blocks, mix it with various dyes, then make those into glass panes. The chandeliers were the hardest, since I had to go to another realm called the Nether and find glowstone, which is found high up over oceans of lava. Anyway, here is the fruits of my labors, or at least as much of it as you can see in a 3-minute video walkthrough.
The Green-Walled Tower 
May 6th, 2014 at 6:55 pm
Wow. I didn’t realize all the detail that you had to do in Mine craft. Crazy dedication :). I enjoyed this.. The climb up the ladder and the second floor view!
May 6th, 2014 at 8:20 pm
You can make things on Creative mode too, where all the blocks are available in infinite amounts. I enjoy the process of crafting though. Yes, it is quite detailed. There is even circuitry you can build in the game which takes it to a whole new level.
May 6th, 2014 at 8:21 pm
I have no idea why you would do all that, nor how you could keep going without losing interest. I have trouble with immense projects. However, it is amazing and beautiful, and I love the music you have put with this video.
May 6th, 2014 at 8:27 pm
It was a fun way to get rid of creative energy. This is just one part of my world there, although the most impressive probably. I didn’t even get to show the crypt or all the pictures on the stain-glass windows. I drew plans for it, which made it easier. I have an Excel file of them all.
May 6th, 2014 at 9:18 pm
I am looking forward to when this becomes available on the XBOX One
May 6th, 2014 at 9:23 pm
This is amazing. The detail in it is immense. How long did it take you to build it?
May 6th, 2014 at 9:51 pm
It probably took three or four months. I drew rough plans in Excel and worked off them. It was a fun challenge. I might do a palace or something later.
May 6th, 2014 at 9:54 pm
It would be good 🙂 I am looking forward to the XBOX One version of it to come out. Then I can play. I built a light house going up as high as it could. Then on another world, I built every bodies names in the sky. Then the guy who was running the world, he was in his 30s at the time, had a spat with his wife because she was helping and he just shut the world off.
May 6th, 2014 at 10:13 pm
D’oh. I tried playing on a multiplayer world a few times with my friend, but some guy came and killed us both after we’d spent a few hours building a base.
When is it going to come out for the XBOX One? I didn’t know it needed a new version from the previous XBOX.
May 6th, 2014 at 10:58 pm
From the looks of it, December. When you change from a 360 to XBone, the games are not compatible unfortunately. I once built a mine at the bottom of the world with a mine cart attached so it travels the entire length of the map
May 7th, 2014 at 12:24 am
Reblogged this on minecraftbooksblog and commented:
Really cool to see something like this!
May 7th, 2014 at 2:46 am
Wow, David! What a masterpiece! I enjoyed the walk through with music. Love your music choice. It was so dramatic and effective. My kids play Minecraft. I’m sure they would love to see this!
May 8th, 2014 at 6:18 pm
beautiful work David! i wish I had that much patience 🙂
May 11th, 2014 at 10:04 pm
Thank you. It was very fun to build. I like those type of spatial construction puzzles.
May 9th, 2014 at 12:29 am
Oh my God…can you really do all this? When do you have time to write if you’re building such an edifice?
May 11th, 2014 at 9:53 pm
Well, I probably should have been writing while I did this, but I did a little bit a day over a long time. Plus, I also listened to audiobooks while I worked. During this, I listened to all of Middlemarch, Anna Karenina, Pale Fire, David and the Phoenix, and Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
May 11th, 2014 at 10:25 pm
I’ve tried to read Middlemarch and it just didn’t do what I had hoped. Tess is another story…it was what Sharon Tate was reading before she was killed.
May 11th, 2014 at 10:33 pm
I didn’t like Tess that much. Middlemarch was okay, although I don’t think I could have gotten through it if I was just reading it. It’s super long and pretty dry. Pale Fire is very interesting, but odd. Oh, I think I also listened to Lolita while I was building this, speaking of interesting, but odd.
October 1st, 2021 at 3:34 am
Great reead thank you