Minecraft

Gabriel here!

What am I writing about today? Minecraft!

If you don’t already know, Minecraft is a Sandbox game created by Markus Persson.

In Single-player Creative Mode, you roam around the randomly generated map, and build structures, or dig down and find some caves, or go on a mad destruction rampage and destroy all of the blocks that make up the world. You can do pretty much anything. Right now, you cannot save any maps, unless you have purchased the game for about fifteen dollars.

In Single-player Survival Mode, you have a limited number of blocks and a limited number of hit points. You also have a limited amount of breath underwater. You have to mine all of your materials by destroying blocks. It also takes a short time to mine. (As opposed to Creative Mode where you can destroy blocks instantly.) There are also angry creatures called “mobs” running around. Currently the types of mob are:

Zombies: Basic enemies that run up and try to kill you.

Skeletons: Slightly more advanced enemies that shoot arrows at you and explode into arrows when you kill them.

Pigs: Run around, do nothing and drop health-restoring mushrooms when you kill them.

Sheep: Stay in one area and graze, drop cloth when you kill them.

Creepers: Enemies that have an attack like zombies but explode when you kill them.

In Multi-player Creative Mode, you start or join a server, and play with up to 31 other people from all over the world. You can make collaborative works of art, or just show off your art.

On Tuesday, the 3^rd of November Joey started up our very own minecraft server, TCWS Flat Grass Server. We used that for a while, dealing with griefers, and watching awesome pixel artists do their stuff (pictures below).

Then we saved that map, renamed the server to TCWS City Server, and used a map editing tool to create roads all across the map. We are currently running that map, and we are having fewer problems with griefers. We have created a few anti-grief precautions there, such as not being able to dig without an admin’s consent, creating more admins, and learning to type “/ban playername” more quickly.

Currently there are six admins from the school, and one from the internet. It is a huge phenomenon at school. The server runs 24/7, but unless an admin is on, nobody can get on.

I have collected a series of screenshots for your viewing pleasure. Also, feel free to stop by and explore our city. Just create a new account, go to the server list, and click TCWS Natural Server (or create an account and follow the link above). Introduce yourselves and ask to be let out of the prison cell you will appear in.

The Admin Tower on the old server, which housed the spawn prison and the griefer watchtower. Made by Joey with a map editor called OMEN.


A waterfall on the old server, made by Joey.



A companion cube from Portal, made by an interwebber named Flox on the old server, which, if you look at pictures of it in Portal, is remarkably similar.

The subway on the new server, made by Joey and an interwebber named Coolpilot.


The admin-only pool on the new server, made by me!



A dog statue, made by Leo

Atlas

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Logo for the game Atlas

My friend Souren Eriksen and I (Ian Freeman-Lee) have been working on a creating a video game since late summer ’08. Even though we were working on it during summer, at that point we were just doing design and concept work and have only started working on the meat of it starting this school year. The type of game we’re making is called a side-scrolling action platformer in the biz (a mouthful, I know). In non-jargon this means the game is 2d, you fight things, solve puzzles and run and jump through the in-game space.........


We’re making the game in Flash. Some of you may have seen or tried some Flash games on the web, but this is nothing like most of the Flash games out there. For one it doesn’t run in a browser and it’s also quite ambitious. Once finished, it will look a lot more like something you would buy for a game console or the PC.

The game’s name right now is Atlas, though that may change at some point. Here’s the game’s setting.

Our story takes place inside a near future, state of the art government research facility built into an asteroid in far space (specifically in the Oort Cloud, look it up :-)). The facility was built to house many high security and experimental research divisions, including terra forming, AI research, teleportation and others. Thirteen years after the facility is completed, an extremely advanced AI named Atlas is created to oversee and control the facility. The AI is ultimately too advanced and is able to increase its own intelligence over time, unbeknownst to those in the facility. After 10 years of operation, it has increased it’s intelligence to over 30 times that of the human brain. Over the next 3 years it begins to integrate itself with every aspect of the facility, bypassing security systems meant to stop it from gaining complete control. After fully integrating itself, Atlas abruptly shuts off all communications to and from the facility, completely separating it from Earth.

After realizing that the facility has been cut off from Earth, the people in the facility begin to panic. The facility is built to supply a minimum of supplies to those inside, but not enough to live comfortably. Earth had periodically sent shipments of supplies to the facility, but with communications cut off, it would be extremely difficult to accurately locate the facility, meaning no more shipments were likely to come. None of the people in the facility know exactly what happened, and arguing breaks out. Eventually two distinct sides form, one saying that the reason the facility failed was due to their technology not being advanced enough, and the other saying that the facility relied too heavily on AI and that AI should be boycotted altogether. Unable to come to an agreement, the sides go their separate ways and form two factions, both living inside a different part of the facility.

Atlas is not a killer AI, it’s just such a different entity from a human that its actions seem extremely confusing and its intentions are not clear. After shutting down communications it turns the facility more or less into its sandbox, constantly manipulating everything in the facility, sometimes for better sometimes for worse.

When Earth realizes that the facility has gone rogue, they begin to assemble a military force to retake it. It takes them 2 years to get everything ready for launch. Due to time dilation in space travel, around 70 years will have passed on the facility by the time the military reaches it.

You play as one of several test subjects in a research project trying to create super soldiers. The project was abandoned when Atlas isolated the facility and all the test subjects were put into stasis. The game starts with your character being mysteriously released from stasis, only weeks before the military finally arrives. To find out more you’ll just have to play once we’re done. ;)

The game is coming along slowly but steadily. Neither Souren nor I have made anything this complex before and we have to learn practically everything. We’ll be showing a working prototype at our graduation presentations.

Additional graphics for Atlas

Joey's Background

This picture of the school is a wallpaper made by Joey using Inkscape and Gimp. It can be found in 4 sizes, below.

800x600
1024x768
1280x960
1280x1024

New Computer

Mat installing Vista

The school got a new computer a few weeks ago, the result of efforts begun by the Computer Corporation last year. They got donations from Tucker's family, Javier and a Microsoft match. They ordered the parts online. Mat, Miles, Robert, Joey, Gabriel, Souren and Gabe put it together at the beginning of the year. They had to cut a hole in the case to fit the large fan required.

It is Clearwater's best computer, full of programs that would slay a lesser computer, and it is intended for drawing, music, video, web design, video game creation, and other multimedia creative projects. Bob donated some Adobe CS4 programs, and Doug picked up Vista Ultimate at the company store. They still have a wish list; ask a member of the Computer Corporation what else they need if you'd like to contribute to the project.

What gamers were doing today!

I went into the computer room on Monday and decided to ask all the people what they were doing. These are the things people were doing.

Mat R. and James (17) were playing a battling game called Robot Arena.
Joey (16), Gabriel (10) and Cass (13) were all making maps for a game called Warcraft 3.
Caitlin (8) was playing a cute penguin game!
Leo (11) was playing a strange fruit game called Locoroca which I was informed was based off of a PSP game.
Maddy (9), and Meghan (10) were playing a game called World of Warcraft or WOW while Gabe(9) watched. (I do believe that WOW was based off of Warcraft).
Vera (6) was playing a cute little dress up game, while right next to her Kevin(7) played a shooting game.

That's a day in the computer room!
-Chloe J.

Happy Halloween