Just an Idea: MineCustomization

Minecraft's Default Characters With Different Height & Arm Sizes.

While my recent Minecraft Just an Idea "articles" focused on things that have an actual effect on the game itself, this time I'm going to poke around something less influential to the gameplay... Depending on your perspective and specific question, I suppose. It's no secret that customization in video games nowadays considered by many as major part of people's favorite titles. It's not that hard to find someone playing a certain game only because of its skins, armor and all that kind of stuff. Even if they can't and/or don't want to purchase these items for real money or Minecoins in Marketplace on Bedrock Edition, some of them would likely still jump in for a few seconds just to grab free stuff. I know that because I'm one of these folks.

As overrated as it can be in some cases, customization can be decent. Not only new cosmetic items can encourage players to explore the side of the game they haven't engaged with before, but also reward them for both expressing their own creativity and spending more time in Minecraft. In this case, I'm talking about the kind of customization options that are available in-game without microtransactions. Although this post will cover all(?) the basis of cosmetic features: free things, accessible option, challenging reward and cunning offering. You just can't not have the latter when it comes to subjects like this.

Catacomb & Council

Catacomb Snatch and Crown & Council's Title Screens.
Taken from Catacomb Snatch Wiki and Steam.

Most people know about Scrolls/Caller's Bane & Cobalt as the only non-Minecraft releases from Mojang Studios and I've already tried to cover them in previous "articles". Not only there's also Cobalt WASD, but there's still a few games technically developed and released by Mojang developers. Perhaps they're not large enough for a dedicated post (although I think that can be debatable), I think it would still lead to something pretty neat and interesting.

These January posts were kicked off with Minicraft: a game that Markus "Notch" Persson developed for a game jam in December 2011 when Jens "Jeb" Bergensten already become the lead developer of Minecraft. We're coming full circle as Notch wasn't the only person in Mojang interested in game jams, which resulted in creation of more curious titles. A couple of them are stand out among the rest.

Just an Idea: Phantom Changes

Phantom's Early Design. Taken from official Minecraft website.

Even though I think that Minecraft's mob vote have long since overstayed their welcome, let's be fair to its positive aspects. It had a great start at Minecon Earth 2017 with everyone's favorite Phantom. I voted for "The Monster of the Night Skies" since I believed that the game needed more regular flying enemies and I still stand by this choice, but I'll say that getting Wildfire would've been great too. Seriously, I like these undead folks, and it's not just me being overly sarcastic about them. I regularly sleep in Minecraft anyway, so Phantoms never really annoyed me.

It's fair to say that many players won't agree with me. Not only regular users and some content creators can sometimes express their dissatisfaction with these mobs, but even Mojang Studios talks about how bad Phantoms can be in an act of self-awareness. They can distract players from their current goal and force them to spend a few seconds to use a bed. The only real reason to letting them spawn is to get an ingredient for Potion of Slow Falling: you can use Phantom Membrane to repair Elytra, but there's no reason to do that with Mending enchant. It might take you a long time to get enough membrane from cat's gift after sleeping, but this route is just easier. You might as well just turn off a game rule responsible for Phantom's appearance in your world in original Minecraft and/or Bedrock Edition.

While I initially thought of this Just an Idea post as a compilation of random Minecraft ideas based on already existing stuff, I've come to realize that it would be much better to focus all my attention on this lovely monster and everything related to it. How can you make Phantoms even better? What to do with Insomnia effect? Can you add something new into the mix? At the very least, it's just so fun to throw out so potential and/or stupid solutions to game's problems that only you find interesting.

Cobalt & Its Slow-Mo Rolls

Cobalt Launch Trailer. Taken from YouTube.

While Mojang Studios worked on multiple versions of Minecraft & Scrolls/Caller's Bane, they've decided to take on another project. This one would be different as Mojang would serve only as co-developer and publisher of the game. Company's blocky success opened up many opportunities, including the ability to publisher games from other developers. In an interview to GamesIndustry, Daniel "Kappische" Kaplan talked about Mojang's plan to support fellow independent developers while expessing company's hope to "have something out this fall at least". That is, fall of 2011.

Cobalt was announced a few months later, but it would take a while before it gets a proper release. In fact, the story of this curious platformer created by Oxeye Game Studio turned out to be way longer and interesting than I anticipated. What you might consider a second obscure project from Mojang Studios actually had a major impact not only on the company, but even Minecraft itself. And that's probably not the only surprise that's instored for some of you.

Just an Idea: MCU's Spider-Man 4

Spider-Man No Way Home Ending. Taken from A.frame.

Over the course of several months, I've been slowly getting back to Spider-Man and it's been great. Very charming and wholesome, no matter what I go through. First time reading Spidey comics series from 2015-2016? It's alright and enjoyable, but could be better (let's not talk about School's Out). Raimi's trilogy? Still awesome! The Amazing films? I haven't really watched them before, I don't think. Overall, I liked them too in spite of clear issues. While right now I started rewatching Spider-Man: The Animated Series, before that I went through Home trilogy from Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Homecoming was great and Far From Home not so much. As for No Way Home, it's very interesting. None of the films in this trilogy are perfect, especially the third one. If you really start to think about film's plot, things start to quickly fall apart. However, its good sides, power of nostalgia and its ending serve as a pay-off for many fans because of what it can mean for this version of certain nobody named Peter Parker. There's a chance for soft-reboot, a clear path towards some awesome Spider-Man stories without heavy reliance on certain Marvel character(s).

Although you can say that's all subjective, which is kind of a point of this post. Usually I write about some gaming nonsense without any logical limits. I know my stupid ideas have next to no chances to becoming real, so why hold myself? This time, I would like to take a different approach. Before writing down some of my personal ideas for yet to be (properly; "Serve no wine before it's time") announced fourth MCU's Spider-Man film, I will set down some limitations and general direction for everything I have in mind.

January 2023 Update

"Monthly Update" Thumbnail.

This update is pretty weird this time around. Usually I write them pretty close to release day, but my current efforts to get a lot of posts written and released throughout the month lead me to prepare at least a fair portion of it ahead of time. Right now, this portion in particular is from January 2nd, and I'm following my plan from previous Update perfectly. Similarly to the beginning of January 2022 Update, I'm around halfway through the intended plan and might be done with everything when this post gets published.

New Year's Eve? Well, there was no proper celebration on my front. The same can be said about the last couple of years, so I suppose that's kind of a tradition on itself. A year ago, I wanted to keep my resolution goals to myself since I was worried about just promising a bunch of things I won't accomplish. That's how it ended up happening, but for different and grim reasons. Before that point of time, I was cheered up. With positive and hopeful view of the future. Negativity and despair had their moments to "shine" too.

Lately it became apparent to me that both angles aren't helpful for me. Optimistic attitude backfired before and that sure would happen again in the near future if I go back to it. As for the pessimism, I've just had enough of it. I'm tired of being angry, upset and annoyed. This is why I've chosen to break free of all that or at least make an earnest attempt to achieve this freedom. To achieve desired peace. That's my current attitude, not a goal. There're no plans and specific goals. Only me moving along with clear mind.

Just an Idea: Dungeons Update

Dungeons Hero Skin Pack Thumbnail. Taken from Twitter.

Caves & Cliffs wasn't exactly the type of "cave update" I expected Mojang Studios to announce back in Minecraft Live 2020. While this was a long-awaited patch many people were hoping for, I had my reasons to suspect something slightly different. You see, Minecraft Dungeons was already released at that point and pretty much since the announcement I suspected that Mojang must be working on some "dungeon update" for Minecraft that would also promote their new spin-off title.

It didn't really happen. Closest we got to it was Iceologer being the best option in the event's Mob Vote and the sneaky addition of Illager Rune font in Snapshot 21w37a for Caves & Cliffs Part 2 (there's a link to Xisumavoid showing it off). That was it. Not that I'm complaining about the update(s) we ended up getting or another stupid vote. All of this is not really important here. I understand and somewhat admire Mojang's desire to keep two games separate since both of them are doing their own thing. If that's what it is.

However, the lack of "colaboration" just seems odd to me. No, Dungeons Hero Skin Pack for Bedrock Edition is not it. I'm talking about carrying over some features from one game to another, opening each of them to the new audiences. Reusing the work in a way most players probably wouldn't mind. This idea seems obvious to me and I have in mind certain features that I would've added in this Dungeons Update. Not just the regular game, but DLCs as well.

Scrolling for Caller's Bane

Scrolls/Caller's Bane Official Launch Trailer Thumbnail. Taken from YouTube.

Not matter how much you enjoy something, you need to have a break from it and redirect your attention to something else. While Minecraft was still in development and getting closer to release, some people at Mojang Studios wanted to do something different. Something new. It doesn't seem like there was a problem with that as Scrolls, a game that's now known as Caller's Bane, was announced and then released.

Most people out there only know Mojang Studios for Minecraft, but there're were other games released by company that weren't related to their blocky hit. A few people will likely recall those titles and I intent on covering them similarly to Minicraft and other games I wrote about here. As all of them officially faded away, I think it would be interesting to see what Caller's Bane had to offer and where it is today while learning about the game.

Candidates for 1.20's "Catch Up"

Minecraft Live: Minecraft 1.20 Update Thumbnail. Taken from YouTube.

This was originally going to be the first in a series of January 2023's "Just an Idea" posts, but then I realized that it doesn't fit the criteria I set for that category. A lot of Minecraft rumbling is on its way and I wanna start with things we know about that haven't got into both versions of the game just yet. Either they got delayed, promised for the "near future" and things like that. We have a lot of features and chances that were teased and announced, but players are still waiting for Mojang Studios to properly introduce them.

Developers have a great opportunity to use Patch 1.20 as a catch up update. While it's hard to say whenever or not they would go in this direction given some recent developments with the game (that's a different subject on itself), "articles" like this aren't about sticking to the reality and being pessimistic about it. What I will go is to just list some previously teased stuff that could've been added to 1.20 with positive/hopeful attitude.

Hidden Resilience of Minicraft

Minicraft's Title Screen. Taken from Minecraft Wiki.

You probably wasted some of your free time on at least one browser game. They're a good option whenever you're just too lazy to boot up a proper game or don't really have alternative since you're young and there's only one family computer or something along those lines. From Flash games on random websites to platforms like Newgrounds, there're many options to check out both old & new browser games to see what this side of industry has to offer nowadays.

This time, I would like to focus on one small game I initially stumbled upon in my spare time many years ago. While I didn't get far into it, this little game has a lot going on for it and you see it first hand after a little digging.