Lime Monster

Apologies to those who read Snell-Pym as this is mostly a re-post.

Initially I was very bad at Minecraft, I could not even work out how to look up let alone move and as for fighting the monsters of this almost eden-esk world – that was impossible. But after being attacked by a spider, a skeleton and a zombie, being stuck in a whole, being suspended in the air and drowning…. I finally seemed to master basic movements.

Being me I skipped the tutorial and refused to play in creative as I like there to be a challenge. Anyway I finally after a week of playing managed to construct a one room house. It started off in mud and then I mined cobble stone which I clad the outside and then mined the mud away from the inside.

The idea is that you mine and farm things and make stuff. I started off by making a crafting table, then a chest to keep things in. I was on the hunt for stuff for torches and a bed – but this proved tricky and so I found myself hiding in a dark corner of my house – it had a door I’d made on the crafting table but no light as I need to make charcoal or find coal.

Fortunately no monsters spawns in there with me – this was why it was all still earth – a monster called a creeper did blow my house up from the out side though which hacked me off! (I may have said a rude word).

Eventually I found the resources to make my torches – I had to build a furnace. So now I have light, food (due to killing poor unsuspecting cows and cooking them in the furnace), shelter, a crafting table and a double sized chest but still no bed! This means I can not sleep during the games nighttime which is annoying.

The game is made of large pixels and I can only play a bit at a time as the motion on the screen gives me motion sickness!

I also keep accidentally hitting the left hand toggle as a button instead, this changes the perspective of the little avatar – not helpful when you are fighting zombies!

For Christmas Santa bought our family an XBox 360 which quickly became the focus of our household entertainment, around the same time we were round a friends house for a party and our 7 yr old daughter disappeared for about five hours – it turned out she was watching other kids play this game I hadn’t seen before called Minecraft.

So a version for it was bought for our Xbox (Jean our little one had to be physically carried out of the room crying that she wanted to carry on watching the game that first encounter).

Now the PC version is bigger and better and what have you but at the moment I am quiet happy with my limited world on the XBox.

Initially I was not playing it – I tend to get addicted to games so avoid computer ones but I sat there watching my husband play and well I began to really want to do things in the game.

So I set up my world Gaia and away I went – I’ve been playing for six weeks I think. I am obsessed – working out knitting patterns for making plushy blocks, writing a fanfic novel, sorting out how best to make cakes and foods themed to it, craft activities for the kids, wanting the lego set and the foam swords and what not and of course playing it.

When my daughter comes home from school we have one cup of teas worth of minecraft together so it is pretty much being played everyday. I have big extravagant plans for the world and am really enjoying it – even if (and I quote) ‘Mummy Minecraft makes you say the naughty words’. Yep I have a tendency to shout profanities (normally Flippy heck but sometimes something stronger) when a creeper emerges and blows me up!

I have been taking pictures of my progress so will be sharing those with you 🙂

Hello Lime Monster is a Gamerist blog, a close cousin of the Story Telling Monsters it is a muse monster with a thing GAMES. From design, to playing, to sub-cultures and communities surrounding specific games not to mention all round general fun, Lime Monster is going to be writing about it. Along with her human friend Sarah Snell-Pym with help from Point Defect.

On this blog there will be reviews, playing how too, an exploration of games, info for theming parties or involving kids, crafts and of course fan fiction plus links to other nutty gamers and their videos!

Sarah also makes her own games some of which may well appear on here. Mainly though it shall start with Minecraft – you may have noticed that the monster is lime green – well that was chosen to mimic the creepers out of Minecraft!

Oh and when we say games we mean everything from computer, to kids, to board games, to cards and word games.