Remember is a Minecraft map created for a “Design Week” challenge within the Sheridan college Honours Bachelor of Game Design program.
Design Week is a 5-day challenge held every semester where everyone in game design gets together in random teams and are a given a challenge to complete by the end of the week.
This Design Week, the challenge was to create a Minecraft Education Edition level inspired by a poem. We were not allowed to use any survival mechanics, and the map was to be more of an interactive representation of a poem.
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- Project Information -
Playable with Minecraft Education Edition and the linked Drive file down below.
Game and Level Design.
Group of 5 Design Week Challenge.
Approximate 5 day development time.
2023.
Video play through of the map in Minecraft.
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- A Rough Start -
The first day of the challenge had a lot of decision-making. Once everyone had found their assigned groups, we set up our team. My team was not very confident to start off, because nobody except myself was really familiar with developing something like this in Minecraft. I assured the team that I was able to do any of the Redstone circuits and command blocks needed. I created a quick demonstration area to show what's possible with some simple Redstone and that if they have any difficulty I would be able to help. For the project I would do all the redstone, command blocks, and logic. While the rest of the team would be creating most of the play space. We all had a role to play in the ideation and concept. Once we had everyone on the same page and confident with Minecraft, we had to pick a poem.
We were given 10 poems to choose from, all of them were very abstract with deep meaning behind them. After a lot of discussion and interpretation about what some poems meant, what we can do within the limitations of Minecraft, and the design challenge, we had three options.
'The art of falling' by Kim Moore was our first idea for the poem we can make a map for. The poem is about falling, in every sense of the word. Our idea was to have our map be a slow descent in the literal sense, and we would explore themes of failure, loss, and hopelessness. We weren't sure how in depth we would be able to go with just that, but we were going to explore other ideas before deciding anything.
'A man is dragging a dead dog' by Jack Underwood was our second idea. The poem is as the title says, with the dog being a gruesome metaphor for the past and letting the past hinder growth. At least that's how we interpreted the poem. The idea for our Minecraft map would be more in the literal sense, using the lead and a mob to solve puzzles and move forward. This idea was also somewhat limited in how we can execute it in minecraft, and ultimately this idea led the discussion away from taking the poems literally and focusing our ideas into just the themes and emotion the poem invokes.
Our third idea was with 'Remember' by Christina Rossettie. We felt the poem explored themes of memory fading away. With that in mind, we also knew that Minecraft education edition has a camera object that takes pictures. We wanted to connect the two together and have the player take pictures in a memory following the arc of someone's life. Possibly having the entire level take place in a house that changes and becomes more faded for progression. The team was very happy with this idea, felt that it was in-scope for what we could make in only a few days, so we ended up choosing this poem. Especially after our feedback we got once we showed our ideas to other groups in the same room, which really found it unique that we were using the camera. We ended up being the only group that week to utilize it as a primary mechanic for the map.
Below is the board and feedback of the three ideas described.
Our Miro board showcasing our three ideas. Sticky notes are feedback left by peers.
- Design of the Level -
Next steps were getting the layout of the level put together and getting started in Minecraft. We brainstormed some different layouts, including a few different linear and few different hub designs. Eventually we ended sort of merging the two overall layouts together, and we ended up with a linear progression within a hub level. That way, the player could go back and forth after visiting each area, however many we would eventually have.
Since we were using the camera, the main hub would serve as a place to progress and put those pictures on the wall to unlock the next room.
Below are the two main hub level layouts we put together.
Next, we had to decide what each area of the hub would connect to, and what the hub would look like. Our main design pillars from the poem were: memories, cycle of life, death, love, and cherishment. We ended up scrapping the idea of having one space that you return to with it changing over time, and instead we pinpointed what might be the most important events throughout someone's life. Each area of the hub would connect to a specific event. In terms of storyline, we have the player and hub level start out in a more liminal space, a hospital with a hallway with doors on either side that lead to each area and subsequent memory. The player would take a picture in each memory and return to put it next to the door it belonged to, and that would unlock the next memory. We also decided that in order to have some kind of narrative conclusion for players, we would have a final beach area at sunset, that the player cannot return from, to signify the player character peacefully passing after remembering their life. To make this intention more clear, we would eventually add some text displaying the player character's age in each memory and when they return to the hub.
We put together the beat diagram of what the progression would look like below. As well, the mood board is included in the image on the left (Click to enlarge).
- The Work and Technical stuff -
As I mentioned above, my part of when we got to making the level would be the redstone, and any command blocks. I was also in charge of making the hub section.
For the hub, I let the team know we would be using a teleporter to go to each part of the level. That way they aren't waiting for me to finish the hub section and nobody has to worry about space limitations for their section of the build phase.
We wanted to have players carry the camera to take pictures, but instead found it more interesting gameplay to have it on the ground and the player find the camera. It ended also being important for teleporting the player back to the hub when they took the picture, the camera would disappear after the picture was taken, and we could detect that to send the player back to the hub.
The hub would have most of the logic for the level and utilized the /testfor command to detect the player and signal the teleporter, any text on screen, and effects. When the player is inside one of the memories, they will always return to the hospital bed. This is triggered after they activate the camera using another /testfor, this time detecting the camera entity on the ground, or with a button behind where they start.
The player opens a new door by putting the photo they took in a newly appeared item frame that is only there after they have visited the memory. Putting the picture in the frame displays a message, turns on a light, and opens the next door, also activating the teleport logic that detects the player.
- Final Results -
Overall, in the 5 days we had, only about 3 of them could be dedicated to actually creating the level. This was because it was due to showcase on the Friday afternoon of that week, and Monday is dedicated was really just getting our team together and deciding on what poem we were going to create a map for. I am very happy that we were able to keep the project in-scope, and our only real trouble was getting used to building Minecraft in the start. The group had fantastic feedback from our peers, who all loved the experience and more serious themes displayed in the level, as well as the use of the camera mechanic and taking advantage of Minecraft education editions exclusive features.
I think if I was to go back and make any changes, it would actually be to scope up a little more. We ended up being done Thursday morning of that week, and then found ourselves polishing a lot more and making relatively minor improvements. So having a slightly larger overall plan to start, maybe even just another area or two, could have had much more of an improvement. That being said, I would rather be ahead anyway, especially when working in the short time frame of 5 days total.
The poem and a play through of the final map can be found below.
Remember, by Christina Rossettie:
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Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
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