Sample Multiplayer Challenge

We thought it would be exciting to show off the type of challenges that we give to each other when trying out multiplayer Minecraft. This one is a perfect weekend game that we sometimes do while waiting for everyone to arrive. The people who are available ahead of time try the “One Hour Challenge.” That’s when we set a timer and try to create the coolest thing that we can with only one hour after the world is created. To make things extra tricky, we do this in Survival Mode so resources are highly limited. You have to work with what you’re given, and that makes the game very intense.

Rules:You have one hour to build the coolest structure you can and to equip yourself as well as possible.

Players:Kathleen Pleet, Chris Burton, Michael Lummis

Kathleen Pleet

When I first started, I had high hopes. Lots of ideas. I was going to make a beautiful little house in a woodland, filled with flowers and joy. But an hour isn’t much time, and I figured I’d have to cut a few corners. Just a few, though.

It all went horribly wrong.

The first thing that happened was I found myself in a sparse island swamp. There weren’t all that many trees around, but there were plenty of Pigs. Ah well. If you can’t find Wood, there’s always Stone!

Scratch the pretty wooden farmhouse: we’re going underground. I gathered enough Wood to make a few pieces of equipment and looked for a place to start my dungeon.

This was easier said than done, though. I had to find a spot that wouldn’t fill with Water as soon as I began to dig. I went through a lot of Dirt. And then Gravel. Where was the Stone?

Well, there wasn’t much Stone, but at least I found a good vein of Iron. That’s something.

Unfortunately, I made my way out of my early tunnel only to find that it was getting dark outside. I had only a primitive mineshaft and no shelter. I started a mad scramble to construct walls around the mine, and I used anything and everything in my inventory to do so.

It was completely dark as I constructed my crude perimeter. I used most of my stuff on the walls, so I had to dig out Cobblestone to make a Furnace. But I also used all my Wood, and that meant that I had nothing with which to make light. Or a Door.

Going outside proved extremely dangerous. In addition to Zombies, there was also a Slime. Before I started this mineshaft, I should have killed some of those Pigs for meat. Oops.

I was quick enough to grab a few logs of Wood, but the Zombies came at me and I had to rush back to my hideaway. I managed to make a Door, but I couldn’t place it. Suddenly, there was a swipe from the shadows, and I became stuck on the ledges of my mineshaft as a Zombie attacked me. I couldn’t see to attack the Zombie back.

How did I survive? I didn’t.

It was now fully night outside. I respawned with nothing; it was some distance to my house, and in between me and my paltry abode were a multitude of enemies.

There were still Zombies everywhere! I made my way back to the house and only managed to get a little turned around (that’s an achievement for me; I’m not known for my sense of direction, especially in the dark).

I ran in and grabbed all my stuff as quickly as I could. Not surprisingly, the Zombie that got me was still there, and it attacked me. I used the first weapon I could get to—an Axe—and hit the Zombie. When it was pushed back, it fell into the ledges leading down to my mine tunnel, and it was so dark that it was hard to tell where it was and when it was making its approach. After one good strike, I ran up my staircase and placed the Door, so nothing else could find its way to me. Finally, I dispatched the Zombie. I thought that I was safe.

I had a brief enough moment to start to make some Charcoal. I hadn’t found any Coal, so that was the only way to get light and make a Torch. It was then that I realized that I still wasn’t alone. There was a second Zombie in there! With that one dispatched, I could finally rest.

The Wood in the Furnace yielded a precious piece of Charcoal, and I made a few Torches. I put them around the top of my home. Thankfully, dawn was approaching.

In preparation for my next foray, I worked on the house to finish any straggling walls and then gave my place a ceiling. The last thing I needed was for it to rain Zombies the next night.

I also killed a few Pigs for their meat. I figured that I’d need it, even if I did feel a bit guilty about it.

I started cooking the Pork and then made my way back down my mine, hoping to accomplish something productive.

The mine proved to be a bottomless pit of empty shaft and endless Cobblestone. Apart from the small vein of Iron, I found nothing else useful. It soon became clear that if I wanted any type of light, I would have to get it from forestry. The swamp trees were my only source of energy, so I spent some time chopping down a few.

I figured, at this point, at least I could make sure that my house wasn’t a total wreck. I’d been caught out the first evening and used too many materials to make my walls. This evening, I replaced everything with Cobblestone, which made it look marginally better. I had no shortage of Cobblestone.

I also had enough Iron to make a Bucket, which served me well. I made two Iron Pickaxes (sadly, they proved useless in the end because I never found anything but Stone in the mine).

Finally, I did a small scout of the nearby area. Although it could be very dangerous, filled with Slimes, Creepers, and nightly Zombies, there were abundant natural resources above ground. I found Sugar Cane as well as Cows and Chickens. I didn’t have to hunt for Water, and there were more than a few patches of pretty blue flowers.

As the challenge moved toward its conclusion, I decided it was time to create something attractive on the property, as best I could. I’m usually compulsive: I like the tunnels that I create to be regular and smooth, and if I have enough patience, I sometimes even make the walls out of smooth stone (or anything other than Cobblestone) after I’ve harvested a vein of something. I obviously didn’t have time for that, but I also never found anything that would mess up my mining tunnels either.

I expanded my entry room and made a few Chests in which to store things. There wasn’t much space in the entry area, so I chose the bottom of the mine as my area of beautification.

I used my Bucket to grab Water, went downstairs, and hollowed out a room. I removed the Granite blocks in the room, because they were somewhat unattractive. A small outline of Diorite blocks provided contrast, and I made a fountain, with a waterfall tucked into the back wall. Finally, flowers made it look a little brighter down there.

I left the mine and went upstairs to find that it was dark once again. Well, if you only have a brief amount of time, best live it up! I wandered outside and planted a Carrot (dropped by one of the many Zombies in the region). You never know when a carrot will be useful!

Sadly, despite all the wildlife, I never found Sheep. So I couldn’t make a bed. I spent the remaining time trying to make the house look a bit nicer by adding a couple more flowers in front.

I have to say that although it wasn’t the paradise that I first envisioned, this place did have real potential. It was a fixer-upper, but one that held a lot of promise.

Final level: 5

Equipment:Nothing of Note. But at least I had a Bucket!

Type of Building: Survival Cottage

Chris Burton

The random world that I was put in had good access to basic resources, with handy trees and a nice mountain range for Stone and (hopefully) Coal and Iron. A quick runaround knocking down trees got me the basic tools needed for further expansion. The grassy plains supported numerous herds of cattle, which provided lots of food for the rest of the build. Fifty-one Steaks will take you a long way in Minecraft!

My initial dig yielded Coal within the first layer, and quickly broke through into a small tunnel system. Going left took me to a small Sandstone deposit and underground pond, but the right path was far more extensive. The moans of Zombies prompted me to seal the right tunnel off quickly with Dirt. No need to take any risks!

Without a Bed (or Sheep), I was going to have to make a choice. I could push on, hoping to find Sheep quickly, or I could risk it all and go without sleeping.

Despite the risk of respawning far away from familiar surroundings, I decided to proceed without a safety net. I’d just have to stay cautious, keep everything well lit, and watch my steps.

The first night cycle came all too fast. I sealed off my tunnel to the surface and concentrated on mining the Sandstone cave and converting what little Iron I found into useable ingots. I had a couple of minor mishaps. A Creeper somehow got behind me, but my panicked punching caused it to fall off the ledge and into the underground pond, where it exploded without killing me. I also found a random block of Silverfish but managed to kill the obnoxious little thing before it caused any trouble.

Daylight let me come out of the cave and explore a bit. I had noticed a few cacti over the hill and wanted to see if there was a more extensive desert. I kind of wanted to do something with the Sandstone, so I was very happy when I crested the hill and found a Mesa biome. In addition to a very good view, it had lots of Sand, a large lake that I could use as a water source, and some Cacti and Sugar Cane that I could use as decorations.

I decided I wanted to make a floating oasis. I would make a new home base of Sand and Sandstone, floating in the sky, accessible by waterfall. I had nearly everything I needed. I quickly shoveled a couple of stacks of Sand and used my precious Iron to make Buckets and an Iron Pick.

With nightfall approaching, I wanted to get the basics in place. I made a pillar of Dirt in the middle of the lake, and then built the foundation of my new floating home around the top of the Dirt pillar. There were no apparent monsters (and I was on a floating Sandstone platform), so I wasn’t too worried about working through the night. I had three Buckets of Water, so when I ran out of Sandstone, I lit the place with Torches and used the water to make a waterfall. I’d have an easy way back up, and getting down was as simple as jumping off the edge into the lake!

The remainder of the night was spent mining Sandstone, refilling Buckets, and waiting for the sun to come back up.

I had one more day/night cycle (20 minutes) left in the challenge, so it was full speed ahead. I had all the materials, so the first order of business was finishing the foundation. Once that was done, I put Sand on top and around the edges. Filling the pool in the middle of the oasis was as simple as using Bucket after Bucket of water from the lake below, with the waterfall providing a handy way back to my new home. Once the structure was completed, I removed the initial Dirt pillar. Night fell during the final construction, so I was coming to the end.

With night well underway, I put Torches around the edge to light everything. A Crafting Table let me build Chests for storing the remaining items, and a Forge served to cook a nice celebratory Steak dinner. Some Sugar Cane and Cacti added a touch of color to the oasis. There was only one thing missing: a Bed.

With five minutes left, I ran around the plains near my initial dig site looking for Sheep. As the clock ticked down, I saw them in the distance: there was a small herd of the fluffy white creatures! With no time for subtlety, I “sheared” them with my Shovel and ran with the Wool back to my base. With just a minute remaining, I finished my new home with a lovely new Bed to sleep in. As the challenge ended, I thought that it might be interesting to create a system of sky islands going higher and higher, with waterfalls pouring into one another.

But that would have to wait for another time! The last second of the clocked ticked, and the challenge was over.

Final level: 9

Equipment: No armor. Stone Sword and Iron Pickaxe.

Type of Building: Hanging Garden

Michael Lummis

The world popped to life, and I saw Pigs, Grasslands, a few Trees, and no immediate dangers. This was a nice area, but I still decided to immediately grab some Wood and begin digging deep. My hope was to get plenty of Stone, Iron, Coal, and maybe some rare materials so my structures at the end of the period wouldn’t be simple Cobblestone. I wanted to do better than that!

The initial dig down was dangerous. I dug directly under my feet (usually a no-no), but I had few materials to lose and was willing to take the risk. Only 10 blocks in, I broke through an open cavern and had a minor fall. It didn’t do any serious damage to my character, but I saw several monsters moving around in the shadows. That wasn’t good. I kept digging as quickly as possible.

A Zombie fell onto my head after a few seconds, but luckily I’d crafted an Axe and was able to switch to it, kill the darn thing, and continue digging. Nothing else fell on top of me, though I was half expecting a bad case of Creeper head. Phew. In a 1x1 space, any Creeper would have obliterated me.

I soon reached a Y Value of 12; that’s my favorite spot for digging because it lets you see plenty of possible locations for Diamonds. There was Redstone all over the place, but I didn’t find Coal immediately. Without Torches, life was difficult for a short time. But I grabbed Stone, made a Furnace, and then used a small amount of Wood to burn my old wooden tools. I turned them into Charcoal to get a few Torches made. With that, I had light!

From there, I started on some tunnels. Coal and Iron were almost immediate finds, so I switched to Iron tools. There was no reason to hold on for the future, because we only had an hour to work with. Why waste even seconds just to save on Iron?

With a decent supply of Redstone coming in, I began to wonder what I could build. I’d need to make a passage to the surface if I wanted to make a building up there. But maybe I could create something nifty down here in the deep instead. That would save the minutes it would take to make it back up. Hmmmmm. A lava cave would be perfect, and that was what I wanted to break into the most. Every time I heard bubbling, I dug around in several directions to try and find where it was coming from.

I continued to tunnel and search until almost 25 minutes had gone by. I found an eight-stone Diamond vein! I also got more than enough Iron to do whatever I needed. But I’d been foolish and hurried down here before gathering enough Wood or food. This was a major mistake, because I was suddenly low on Sticks for additional tools and Torches. And my character was going to begin starving soon.

In addition to that, I hadn’t found a lava cavern. An underground lava fort would have rocked. But needs must be met, and dying there in the deep wouldn’t help me very much. I tunneled to the surface, stocked up on a little Wood, and killed nearby Rabbits and Pigs with my Diamond Sword. Totally necessary.

With only half of my time left, I might have to create a surface building instead of an underground one. That was fine. It would still be very interesting to see what I could do. And I had enough interesting materials to spice up the building.

The next 15-minute burst was frantic. I had some decent things to work with, but time was running short. Now on the surface, I ate, searched quickly for a scenic spot, and found a lake nearby. That was what I decided to focus on. I could make a beachfront building maybe.

Or I could be a little more ambitious. Instead of heading down to the beach, I used a local hill to build out and over the lake. Crouching for safety, I laid the blocks under my feet and created a foundation in the middle of the air. Initially, I threw down Cobblestone just to get an idea what I was doing, but then I trashed the floor and started to replace it with Glass blocks (there was ample Sand below, and that was quick to harvest and cook). Having a Glass floor was nifty because it made the place look kind of scary.

There is never enough time in these challenges, so the last 15 minutes put me under a lot of pressure. There was so much more that I’d been planning to do, but that’s why this event is so hard. I tried to decorate quickly.

Using Diorite and Granite, I gave the ceiling a bit more style, and I finished the Glass floor. Then I destroyed the land bridge that I’d made to start the place, and added supports underneath the four corners of the building. This made the place look more natural and enjoyable. The next day dawned, and that was that. I then went to see what everyone else made!

Final Level: 13

Equipment: Iron Tools, Diamond Sword, almost a full suit of Iron Armor.

Type of Building: Fort Overlooking a Lake