Of Crafting Mines

So I finally let my friend talk me into playing Minecraft. I started on the free demo, which I already knew I would love because I played the Minecraft Pocket Edition demo for hours before. And it wasn't even by the time the demo ran out, that I found myself wanting to buy it and only having to wait a day or two till I got paid. I then became a proud owner of Minecraft.

Minecraft is a great game. For those few of you who read this and don't know what it is, it is a game that revolves around digging and building anything you can dream up. Sure there is a story and a boss and endgame stuff, but the bread and butter of it is the building. I play the building on creative mode because when I get the itch to build I really didn't want to have to spend the time making and finding the materials.

Inside the Mansion

So I started with a rather militaristic looking warehouse like place. but that was just a place I could put my bed. After building a base, I ventured underground. Right away I was lost and spent hours making and cleaning up halls and trying to memorize my path. This was before I learned the "torches on the right side" tip. Eventually I found my first giant rift deep underground. And this would become the center of my underground world.

Right away I was building bridges to get across the whole thing, finding exits and stuff that would get me out of there, building glass bridges over lava just because it looked cool. Eventually I started adding 'shops' to the sides and making it into an uninhabited underground city, worthy of any dwarf.

I actually started feeling like I was a dwarf. Sure there are no dwarves in the game, but how I am and how I see myself and how I played the game, I was a dwarf. I dug out a bank so large I actually got lost in it. The cavern that was once there, replaced by stairs and chests. The disorder of the blocks, replaced with clean stone and smooth walls. Deep underground I was a stone master and this was my Mona Lisa.

Then I moved above ground and started building more houses. One I call the turtle, which is a big round structure with really cool lighting at night thanks to all the windows in the roof. Made one inspired by the house I designed in school, one with a giant Tri-Force on the front, which was modeled like the mansions in games like Resident Evil and Eternal Darkness, with a large central stair case leading to two wings of the house. This house, what I call the Mansion, floats high into the clouds.

The world I have seen

Then I got into the railway stuff, and making mine carts and tracks running to all of them. Then I wanted to get creative there, I made a track that goes through a water tunnel above the ground, then dives down and cuts through a mountain past a waterfall, and then into the river, all before it ends up winding around trees and ends at a giant cave opening in a mountain. And I found a whole new love in just making railway tracks that do something different.

I felt so good creating stuff, I started to move cows and pigs so my farm had something happening in it, instead of just looking cool. I started to make things look alive by adding furnishings. I made a cottage in the mountains, a home with modern architecture. I built a tower on top of a peak just because I could. But the game is missing one thing.

Having someone occupy the houses I made, run the stores waiting to be filled with product, work the land around the farm, some one to ride the mine carts around just because it was fun. I did this stuff, but there was nobody to share it with. No one to fill it with. But with all the creating that Minecraft has, you cannot create a person. Sure you can add villagers so you can trade and sell stuff with, who can now also harvest and plant new crops, and you could make the game on a realm so you can add your friends to your dream, but I can't fill the world with life.

Sometimes I imagine that was what God was feeling like when he was creating the universe. Maybe he made certain things to shine a bit brighter because he liked the color when they did. Or wanted to see what it looked like if a solar system spun the opposite way ours does. Did he put the animals in the farm just because he wanted it filled with something so it was doing something more than just sitting there? What if all of this is just a big Minecraft game for God? One where he too wanted to add people who would live and breathe and work the stuff he created.

I remember back in the day, there was a whole sub-genre of games called god games, where you played as a powerful being controlling a world of smaller people, trying to take care of them so that they would grow and become better. One big one that I played was Black and White. But never did it have the creation feeling that Minecraft does. In Minecraft I can build whatever I want mostly how I want.

Hubble Deep Field shot. Those are not stars they are galaxies

But if I was able to create people to fill my world, give them the ability to work, grow, create and live a life, and did it all because I was happy to see them doing what they do, and they began to ignore me, and say I didn't exist and the few people who still believed in me were called morons, simple-minded folk, wouldn't I be saddened by my creation? Wouldn't I try to bring them all to me, but because I loved how they did their things by their own free will, never force them to me?

This is a universe full of created things that are loved so much by their creator. God loved us so much that he even sent his son to us, to tell us about him and how much he loves us. He is trying to remind you every time you look at the stars and wonder what's out there, that he loves you. When you see the bright spring colors, smell the fresh rose, look at the rolling hills, he is writing you a love letter of the sweetest most beautiful words that exist.

We take what we see for granted because we see it everyday. We stop thinking of the beauty and start thinking of how we can use it to better fit ourselves. A jamais vu on the scale of the universe. Yet God is repeatedly hiding things for us to find that makes us happy, which makes him happy. God really does want the very best for all of us and he is more than willing to give it to us if we simply stopped, looked and listened to the world around us. The world is breaking apart the farther we get from God's love. The pieces are so fragile that only the original creator can manage to put them back together.

M74 galaxy from Hubblesite.org

This world needs the hope and love that can only come from God. In my opinion, we are far from his most impressive work. Quantum and Particle Physics, all 118 known elements out there, the way gravity works, how light travels its speed regardless of how fast you are traveling, or all the millions of galaxies out there and the billions of stars in our own galaxy, or the way a flower pops open in the morning sun welcoming the warmth and light of our little yellow sun are all way more impressive than us. But in all the impressiveness that is out there, God loves us so very much. This is what I have learned from Minecraft.

Kickstart David

This will be short, I was talking to my mom today after church about my last blog post, and how great some of the kickstarter stuff is. I love the games, the tech, and a great many other things that I would back in a heartbeat if I had the money to do so. While we were talking, I mentioned that there are a rather high number of Christian based games but they always seem to be rather lame, or overly simplistic and worse, simply not entertaining.

Like many nights, I decided to browse Kickstarter for anything interesting. And I found a game. Simple titled The Bible Videogame: David, it is a game about the major life of David from meeting Samuel to killing Goliath and his running from King Saul. The little of the game play showed a nice looking side scrolling 3D game. It looked fun, and it is being made by people who also understand that we do need a good game based on the Bible. A game that just might be able to reach a few people where typical sharing wont reach.

I really do believe this game is worth backing and I will be doing so, even though I might be short on cash for a few days. The Kickstarter ends on November 1st. This gives you plenty of time back it, let your friends know, and spread the word around that we might be able to get the game made. I normally do not talk about these like this, but how things worked out, lined up, I really feel this game should be made.

The goal is only 35,000 which they are already close to being made, so we will get 3 stories about David, up to his fight with Goliath. But if they can manage to raise 385,000 which might sound like a lot, but really is a very small amount for a high quality game, they will be able to bring all of David's story. Most big games, and even the smaller crappy ones, tend to be 10 million to as high as 40 million with an average of 18-28 million. So this 385,000 is very low but can be really good for thousands of kids out there. They have an ultimate goal of making a game out of the whole Bible, but for now will stick with David. It is meant to be true to the bible, not adding or changing the stories but making them an exciting game of the stories.

They have industry veterans, and the two leads are twins who have worked on Lego games, Star Wars, Assassin Creed. So pray about this. See what God says to you about backing this game, sharing it with friends, and let's see how big we can grow this. Thanks for taking a look and I really hope you will join me in backing this.

Check the game out here.

Kickstarting our Lives

I am an avid Kickstarter. For the few of you that might not know what Kickstarter is, it is a crowd fundraising site. From clothing to video games to movies and anything in between, Kickstarter, and others like it (i.e. Indiegogo.com) are a great place to make your big dreams come true. Sure, there are a lot of dumb things on there, and sometimes even the really cool things don't find enough people to make them happen, but every day there are new and exciting things on there that are trying to make things easier, prettier, or cooler.

I am mostly into the board games on there, I have several of them and I find them to be every bit of fun that some of the big expensive mainstream ones are. But from time to time I have gone into the fashion one, I recently backed a belt made from used bicycle tires. I also have from the same person, a wallet made from them as well.

I backed a technology start up called Lima, which allows me to set up a device on my network that will act like my own personal cloud. Space is limited only to the size of hard drive that I put on it. All my music, stories, and whatever else I wish to back up will be available to me on almost any device. If I bought two of them, I could even set up a back up at another location to help assure I never lose a file.

I have card decks, po(r)ker chips, (Which might be some of the best ceramic poker chips out there, mostly because they have the commandments of bacon and cute little piggies on them.) metal dice, poker chips, and soon coins with a tinker/steampunk feel to them.

Sure Kickstarter has problems, sometimes the thing you feel is so awesome you don't know why anyone wouldn't want to back it, fails to find its audience in the massive sea of other things. Or sometimes the person you funded falls flat and you never get what you backed them for. It is frustrating, but it is all part of the thrill and fun of the hunt.

I talk about cool projects or try talking others into something I found on there fairly often. If I had more money, I would back so many more of them. Sometimes there are ones that look cool, I just can't afford to back it at that moment. It also makes you feel rather good, you donate money to help start someone on the path of their dreams. Dreams that you have no invested in and hope they turn out amazing.

Someways I think our lives are like the Kickstarter website, and God is like the ultimate backer. He has donated so much to helping us fulfill our dreams and invested endlessly in an effort to make these dreams into something rich and amazing. The best product we could produce. Yet we often fail to meet the goals we set out to meet at the beginning, and like some Kickstarter projects, get overwhelmed by it all.

It is hard to see sometimes, with all the pain and suffering, all the hate and intolerance out there, that God has chosen to back us with all that he is. All we have to do is give all that we are to him. When we do that, we can live the dream we have wanted. God said he will give it to us, several times Jesus says ask and you will receive. But no where does anyone ever say that we will get it all while living on Earth.

Contrary to what some people say out there, God never promised riches and big houses. Never did he mention that if we follow and love him he will give us fast cars to park in our over sized garages. But he did tell us that whatever we lose in His name, we will receive tenfold in heaven. In heaven, is where our ultimate prize waits for us. It is there, at the foot of our God, that we can finally have our whole dream realized.

It is hard to do, but I hope to make God's investment in me, worth it. I hope that I can turn it into somehting more and more for His glory. I want to be who I really am, living my dream, with God right there with me. God is our Kickstarter, Jesus is our backer and his spirit is our funding. So let's get out there and create the ultimate project to honor and glorify our God.