Notice of Location Change

Over the past couple of months, I've been keeping both a blog and a YouTube channel, but upon further consideration, making videos has been a better and more enjoyable way of showing my creations than blogging has been. From here on out, I'm exclusively posting videos and you can find them on the Stetofire channel here:

That being said, I want to review some things I've worked on since last post.
The Town is basically done. There will be some changes cloned in when chapters advance, but I'm pretty happy with the form now.

I'm on Episode 9 of Building the Dream now, which is actually focusing on Stoop, the next sequence. Episode 8 was creating the island it's built upon and Episode 7 was making sure the story led there.

I got to play around with WorldPainter in this episode, which I hadn't done before. I REALLY like how easy it is.

This episode also has me showing off new advancements I've made. They make me happy. ;D

I'm going to get some help from the community soon, I hope. I optimistically set June 2018 as the release date and that is absolutely not happening now, seeing that it is currently June. :P
This is Dream 2 of hopefully 6 or 7, plus the 2 endings, so if this is going to be done in another year yet, I'll probably need to recruit some people.
However, I am still wayyyy excited to see the progress I have been making. It's very fun to be able to follow a path that leads this far into the story, but it still needs some polish.
Stay tuned in to my YouTube channel for more updates! I hope to see you there!

Nearly Ready to Move to the Town

I've been a bit busy with University (I should probably be doing more homework right now), but I've made a bit of progress on the Electric Temple and Intersection 1.

As you can see, I've basically finished the shell of the Temple. The building where the lightning is striking is what houses the Large Key and the Artifact. The inside of the complex still needs work, but the rooms are mostly laid out; I just need to populate them now.

This is the Obelisk in Intersection 1. I'll have some command blocks test for a player's position and display a message giving some instructions on how to use it. Once the player(s) place the Artifact in its slot, it will activate the chapter transition from 0 to 1, including switching inventories and teleporting them to the town. That'll be my next project.

Oh, I never linked to the next BtD episode, so here it is:

Overhead shot:

Power Forward

I've been constructing the temple in the Electric Desert and it's ascending fairly quickly. Well, the faceplate is, at least; the other side, not as fast.

Also, there's going to be an underground portion that only has entrances in odd places, like halfway up the levels.

This is the latest video in the series:

Storyline Dilemma

I've been thinking today of the overarching narrative that I'll include in this map.
In my film class at university, we started analyzing Inception. The story in it holds a lot of similarities to the one forming in my mind, so I was thinking the entire time how I'd be able to use the same concepts.

The biggest decision I need to make in this map project is the finale of the story. I know that I want to include a moral dilemma and I have something of an idea right now, but it's not fleshed out at all. In essence (and this is what I was building as we watched Inception), I need the player to choose between two world-changing possibilities, both of which will affect the future. It *must* be their choice and I need them to be invested enough emotionally that they truly feel torn, the feeling that true dilemmas bring. It has to be so powerful that they should have trouble when it comes to the decision moment. I don't want to lead them along a single path which they completely resolves when it finishes; this choice should feel important to their life outside of the map experience and I'd love to see further discussion brought about solely by this dilemma.
That's how high I'm setting my sights for this story.

In the video series on my YouTube channel, I plan on taking some time to figure this out as I build soon.

Supplemental:
I believe I want the creature to have discovered something that will imminently eradicate life on the player's planet. With the player building the machine, they are creating a way for the human race to ascend into energy and either be transported to another habitable planet or move into the creature's dimension to live. That choice is contrasted with the opportunity to remain on the planet and battle through whatever the danger is and with only a tiny chance of survival. What the creature is proposing is a decision of whether you want to run or you want to fight. I'd bet that, with this initial choice, most players will want to stay and fight. However, I need to make sure they understand the problem and both solutions very well. Maybe I should expose the problem with around three dreams left, so they still have time to gather a few artifacts while they think.

So why would anyone choose to leave? How can that be a better choice in some instances? Would there be some cons with the travel or destination? I want the choice to run to be a valid one. I'm pretty sure my ultimate goal is to see the player squirm, really struggle, when they reach the point of decision. Not because I want to see them in pain, but because it would be a victory to capture the essence of tough choices that have big consequences. Maybe I can vent as I build.

Progress on Spawn and the Electric Desert

Map:
* Created a Map Icon
* Added color tag to title

Spawn:
* Added a Death Counter option
* Reorganized command blocks to only allow Gamerule Activation once

Electric Desert:
* Worked on the walls to bring more variation and interest

* Added the locked door to the next area

Don't worry! All of these visuals will be touched up as their functionality solidifies.

Awoken Banner

I just spent a bit of time creating a location in a Minecraft test world that would be appropriate for a banner.
This is the result, with a simple white blurred border:

I may recreate this in the map as a nice title somewhere. :)

Overview [SPOILER ALERT!]

This will be the first post on this map-making journey for the Awoken adventure, so I'm going to write the entire plan for the story right here. If you haven't played it and want a sense of wonder, skip this post and download the world file from the thread on Minecraft Forums right here.
This idea arose when I was finished with my Rift Up custom map and was looking for another project. I noticed the dream journal I have kept since 2012 and decided that it was full of resources I could use to construct another enjoyable adventure. It's almost like a journal of ideas that I have had while unconscious.
The general premise of the map will be this:

A portal opened near your home and a being came through that didn't understand the way you worked. It accessed your mind and started learning, but this unfortunately meant that you were pushed unconscious. Your experience through this has been a series of dreams as you've explored your own mind trying to find the problem. You've been noticing clues and the other characters you encounter have been analyzing the situation, sometimes saying things when they think you can't hear. After you progress through all of the areas, you meet a projection of the being and are tasked with teaching it who you are by using the objects you've collected along the way. After the being understands, it withdraws from your mind and you wake up, only to find the world around you is different; the being has altered it with similar features that you found in your dreams.

I'm planning Awoken to have a similar style as Rift Up, but the project is slightly more ambitious, which leads to my next point:
Development time for this project is undetermined until more plans have been made and my schedule is a bit more predictable, but I will diligently pursue this goal until more news comes about.

Awoken Work-In-Progress Forum Post here.
Previous map Rift Up thread here.