FamilyGamerTV – Minecraft Construction Handbook Guide Book Review

Welcome to family game II TV now if you watch the channel weekly you know that we like to talk about Skylanders Disney infinity Angry Birds tele pods but more recently the biggest deal for us has been minecraft and we’ve been looking at some of these Minecraft books that are

Coming out any day now in stores our last video you have seen our in-depth close look at the combat guide we had a flip through the pages to see what it had to offer and today we’ll be looking at the Minecraft construction handbook there that will have lots of hints and

Tips about how to really build cool stuff in Minecraft so let’s get the book out and we’ll have a look at what it has to offer so here we are we looking at as I said the Minecraft construction Handbook this is from Mojang and if you

Look at the back it gives us an understanding of what they’re all the focus of these books because as there are more publications you need to know which one you’d want to buy so it’s good looking at construction or what you’re building with so many possibilities and

It’s going to highlight some of the creative things that the real expert players have done so the official minecraft construction handbook pack the tips step-by-step instructions for master builder team Fire UK which obviously a youtuber an expert minecrafter and it’s nice to see that it’s not just been something that the

Publisher has attempted to do on their own that they’ve not set their own writers and researchers off to do it but they’re using and connecting with the existing community and obviously that’s a big part of why minecraft is popular and why minecraft is acceptable so if we move

Into this book again after these publications you can see the papers quite nice and thick it’s going to it’s going to last as you pour over these pages so we get into into the start of the book obviously it has the title and here we get a sense of the content of

This book for the very first time so after introduction it takes us through a variety of different constructions and from a wooden house Nordic Hall a magic city walls Royal Hall Palace suspension bridge tower bridge and it’s a little bit more linear than some of the other books we’ve seen

In this series there’s not a sense of book really this is just a lot a big long recipe book for inspiration for minecraft creations looking at real genuine things that have been built in Minecraft you can see the ship there in the background it’s massively impressive

And as a parent I think that’s one of the most important things to remember that this creative side of Minecraft is a really big deal we remember playing Lego or your kids and parents are very happy have you have a wife smile and they see their kids playing Lego

Particularly building their own things so what I think you need to see is that minecraft is really the modern-day equivalent of Lego and so a big part of that isn’t just the fighting and the adventuring and the crafting but is this construction side of the game where you

See these vast hugely creative almost pieces of art have been created in the virtual world and my son who is only six my youngest creates these amazing buildings that I don’t think he’d be able to make in Lego and it’s not the sort of thing I would expect often I

Come along and we’ll ask him did you make that yourself and he said yeah dad I made this all myself and it’s really proud of what he made so here we are here’s the basic format that we’ll be seeing throughout the book so some useful things here you see wooden house

Obviously the title of this particular construction what the materials are that your use going to use you can get those ready at the outset to get your sort of build speeding along and it takes you through the steps to create this house now obviously your house is going to end

Up being slightly different to this but by seeing this sort of general approach to how you might build a house having these nice big pictures it gives you a sense of the sort of things you can achieve and ideally some inspiration so yeah we care as we carry on it’s nice to

See a good bit of detail as you’re constructing now and then you would be potentially better for this quite closely but with the pictures little bit small again I think you just need to use this as a guide and I’d be loved I’d love to see the interested to hear how

Close you guys managed to get to some of these constructions and there we go finishing touches along with each each of these different steps is a good bit of instruction so a little bit like cooking cooking recipe really to see what you need to do here we are we on to

A community creation by salman 77 in the minecraft community so it’s a focus in a spotlight on what they have created which is rather than actually short of taking you through the steps of how to create yourself and it actually shows you again probably for inspiration more than anything else

What’s been created by these different minecraft experts here fire UK with their nordic hall and it’s got some nice tips for this build for large ambitious builds consider working in a team and i really like that it’s not only sort of educational in terms of the creation but

It’s much more collaborative more more collaborative than lego ever was really a lego construction is something you have to do on your own maybe you’d sit on your bedroom floor and you’d be building at the same time someone else was but eddie I sort of have fight for

Oh I need this I need this particular piece as anyone’s seen it or you using that piece and I need it but in Minecraft obviously in the create mode you’re not limited to the pieces that you’ve purchased so the game has a relatively low price of entry and then

You have an infinite bucket of these water essentially our building blocks much like Lego and at the same time you can also both of you can fly around and construct your different buildings of different creations at the same time obviously you need to communicate to do

That and then my kids do that sometimes I’m after a while they’ll end up getting in arguments particularly one of them gets fed up or tied and starts covering everything in lava or pouring water over everything Hisle screens from downstairs and I have to come and help but generally if they

Do collaborate they have a much much more fun so here we are working through this book again we’re looking at a build here of a decorative garden which I really like I think I like some of the different things that you see here a stream cottage by half demon and boo so

Obviously a experienced and expert minecrafter from from the community I like it I like the use of flowers and again there’s a real sense of sort of design here both in terms of the trees around it but how the house is set in its setting it looks like some of that

You actually make maybe see in the real world and will potentially quite like to live it’s the attention to detail in these constructions so I think it’s most impressive here by far UK palace gardens this looks almost looks like a sort of uncharted type over

Own space that you might play in a video game in a shooting video game sort of dilapidated slightly an old architecture that has ivy and things growing up it so again there’s a real sense of creativity and I’m sure that a lot of these designers and a lot of the skills that

Kid children pick up from Minecraft will be useful in jobs and careers in later life so here we are we are now in a particular bill to fortified wall so this is one of the ones they’re going to take us through in detail one two three

Four on each of the cells and tells you how to do that so have your fortified wall continued I’m not quite sure why they restarted the numbers here so one two three four this has continued because this is this is continued but it’s a new section so they’re starting

That at one because you’ve got in your new set of materials because there’s another element of the wall this is the sort of the the Foley or the sort of the tower at one end and again it shows you how to take these constructions to the next step by adding fire glass and

Different elements to actually get more of a sense of finesse and sort of polish to what you’ve built here we go out back in the community community creations mage city walls that’s amazing and if you look at the detail that is bring up because the camera is that some of that

Detail it looks it just remind you some of the very large Lego builds that you see exhibitions and a Legoland and I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing sort of Minecraft lands being built physically in some of these virtual models actually being maybe printed out or fully printers or just constructed in

The real world as a sort of tourist attraction there’s so much work and effort has been put into these that really you could capitalize on capitalize upon that and make use of it so here we go go Royal Hall again it really nice its use of light here and I

Think the combination will be able to light inside these different elements like coming through the windows as well as the the flames and candles give this a real sense of place and so that’s some of those things is what you pick up and the tips are you going to pick up from

This altar book is not only how to about big things and how to do really impressive buildings but how to actually sort of finesse some of that and give it a sort of a feel and a light in terms of how its lit and how the the light falls

Through the windows that would actually make it feel like a nicer space and maybe he’s just feel a bit more realistic talking of which here we are in the Dwarven city of course this is a dark space that is lit almost entirely inside both with flames and with torches

And again it creates that real sort of Lourdes wings type feel you’re under the under the mountains in this massive cavernous space that’s being built as we carry on here the palace but this is another fire UK design again lots of detail you can see as we sort of press

On through the through the book but there’s just a whole ton of different content to look at the suspension bridge and again here it’s it’s the the architecture really and what we’re learning here are proper engineering skills really I mean we’re doing it in blocks and we’re doing in a virtual

Space but the principles here are the sort of stuff that people like isambard kingdom brunel and pioneered in terms of how these things are constructed and also construction them in Minecraft in a way that would mimic the real-world architecture so obviously some of the physics in Minecraft allow you to do

Things and that you couldn’t do in a real world like that d though cables here on this tower bridge Tower Bridge model aren’t actually holding the tension obviously they’ve been constructed and they can float in the air but can to make them like they are

Needing to do that gives it a more sense of presence and the more sort of realistic feel of course that’s not the only way you can do it that’s fantastical is equally impressive as again we see in this mage bridge from Fire UK a floating island perhaps

Something we might have seen in BioShock Infinite if we’re if you’re old enough to play that or if you’ve seen some screenshots again that sort of floating city and here is a bit of storytelling going on it’s not just that you let they’re creating sort of random floating

Blocks of stone but there’s a story here there’s a city and as a castle honest there’s obviously people who have lived there and there’s a narrative going on in the way you construct these spaces so that when a player a friend or family comes to visit them essentially as you talk

Them through it you’re telling them the story of that place and the story needs to translate into the architecture into the bricks and mortar of what you’re putting together and those are the creations at least and out and again this is a really good point from Neph I

Just don’t know how to say that but the mage tower islands and again with all got this island theme but here just the way the water is falling down there and just the construction of the tower vines growing on it gives the sense of sort of a lived-in feel steampunk city

This is again sort of thing that I would have poured over in like the Lego Lego manuals in the past when I was a kid so it’s really nice to see that sort inspiration coming in galleon ship ships have been something that my kids have been looking a building of late now I

Don’t know if I don’t think they have to float am I was asking this than this if they’re if the base wasn’t watertight would that be a problem I think in the Minecraft world that isn’t a problem but here we got a build we’ve got so back into an actual

Instructed build so you’ve got the different steps here and some tips obviously the materials you need and these quite ambitious build so that’s that’s taking over six eight pages now until we get get to the end so there you go outside our finished finished ship and we are onto some more inspiration

Again I think it’s nice the way that they’ve paired up this the types of building so we’re moving through different styles of buildings from traditional house architecture through those floating islands and in here we are onto sort of boats and ships the far UK build here and there’s a sense of

Real activity in this port so it’s not just they built one object that they’ve built a whole world and it and that the whole world is consistent so they’re sort of the feeling of sails it seems that there’s a ship here and that is it

In some water it feels like it’s up in the air but the design of the sails matches throughout and again we’re moving through these these ship examples quite regularly and then of course some of the functional elements of minecraft creations are really a lot of fun so here looking at

Well rollercoaster in the backgrounds of this page you can see the the aim of what we’re creating or the equipment so larger equipment listen there’s a sense that these builds are getting more difficult as you can see here as we progress through the book and here it’s

Going to take us through how to do this build there’s a lot of construction on this this would be a good chunk of time I mentioned to see in the comments how long would it take you to build this epic roller coaster perhaps go away and

Do it drop a comment I’d be interested see not only who’s the fastest but also to sit yes I see are some people faster than others like you know if you’re younger does does that mean that it takes you longer to build you less ambitious in terms of what you’re

Building or is age really not an issue is it an is it more about the sort of skill and experience and with the game here at epic rollercoaster just adding some advanced features here so we were looking at real functionality and some of the physics elements of Minecraft and

I think that’s what we’ll see as minecraft develops more and more physics and sort of functional items added in so that we can do more looking forward to updates obviously we’ll be bringing those on the channel as minecraft develops and I will I’m looking forward to the new Pocket Edition update that’s

Coming soon so here that’s a massive roller coaster not short actually likes go on that one foot will will then maybe we’ll try and build it because it’s it looks like a lot of fun to build and here we are so final words that’s the

End of the end of the book and we’d like to know where you think of it does this add a sort inspiration to your imagination and to your creations in Minecraft or do you prefer to just get that sort of stuff from your friends and family and from YouTube videos or from

The game itself do you think it covers everything it needs to are there some constructions that you’ve done that you think would have been good to be included in the book and also in terms of Minecraft books in general what else should they be covering so let us know

In the comments what you think of this minecraft construction Handbook share it with your friends let us know when you pop it on Twitter and Facebook because we’ll be going through those shares and through those comments and picking out one at random to win we’ve got a bunch

Of these to give away and we’ll be posting them post to you be landing on your doormat if you’re the lucky winner and equally if you subscribe to the channel we’re gonna be tracking with all the Minecraft publications at all the Minecraft updates as well as information and use

On Skylanders Disney infinity and Angry Birds that’s all we’ve got time for today on family game on TV but we’re back with more soon