Hi, everybody! We’re super excited! This is our very first Minecraft Now, so we’re gonna see how it goes. But we’re so happy that you joined us! Let’s get right into it! Right now! I… This is so exciting! Minecraft Now is going to be a monthly livestream, where we just hang out with you. So we show you snapshots, what’s going on. We feature a bunch of cool things from you, and really it’s a very casual way for us all to be together. And I’ve got two amazing colleagues with me today: -Henrik and Nir. Hey, guys! -Hello! You’re on the inaugural episode of Minecraft Now. -How’s it feel? -It’s pretty exciting to finally be here, right? -Yeah, it’s an honor, it’s great, it’s cool! -I’m so excited! So, for those who don’t know, both of you have been on Minecraft Live, and I would love for everyone to get to know you. So, Nir, can you tell everybody about yourself? Sure! Uh, I’m Nir, more commonly known as “Ulraf,” and I’m part of the gameplay design team. -Very nice! – And Henrik? -Yes, I’m Henrik. I also do gameplay development, together with Nir and the rest of the team. We’ve been working hard to make a nice update – 1.18. Yeah, I was gonna say, how does it feel, like your baby, Caves & Cliffs Part 1 and 2 have now been released. -How does it feel? -Ah… It’s nice that it’s done. It’s been an adventure, and it turned out really well, But it’s nice that it’s behind us so we can just enjoy playing the game. Yes. It feels good to be on the other side of it. Speaking of playing the game, I mean, that’s one of the things about Minecraft Now, is we’re gonna do a lot of game playing, And you have some cool stuff to show us in Caves & Cliffs Part 2. -So, let’s jump into the game! -Yes! -So, yeah, here we are. Where do we start? -Oh! Look at that little panda! Who is this guy? I threw a snowball at him just to get him out of there. Hey, hey! No fighting! Yeah, so we’re here in this awesome valley, and we can walk around a bit in the new generation, sort of check it out, and we have the “world gen” dude himself, MrHenrik here. So, help us understand how it’s all coming together. What are we looking at? Well, we did change a lot of things for Caves & Cliffs Part 2, mainly our world generation, so I’m gonna fly. And Henrik, you actually also… We’re gonna see in a few minutes, iskall85 is going to do a build challenge during the show, that you all are gonna vote which place he builds, And Henrik, you picked four places for them to choose from. -I scouted! This is not one of them. -Okay, this is not one of them. -Nope, this is just our starting point. -This amazing valley is not good enough? Nope, that’s not one of them. It’s not one of them. It’s not. But yeah, what did we do? Mainly we did it so that biomes are now completely decoupled from terrain shapes. So in the past, you wouldn’t see things like that, where you have a forest climbing up a hill. That’s one change. Another thing is of course that you wouldn’t get crazy-big mountains like this. But basically we tore the whole thing apart and put it back together again, in a way that we think is really cool and interesting. What’s your favorite thing from this update, Henrik? Apart from everything about world generation? That’s fine! You can answer that way. No. I think maybe how it came together, ’cause all of the independent changes, such as the caves and cave entrances and mountains, the whole biome thing, but making it all fit together was a lot of work, and I’m really happy with how it came together. That’s awesome. – And what about for you, Nir? What’s one of your favorite things? So, there’s a lot of things. Of course, there is my baby, right? The lighting change, that I’m so excited about having that in the game. But another thing I’m super-excited about, for example, is I like things like this. Or more exactly, we were over here. I really like the duality and extreme contrast in this update. You can stand here, look up and look at this impressive, amazing mountain. But then you look down there, and look at how deep the caves go, and it’s just… -That contrast is amazing to me. -That is really cool. It really does look like a totally different Minecraft, but still similar, which I love. All of you at home, feel free to ask us some questions in the chat, if you wanna hear something specific from Henrik and Nir. Henrik, can you take us to one of the first… The first location? I happen to have here all the locations written down! -Ooh! -In catalogue form, on a piece of paper. Perfect! You’re the only one that knows them! -It’s a trend, writing them down. -Yeah. So, I’m now going to manually type the coordinates, and I’m gonna get it right on the first attempt. What do you think? -Okay, we believe in you. -So… It’s a lot of pressure, though, ’cause we’re live and people are watching… -Yeah, my fingers aren’t shaking at all. -No, okay, they’re looking at Nir. Good. Look at Nir while I type. This is boring. -So, location number one… -Look at this! What should I show them? This is hard. But, okay, why not this? Um, wait… Wow! This generation, it’s just… It’s just incredible! No matter where you turn or where you look, it’s just…wow! -What is… -Really cool! Look at this! Look at this over there! -Maybe I should skip my locations. -I’m sure you found amazing stuff… -I think you topped me right now. -Oh, my god! Look at that! That’s what’s good about this, like we were talking about a group of friends, like: “Oh, should we find a new seed for starting a new world?” and stuff like that. And I was like, “We don’t need to find anything.” “Every seed… Just walk around a bit. You’ll find amazing things like this.” Okay, so… I’m gonna show it now. You ready? -Yes! -Ready, set go! And… -Oh! It’s under water! -Ta-da! -Whoa! -This is… We call this “Grotto,” I guess. And it’s kind of… Yeah, I don’t wanna say too much to influence votes, but… Okay, I’ll talk about what this illustrates about the world generation. This is what we call “aquifers” – local water levels. -You see that sea level up here? -I love it! And down here, it’s a different water level, and that system was insanely complicated, but it allows us to do things like lakes down inside the caves and up inside the mountains and this seemed like a… Yeah, I think iskall85 could do something really cool here. Wow! In the chat, they’ve been asking about what was the hardest part of this update? Like for you to actually develop? I think probably just getting the increased world height to even work at all, ’cause we made the world higher and deeper, it’s not a very exciting answer, but just getting it to work at all, because Minecraft was not built to have negative Y coordinates. So, that was a lot of “yak shaving” to get that to work. Well, this location… I mean, I’ll probably say this about each one, but “Grotto” might have my vote, ’cause I would really like to see iskall85 make something out of that. I may be biased here, too, ’cause we spent a lot of time making this particular thing possible, Because I personally really love this kind of terrain, so I’m really glad we made it. We managed to make it work. -Okay, let’s look at the next location. -Okay. For those of you who are just joining us, we have iskall85… We’re gonna pick out a place for him to build, So Henrik is showing us some really cool locations that you all will get to vote on and tell us which one you want him to build. He’s doing a build live during the show, so, you know, the more challenging the better! -Okay! Location number two… -Oh! I love it! …is, I guess, called “Mushroom Pass” for now, we just made… We found these an hour ago, and just made up names, right? As I said, it’s not hard to find amazing and impressive stuff, right? The hard thing is choosing which of all the 18 awesome locations we should… Oh, my god! At the edge there’s this sunken boat over here. So, there’s the not-so-sunken boat over there, and then there’s paths. I don’t know where he would want to build, but in both directions, it’s like a pretty narrow pass between two mountains, And I don’t know if he’s gonna do a bridge across or build up on top, I have no idea, but I’m pretty sure again that he will find some really cool stuff to do here. -Yes! -That is so cool! We had a great question in the chat: “How did you think of making an update like this, that’s so big,” “but still make sure it feels ‘Minecrafty’”? And I know that was really important to you. Um, yeah it was actually also one of the biggest challenges, because we wanted to add all this dramatic terrain, and now, to be clear, Now we’re looking for the most dramatic terrain. There’s also plenty of terrain that looks like just normal good old Minecraft also. But we wanted to add the new mountains, we wanted to add the new caves, but we also wanted to have traditional, recognizable Minecraft terrain, and making a bit of both, And how we did that was basically through the help of the community, by doing snapshots, getting feedback, and tweaking and tuning till it started looking right. That’s so awesome! Okay, so we have “Mushroom Pass,” which… Now I said I liked “Grotto,” but “Mushroom Pass” is really… It really is, you could basically pick any place in the new update and it’s amazing. -So, what’s the third one, Henrik? -Okay. Take us to somewhere cool! I think what you said was very, very important to us as well, like keeping the magic of Minecraft. There’s a lot of custom-build maps that have like, really impressive terrain, but they sometimes don’t really feel Minecraft. But here I think the jankiness you see… It’s not perfect, right? It’s a bit… You can see the random in there, that’s what still keeps the magic, and I think that’s super important. The price you pay for getting random awesomeness is sometimes you get random ugliness. But as long as awesomeness happens more often than ugliness, it’s fine. Sometimes what I think is ugly, someone else thinks is wonderful. So that’s fine. -Okay. You ready for the next one? -Yes! Henrik, a question from the chat was: “How did you actually pick these different biomes?” I was stressing 45 minutes just outside the door here. I just jumped around, and like, “Oh, this is interesting. Oh, this complements that one,” and then, “Oh, Henrik, you have to hurry up. We have to go in in 10 minutes.” “Oh! But I’ve got eight things I like, so I gotta pick four!” -And then, that was it. -I make them spoiled. -You’re spoiled! -I’m sorry. -This is the perspective… -Whoa! I love it! …which kind of looks like the old Mojang logo, somehow. -It does! -Or, if you make it nighttime, if I may. It becomes almost like a… I think so… Is it night? Wait. -Do midnight. -Do I have night vision? I’d better not. No. -Good. Set midnight. -Yes! -Oh, wow! -Okay. It looks… At least, it looked to me when it was darker… The trees look like my hair, you know, from that… -Kind of like a dragon’s head? -Or a dragon’s head! I’ve heard many people guess that the old Mojang is actually a dragon head. -I didn’t mean your hair looks like a dragon. -No, I’m fine with that. Looking like a dragon head is a very big compliment! Yeah, it’s super cool! But also, I’m not sure if you know, but in the new Mojang Studios logo, in the “A,” you actually can see, like, the outline of the old logo. Really? Wait, wait! Check it out, check it out on my cape! -Henrik, come over here. -Yeah, let’s compare capes. Your cape doesn’t have the whole Mojang… -Let’s stand side-by-side. Okay? -On the “A,” you said. No? Or no? -Over here? Where are you? -Um, okay, yes! -Old school versus new and fresh! -These are our Mojang Studios capes. And you can see that Henrik’s going very old school. -I fell down. -Don’t fall down! -Okay, yes. -Okay, this lush cave is gorgeous. Now I’m changing my vote. -Well, you know, each time I’m changing. -You get one vote, Lydia. I don’t even think I’m gonna have a chance to vote, but, you know. You all will get to vote where iskall85’s gonna build, and there’s one… I mean, this location is super, super amazing. -What is… Oh! We could just stay here. -We can just stay. Can we just stay and swim with axolotls? -We must, we must! -There’s like a little bat! Oh, I love them! -You stay while I go to the next place. -Yeah. I think this is a bit of a challenge as well, right? Because of the big openness, it’s sort of a bit of a challenge to overcome this grandeur of the terrain, and do something that stands out, out of it, so, I think it’s gonna be a challenge for iskall85 for sure, Especially in the short duration that we’re giving him to do it. But I’m excited to see what he’ll be able to do here. -Okay, last location! -Okay. -Are you ready? -Do it! -The big reveal happening…turn… -Okay, that’s really cool. -Oh! -Oh! It continues! What?! -Oh! That’s really cool! -This is aquifers on steroids. This was one of the visions we had, which was to be able to actually have water systems, where you can actually go around in a boat, and have that as a means of travel underground. I do like that he’d have to build in a place where he could die at any point. And here you have to be careful, because uh… -Whoo-hoo! -No, no, no! -Yes! -So, it’s an exciting place… …with some danger and some beauty mixed. Oh, that is really, really cool. Oh, man! Those are three… This one showcases something… Or does it? No, it doesn’t. Yes, it does. Okay, yeah. Mine shafts. We had to make some minor changes to make them fit in the new terrain. To avoid this… You didn’t see this, this is not here. Ignore this. This is not here. To avoid this thing, which isn’t there and you’re not seeing, We have the mine shafts hang in chains, if they’re closer to the ceiling than the floor. If they’re closer to the floor, then they make pillars, like over here. -Just a small change. -I’m getting rid it. Henrik, it’s not here. -It’s all gone. -Thank you. -It never happened. -Yeah. So, from now on, we’re gonna include one “Ulraf” in every world… -…so I’ll fix those things, it’s all good. -Clean-up crew. Perfect. Oh, yeah. There’s also this other thing, and we wanted people to be able to use, to swim around in aquifers and find oars and stuff, But it’s kind of hard to survive, so these things are there to provide a bit of light, but also a way… If you hold shift, and swim over it, then you will be able to breathe. -I love it! -Just to make it kind of accessible. Let’s see if I keep swimming and hopefully… Yeah, there’s another one. -That is awesome! -Yes! Henrik, do you have this seed for people? They’ve been asking in the chat. Which, I mean, like, you just showed like… -Shall we…? -Uh… There’s a world for that thread, it doesn’t have to be the number, even. It’s a “mega seed of doom,” something like that, right? You made it up! You make me so proud! I felt… I felt it’s very fitting for iskall85, we have to do something… -“Mega seed of doom.” -Yes, something like that. “Mega seed of doom”! Okay! Well, there you go! But if you’re really boring and want a number… Yeah, so we have… Oh, why is it not showing up? I don’t know, you type. Uh… Oh, I have a Swedish keyboard. -Oh! -Oh, iskall85! I see he’s not saving us! We turned off the feedback so he didn’t see it, but that was it. Thank you iskall85! If you prefer a boring number over “mega seed of doom,” there’s the bar number. That is awesome. Okay, so now it’s actually time to let all of you vote on which of these four places. So, we have four different choices, iskall85’s gonna have to do a build during. You have “Mushroom Pass,” is number one. “Lush Mountain” is number two. “Grotto” is number three, and four is “Lava Cave.” So, I mean with the “Mushroom Pass” you had all of these mushrooms, you had the boat. Then on “Lush Mountain,” I mean, you have this giant mountain, looks like a dragon, also a lush cave. The “Grotto” was so cool, you had the different sea levels. And then four, I mean, a death cave of lava! I don’t know! So, the choice is up to you. I see tons of you voting right now. A lot of votes already in, you’re gonna decide on which we have, and now we’re actually gonna say goodbye to Henrik. Thank you for picking out all those awesome places! -This was a pleasure! -It was so good having you! It was so nice seeing you not through a screen. -Yeah, in real life! -Yes! Sitting next to each other. Amazing! -Well, very, very cool! Thanks Henrik. -Cool! Our special guest today, iskall85… He’s known for many things, because he’s amazing, But there’s one thing that we really, really love at Mojang Studios, which is his laugh. Oh, it’s just hilarious! Yes! This… Yes! Oh, look at that! My flower is going absolutely crazy on this thing! You gotta be… You gotta be kidding me! This is ridiculous! Hello and welcome to the show, iskall85! How are you? Yay! Hello! That was weird. I was watching that laugh montage, but I had no sounds. Do you like laugh on… Can you just like laugh on command, like, “Go!” No, I don’t think so. That will be something that I practice though, for sure. But it brought back some memories to when I built those things, and I started laughing a little bit anyway, so… So, I have to basically… I have to… We have to really be funny. Nir and I are gonna have to like get that laugh out of you during this. It’s a great challenge for us. So, all of these players are voting on the places that you’re gonna build, but I want everyone to get to know you, so tell everybody about yourself. Okay. Well, I… First of all about the places. The generation in this version of Minecraft is just incredible, And just hats off to Mojang for an amazing patch. I’m so excited! A little bit scared, ’cause I haven’t built in anything like this, but… Who am I? I’m just… I don’t know how to describe this. I get the question a lot, obviously, as I do Minecraft YouTube videos. “What is your…” People usually ask me, “What type of Minecrafter are you?” And I don’t know what to answer. I’m just a Minecrafter. I don’t really have, you know… I’m not a… I’m a little bit of everything, I think, so… That’s perfect! So, you’re a Minecrafter. You just love Minecraft! Me, too! -The new box for me! -You do make videos though… …so at least we can talk about that, which is awesome, and you’re quite a builder, which is why I guess we decided to pick, like, an extremely hard challenge for you today. Yep, it’s gonna be… It’s gonna be tough. How much time? Did I have two months? Uh, no, no, no! Just like, during the show. And also, we have another challenge for you in a minute. Basically, I don’t know. You’re our first guest, so we’re just doing a sort of “trial by fire”… -…and see like, can you do it? -Okay… Out of those four places, because people are voting now, like, how do you feel? Is there one that you’re like, “Please don’t,” which means everyone will vote for it, or like, “Please do!” How are you feeling? I’m very scared about the “Lava Cave.” I’m very scared about the “Lava Cave” because to build something there is gonna be extremely difficult. The mushroom thing… I think that the focus was wrong, if I’m honest. Why are we focusing on the mushrooms? Look at the amazing mountain on the sides. So, I’ll probably just take them both and say, “I’m gonna look at the mountain,” if that would be it. I’m not voting on that, then, ’cause that’s… then I don’t get mushroom, no. No “Mushroom Cave.” Okay, if that wins, I will add a mushroom, okay? We will have one mushroom. Okay, perfect. I love it. But I mean, the “Grotto” is really cool, but that one seems challenging, because, you know, it’s a little dark inside… Yeah, I don’t know what you’re gonna do. I’m excited that it’s happening. To be fair, that’s kind of my “go to” build style, is that place, ’cause I really like pirates, and I really like that idea, and I got immediately inspired to like, okay, “This is a pirate’s cave, right?” I’ve never heard the word “grotto” before, I’m not very… Yeah, I also was like, “I don’t know what the ‘Grotto’ will be.” I will just see what it is when Henrik shows us. Okay. But, you know, later, because you’ll have the world seed, maybe then, you know, you make something in all the places? Now I’m just putting you on the spot, but it could be cool. I will take the challenge, Lydia. I will take that challenge, okay? So, we can say what’s the first place you’ll build during the show, very quick. But yes, keep voting everyone, but… I don’t know why, again, we… First we’re challenging you to this build, And then now we’re gonna challenge you to a challenge with Nir. So, are you ready to just keep being challenged? -Let’s do it! Yep! -Okay! I don’t know how much putting him against me is a challenge. We’ll see if it’s a challenge, but I’ll do my best. So, we’re jumping into the game, And one of our awesome Mojang Studios team members, Morton, has made a challenge that I think is pretty awesome. So, obviously Nir has purple, iskall85 has the lime green… -…so we’re very on brand for everyone. -Exactly. They are going to be racing up this mountainside… I’m very glad I don’t have to do this, by the way. They’re going to be racing up this mountainside that you see, they’re not looking ’cause it’s some spoilers. Up this mountainside, to get to the top, to the tower, where they will see who wins By who places a wool block, either purple or lime green, on that top part. Now, along the way there’s lots of different chests, there’s some challenges that will happen. They have not played this before, so maybe neither of them get to the top. I don’t know, I’m just happy that I get to sit here and just watch it occur with all of you. And, make sure, if you want, ask questions in the chat, ’cause I will ask them things that could like, throw them off, so whoever’s going quicker, we’ll ask them more questions. You know, and try to even it out a bit. -But, are you two ready for this challenge? -Ice fucking parkour! Should we… Should we take stuff out… -I would say you… -…first or what do you think? Oh, wait! This is my challenge. I’ll allow you to take the stuff out first, So you can like…then you can stand sort of on the edge of the dock, and then I’ll say “Go!” and we’ll see what happens to the two of you. It seems like I’m missing a pickaxe here. There is no pickaxe. Yeah, I don’t have one, either. -How is there no pickaxe?! -Interesting! There are lots of chests, though, around, with different things, and whoever sort of gets to it first gets the stuff in it, so it’s not like, share. -You don’t have to share. -Yeah. We’re friends, iskall85, right? We’re gonna share the chests, right? Are you ready? Please go stand at the edge of the dock, near a boat. On your mark, get set… …go! -Oh! -Hello, there! Hello, iskall85, how are you doing? -They’re already fighting. I don’t know. Oh! -We have no… I mean, there’s a lot of chests, but you had to go for the same one, at the same time. I don’t know if that’s a good method. I thought if he chose it, it’s probably the best chest. But I see two chests over there, so it could be… Are they different? Are there different values to the chests? There are different things in the chests. So, you know, slow and steady Nir could… Maybe that pays off, I’m not positive that it’s going to. He’s already up top, so I don’t know about that. We’ll see! Okay? -Okay, you’re… You know, we did sort of… -Why did I…? Our prediction has been that you would not win this, Nir, so… Well, I’m stuck under a tree. I’m great. I’m doing great, everyone. Okay, iskall85, how’s it going? We need to ask you some questions to slow you down, Because the fact that you’re already um… Yeah, you’re way too far ahead. I mean, I don’t know how it’s going. I don’t wanna look back. Uh, but I don’t… Were there any rules? -No, no, no. -No, you’re just better. Okay. Well, it’s going okay. I don’t know if I’m going to the right place. Yes, I am. Okay, you are. There’s three camp fires that sort of orient you up the mountainside. -I forget where I am. Where are they? -You can see one like over in the distance. -Oh, there are mobs here! -Oh! Uh-oh! -Where am I? Okay, I’m here. -Okay, this is bad. Okay, that’s the… Yeah, I’m… I don’t feel great. -That was a bad throw. Bad throw. -Oh, he’s up there! What?! Where is this place? I have no idea where you are! I was watching Nir’s screen in the studio, and so, yeah. That was…that was very, very quick. He just…he just walked up. Did you use any of the chests on the way? Uh, yes, one with an ender pearl, but I messed up the ender pearl. -It didn’t actually help me. -Okay. So now, did you make it up? -I’m here. -You’re here. That was… Why do I have… Mine is a lime wool as well! Once the winner wins, everything turns lime green for our winner iskall85. Yeah, that’s beautiful. We know he won. You don’t get to put your purple one there. I see. Oh, damn. I gotta say, though, I’ve not really sped climbed any of the terrain, but it felt… I could feel the changes that have been made to the game. Like, it felt more like I was climbing a mountain, More than these weird areas where you just can’t get up before. -It’s really cool. -Those were one of my, like… …most hated things, was trying to jump around. You know, to find something that kind of looked like stairs. I don’t know why, I just really, really, really, really did not like that. But, okay. That was way quicker than I thought it would be. I would still be at the bottom, so it’s totally fine. I’m getting killed by illagers. Yeah, Nir is just, you know, he’s going rogue over there, doing who knows what, with Illagers chasing him. That’s another challenge. But… Oh, go ahead. I’ve gotta give it up, though, for the boat. The boat, the click that you did. That was very skilled. I was very surprised that you managed, ’cause I wanted to destroy your boat and then get in mine. -But you joined me. That was very skilled. -It was so good. Okay. So, now it’s time to get back, ’cause we actually have to make you build something. You know, ’cause you’re like, up for all challenges. The poll is about to close, or it’s closing right now. I guess the poll is closed now. And the winner of your build… …is gonna be… …”Lush Mountain,” which is really, really cool! So, before we actually give you a tiny amount of time to build, tell us about, like, what are you thinking about that? I think the location… I understand why people have selected it. I think it looks super cool over there, from the picture that I’ve seen. I haven’t actually seen the thing. I would like to see it inside a little bit and stuff like that. I’m excited, because there was… Remind me, this was a spruce biome, with a nice, lush, green moss that we all love. It’s on screen right now. So, yeah, I mean, it’s beautiful. So, for those of you just joining us, iskall85 is going to have a challenge, where you picked, all of you chose a “Lush Mountain” for him to build. He’s gonna build anything he wants, and make something awesome during the show, While we’re doing a bunch of other stuff, and then we’re gonna check back in, and he’s gonna show us the cool thing he’s done. So, how do you think about building? Like, how are you gonna approach this? Well, so one problem… Okay, so… One problem! We’re starting with one problem! One challenge with this place is that it is looking so beautiful on its own. -That’s true! That is challenging. -Minus the diorites. -That would be some TNT work there. -Has to! Has to comment on it! But it does look really good, and there’s a lot of, like, noise. There’s a lot of stuff going on here, there’s a lot of greens and yellows and pinks. This is usually what I do when I see a place where I wanna build a base, I take in what’s surrounding this, and do I enhance it or do I add to it? And I think in this case, one challenge is going to be all the water that’s on the bottom, which… How long did I have? Three months? Lydia, what was the time? Oh, yeah, it’s like, you know, 20…30 minutes, I think. Thirty minutes! Okay! I’m gonna have to prioritize. You just scaled that mountain in the challenge in like, one minute. -You’ll be totally fine. -I’m sure he can do it. I was worried before, but after that challenge… Yeah, you can do it, iskall85. But I think immediately when I see this terrain, The podzol is super, super interesting, but I wanna go towards the whole… I’m picking out some blocks here now… I want to go towards the… I wanna match this, and I think with the moss blocks, these blocks go so well together. Maybe… Maybe some oak to go with this, just to get a little bit of color, that goes with the yellow that we see in the…in these vines. -That’s nice! -Just a little bit, potentially. But this is usually what I do, the first thing I do, when I build something. I get a block palette out, I get a few blocks, maybe… Someone asked me how many blocks would you pick for a block palette, and I have no idea, I think it depends on the build. But that’s one style. And I gotta say, it could also go completely the other direction. Okay, we have… Like, you could… I mean, it is a really cool place, where you could do pretty much anything. Yes. You could also go super modern, with like, a white, you know, maybe even here… Check this out. This is gonna… This is weird! This is way out there! -I like it, though! -Interesting! The pink does look really nice. Yeah, I mean, together with the azalea bushes that are purplish, right? -That could be interesting. -Yeah, see, like that looks really… That could be really cool. We have some of the spore blossom here as well, maybe. -Right? Like these ones? -Yes! I love these things that… -Yeah, they’re so cool! -Yeah. Are they spore blossoms? I don’t know their names, I just know that they’re amazing. One of my favorite added things to the last update. Yeah, no, this place looks incredible. I am a little bit worried about when do I start? Can I start now? You can start… You can start right now. We’re gonna let you go. You’re gonna build, we’re gonna come back to you for a check in, and then see what you’ve built all the way at the end. Right now, we’re gonna look at… Every month, we’re gonna have all of you submit things that you have made for us, in a new section called “You Made It.” In “You Made It,” we’re going to react to cool things that you’ve made. We tweeted out…last week, when we announced Minecraft, And sometime, when we announced Minecraft Now, and a bunch of people responded, using the hashtag #minecraftnowsubmit, and we picked five cool things from our viewers, and Nir hasn’t seen them, so I’m very excited. -Let’s take a look at our first one! -Okay! Oh! I love it! It’s a “lush cave”! -What is… Oh, it’s there! -Yeah, it’s right there! -It’s so beautiful! -Oh, that’s nice! I love the way they’re…the sun is… How is that called? Like the “rays” of sun going in? That is so cool! I always love seeing the style people take Minecraft in. That’s like, you can immediately tell it’s Minecraft… -…but it still looks different. -Yeah… It’s also perfectly picked for iskall85 getting a “lush mountain.” Like, it feels like maybe that’s where he’s building! Exactly, exactly! iskall85, you can take some inspiration from this, right? -Sure, very helpful. -It’s really, really awesome. And the next one, because we were… When we choose things from all of you, we’re picking like, very different things. So the next one, I would really like to have, a really cute plush that someone made at home! Of course! Of course! Aidan is amazing. I follow him on Twitter as well. Before we release a mob, before it’s just in snapshots, and immediately there’s a plush ready already. -That is so cool! -I just love them so much! I mean, the axolotls are cute in the game, in real life… -…and then plush is like, they’re even cuter! -That is amazing! -That is super, super awesome! -I have, on my desk… I have a little plush axolotl, but in a bucket that my partner made… -…and it’s amazing! -That’s so awesome! I love seeing like, real-life things made. You know, I was looking at every Halloween costume this year that was Minecraft, Because it’s just so, so cool! -And then we have a really cool build next. -Okay. So, the theme was all around Caves & Cliffs Part 2, and I mean, what they did is really cool! They actually took the world terrain and like, built up like, skyscraper… -…like, using the mountains. -Oh, yeah! I see it! Okay! It is really, really cool. Yeah, I think that’s sort of what we were talking about before, right? That the new terrain sort of calls you into doing a new scale of builds, Sort of amplifying it and building from it, so I think that’s a great example of that. I’m guessing that’s creative, though? I don’t know, but it’s super impressive regardless, it’s amazing. We don’t judge whether it’s revival or creative… But I mean, impressive either way. I love, you know, using the mountains to actually build towards, it looks so cool! The next one I love, because it is both a cool idea and a pun. -So, it’s an “axeolotl.” -Oh, my god! Yes! I was so excited about this! But okay, okay. Let me pitch this, because obviously, you know, puns. But anyway, this “axeolotl” that was made… I think it would be awesome in Minecraft Dungeons. -An “axe…” Oh, wow! -Like, it looks adorable. -Wow! -But like, it does something cool. It can have like, an active ability, That the mobs are so enthralled by how cute it is, that they don’t attack you. They fall in love and like… You’re just carrying an axe and all the mobs are… Maybe some of you have a better idea of what… Excuse me. I am a professional game designer. That is a game mechanic. The best game mechanic. But I mean, what if… Yeah. I mean… I guess if like, it makes you play dead, it wouldn’t be a good idea. Oh, actually, that’s pretty cool! ‘Cause I would want it to tie in directly to like… -What are the abilities? -Yeah. That is cool! I mean, it can be an active ability. Does Dungeons have active… I forgot. It’s been a year since I played, but it’s awesome. Like, you can activate it, and then the mobs think you’re playing dead, sort of thing. So, they think the player is dead… -They can’t like, see you. -Yeah! That’s pretty cool! Or you just lay on the ground dead. Maybe that wouldn’t be as good. -You turn into a cute axeolotl, playing dead. -Yeah. But I love… I mean, seriously, these are so cool. And the last one, I mean, I had to choose this one, Because your character skin is in it. -Oh, really? -And a big thank you for how much… It says: “Thank you Mojang for this spectacular update!” And it has a bunch of your characters on there. Henrik in the hat, and you’re there with your panda and Agnes. -And it’s just super, super nice. -That is so sweet! I mean, how have you felt getting to see like… I mean, with Caves & Cliffs Part 2, like the artwork, the builds, like all of this stuff that you all worked on, then you see people make like, the most incredible things. It’s… Yeah, it’s incredible. Especially because it’s something we worked on for so long, and even before we were actively like, programming it, we were talking about it for years before, writing about ideas, and the cave updates sort of thing, right, the Caves & Cliffs. It’s been so long, and uh… It’s really hard to describe, right? It’s taking something that at some point when you work so close with something, you get too close to it, and you’re like, “Is this really this amazing?” “Or am I just like, looking too close at it?” And then people coming in and… I’ve been watching sometimes, don’t tell them, it’s between us. I like to sneak into like, small streamers and stuff, like below 10 viewers, right? And just sit there quietly, and see genuine reactions from just players, right? It’s just…yeah. So, you never know if you’re streaming if Nir is just, you know, popping in. -Be careful what you say, yeah, yeah. -That is so awesome! So for next month, we’re gonna let all of you vote on what the theme should be, and so there’s two things you can vote between: One is, should it be themed “warden,” which would mean you could submit things around the warden. Or the other one is, do you want it to be about the “lush mountain” builds? So, that could be either something that iskall85 makes that inspires you, or just lush mountains, lush and mountains. -I think there’s like a lot for both of those. -Definitely. I mean, I’m kind of biased, because the warden art, I really love… -The warden is amazing. -I’m not telling you how to vote, but… -I’ve seen a lot of cool warden creations. -Pick the warden! I’m still really excited to see, like… We’re gonna see what iskall85 comes up with, with this location. I would love to see what you guys… Go to the same seed, same location, show us what you would create in this place. Oh! I didn’t think about that, actually using the same seed and building in that place. Okay, that does make it really… I guess I always wanna vote for… Everyone wins in my world. And we all do it, and iskall85 builds everywhere, and you know, what can you do? You can do both. We can do both. It’s fine. I’m up for it. Speaking of iskall85, we’re gonna check in and see what he’s up to. I mean, just so everyone… Like, we’ve given him like, five minutes, I think. So, I’m expecting like a mega build at this point, right? Like 300 blocks wide, at least. Everything’s done. So, let’s check in with iskall85, Get his thinking on what he’s building right now. -How’s it going? -Hello! It’s going. I am… Have you ever seen those car shows where they’re like, “Okay, guys, you’ve got one hour,” and it’s like… I’m feeling like that, I’m feeling super stressed. Just to give a scale, in five minutes I would have like a pillar of dirt or something. I wouldn’t even have thought of an idea yet. I would just be like, “What should it be?” I do enjoy that and I would like to say… I say this a lot in my videos. I have lately found love for just organically building whatever comes to mind, the first thing. And of course, as with any build, the very first thing… Excuse me. The very first thing that you have to do is to make sure that it’s a little bit cleaned up, whatever is around it. That was natural generation, by the way, that thing there. So the first thing I saw was that there was a big diorite vein in this very cool bowl of water, right? So I decided, I’m gonna do something I’ve never done before, which is not remove the diorite, that’s a classic, But once the diorite was removed, instead of opening up the water, I wanted to try to have some pink glass. And everywhere around here, there are axolotls, everywhere. I love them! So I have started to move axolotls into this… Oh no, they’re all gone. No, they’re here. No, they’re in there! I can see them. Oh! I’ve started to move them around and I’m gonna make… I’m picturing this to be like a paradise for the axolotls. But then, looking at it, I wanted some other contrast and some other color, So right now I’m working on getting rid of a lot of this dirt, just because the dirt is going to take away, in my opinion, the vision from what I want. I want your eyes to be focusing on certain things, so… This little wooden thing here is something to hold this up. -I don’t know yet, we will see. -There’s a lot going on! -It’s a non-planned creation. -I love it. Okay, I think we’ve bothered you enough, because we want you to keep building. Get back to building. You’re gonna show us what you made at the end of the show. And right now, earlier today I sat down with Jewel, who each month is gonna tell us what’s been going on in the Minecraft world for a new segment we call “Block Buzz.” A huge welcome to Jewel, who is my amazing colleague. Jewel, can you tell everyone about what you do at Mojang Studios? Hey, everyone. My name is Jewel, I use she/her pronouns, and I’m a Technical PM at Mojang, so I work with the devs and testers to make sure we deliver amazing features to all of you. I’m super happy to be here and talk about what’s buzzing on the block. I was gonna say, you’re gonna be like our news source. We’ve been talking a lot about Caves & Cliffs Part 2, ’cause obviously it’s amazing, but what’s your favorite part so far? For me, my favorite part is the ability of building my caves in peace. I don’t know if you all know, but my realm is dope. I like to build my queendom. But I’ve been really avoiding building under, just ’cause creepers will be popping out of nowhere, so I love in this update that they just don’t pop out of nowhere as I’m building deeper. I’m excited to expand my queendom a little bit deeper, if you know what I’m saying. That is awesome. So you definitely are just steering clear of all creepers? Yeah, I don’t have time to deal with them, at least below ground. I totally agree with that. So, you’re gonna give us the news. What’s happening with Minecraft Dungeons? Yeah, so we got you seasonal adventures. So, really be excited. We’re kicking off with Cloudy Climb, so excited for towering heights and fresh winds. And for my adventure players, I really would check out the tower level, Because you have boss battles and it’s super dope, and so, super excited about the Dungeons release. That’s super cool. That’s what Bo and Laura talked a lot about, the tower, and I’m like, I’m gonna check it out. You gotta check it out. It’s really dope. That is super awesome and something we do every year, but I’m especially excited about the theme this year, is we have a brand new Hour of Code. Yes! Let’s talk about that, because this one’s really dope, okay? Timecraft, okay? It’s honestly a win-win. You’re learning how to code, but also you’re actually able to learn about history. In Timecraft, you are tasked with ordering historical events correctly, so they happen. It’s another way to absorb and learn about history, while also learning how to code. I love Timecraft. I’m really excited for you all to check it out. That’s super awesome. It feels like you’re in Minecraft, but in history, too? Yes. It’s like a tangible school lesson. Imagine that immersion, that’s just super dope. Definitely check it out. That is amazing. I can’t wait. You should all definitely check out Hour of Code. Jewel is gonna be joining us each month to tell us what’s going on. Thank you so much, Jewel, for being here. A part of this show is gonna be talking to a bunch of cool people that haven’t been on screen before. You have. But I mean, we could have artists from the team. Like, who do you want to see from your team? The things I’m most excited about is to see just everyone in Mojang, and talking about their experience with Minecraft. Cause we have such a passionate group here working, right? Anyone from the person at the front desk, to the person in the stall next to you. Everyone is so passionate about this game. It’s really, really cool. I’m trying super hard. I really need to sneeze. So if I’m making this face… That’s like not good, right. I wanted to give you a tissue, but I’m not prepared. I just wanted to tell you, ’cause my face was looking very sour. I thought I did something wrong. Maybe you prefer someone else sitting here in the couch. No, I love having you here, Nir. We have a bunch of cool things that creators make each month. This month we thought it would be really exciting to see their reaction to Caves and Cliffs, part 2, in what we’re calling Community Highlights. Oh my God, oh my God! I just… What! I’ve just broken in to the largest cave I think I’ve ever seen. Have you ever seen anything like this? I kind of just wanna look at it for a bit. Minecraft has changed, man. It is not the same ballgame we Minecraft players are used to. This is different, this is gonna hit different. And that’s a mountain. 100 percent, no mistaking it. Yeah, that’s a mountain. I don’t know if it’s the mountain originally, but I think we’ve found it. This is awesome. It almost looks like a hidden valley amongst floating ice spikes. Friends, don’t do it. That’s right, go over there, thank you. Why?! I kind of wanna pitch, that not next month, but the month after, goats is the theme. Like, they’re just… They’re always cute and weird and I love them so much. I just love the fact that 99 percent of the time they’re harmless. They’re so cute, and you look at them, but one time you turn your back on them, and you are off the mountain. I love that! I love watching all those clips, and everyone just like enjoying things, And having fun and see what… I mean, the update is really so, so, so cool. I think… Yeah, the community’s reaction, and all of our reaction, kind of shows. It makes it worth it. It’s been a very tough year. We keep saying year, but the year never ends. It makes it so worth it, to see everyone enjoying it and appreciate it that much. Yeah, because I mean, for all of you at home, we’re still working from home. The team puts out the biggest update we’ve ever done with Caves and Cliffs, part 1 & 2. During work from home, which is, like, mind blowing. Yeah, and I think it’s… I’m happy about it from both directions. Seeing everyone enjoy, makes us feel so good about the difficulty of doing it. But at the same time I’m so happy to give that to the players, ’cause it’s been a tough year on everyone. And I mean, you can’t get better than Caves. It’s super, super awesome! Make sure you put in your votes. We’re gonna close it very soon. What theme should our next “you made it” have. Which would be you making cool stuff and submitting it to us. But speaking of lush caves a second ago, you know… -Or cool builds, cool creations. -Cool builds! I mean, we didn’t give it all at a time. I would still be thinking of the idea. Still be thinking of the idea. Iskall, what did you decide on? I started getting super inspired, And I started thinking that we are actually down below a sink hole. Inside Minecraft. And I wanted to create these mega roots, which, you know… I have 15 minutes, but I think the feeling is starting to come here. This area, I’ve learned already that I love it, I love the lush caves. But they require a lot of work to get to work, so all of the bottom area here was water. And I’ve started to fill it in, but I feel like it gives that enchanted, weird feel, walking through it, and because of one of the… I saw an Axolotl! They are living in the magic pond above me Had I more time, the next thing I would do, is to punch holes here and add some pink glass to shine through, to make this even more mysterious and mythical and all of that. I think that these feelings, these emotions, Is one of the things that Minecraft is very, very good at, bringing forward in the game. And I feel, walking through this, it’s starting to get there! With this little amount of time, and I think it’s really, really interesting. And I gotta say, I never got asked what my favourite thing with the update was, We did just challenge you all the time, but it’s okay that you burned me as a host. It’s fine. What is your favourite thing about the update? Please tell us! Well, I love all of the terrain things. My absolute favourite update is that you have made it so that we can play with lighting. And that’s what I wanted to enhance here. This would be a mob proof area. Because of the new changes where mobs… If I understood it correctly, it has to be light level zero for them to spawn. Which is amazing, ’cause now we can build with shadows, and create things like this, you know, mysterious caves and things like this. So that’s what I kind of went for here. Had I had a little bit more time, I would have gone further. Little light sources here and there, and you can see how like, all of a sudden, we have, not got just clay over there, we’ve got brighter clay. We got one type of water there, another color of water, And it just adds so much to the game! So thank you so much for adding that. You broke Nir, rendered him speechless, which you know never happens. Ever, in the whole time I’ve known him, has he been quiet like that. I am very sorry, Nir. It’s a great feature. Thank you for saying that. I’m very excited about it. It’s so interesting to be able to play with darkness and lights in this way. Even more is that the average player is learning these sort of things, and not needing to rely on the F3 screen to know where you’re safe and not. That’s also really, really important. I wanted to say that your pillars are so inspiring to me, ’cause I can imagine… I love that you connected the environment. You clicked a bit floating, so you made it supportive. But it doesn’t have to end there, right? Each one of these could also be like a cubby hole where you have a bed or some small mini base sort of thing. It’s really cool to have a lot of small places instead of just one big room. -It’s really cool. -Come to me, look! -I have my little house here. -Exactly. Oh, I love it! I don’t care about the stream, I’m just gonna play Minecraft. He’s gone rogue! What do you all think about Iskalls amazing build? I really love it. I actually can’t believe that you built it that fast. Because the atmosphere is so beautiful. I’m glad you went with this color palette, and these blocks. It really works. It’s weird, it’s out there, but I think it works. And I would like to say one thing for those of you who love to build things in Minecraft. For me, sometimes overplanning things, kills my creativity. Sometimes, just go in with it, go at it. The first thing that comes to mind, go, and see where it takes you. If you don’t like it, you can always start over. That’s what I had to do here. Cool. I have to say, I never built. I’m very much a survival player. I almost never build, and this has really inspired me, to like go in and maybe to this seed and see what I would do with a lush cave. What’s the weird seed name you made? Omega seed of Doom. -We missed a bit at the beginning. -Omega seed of Doom. Because now, you can actually use that seed in Java and Bedrock, and it will be really similar. So, you could go build in this amazing environment. Iskall, I don’t know how you did it, you just absolutely beat Nir so badly… Wait, wait. Now we’re friends, the challenge is done. Come here, Iskall, he made us two beds. One purple, one lime. We can be happy lying here together. -And this can be your base! -I’m not salty that you won at all. I’m just decorating this thing, I’m sure you love it. -It’s beautiful! -I’m sure you’d like it. Oh no! Hostility has occurred! He’s pulling out the sword, I’m gonna get out of here. Oh my gosh! Okay. Iskall, the time has flown by, and it’s time to say goodbye to everyone. -Iskall, thank you so much for joining us. -Thank you for having me. And for being an amazing sport, for doing like anything that we asked. You just jumped in and really made things awesome. And to all of you at home who have watched. You watched our very first Minecraft Now, maybe in Beta, maybe this was a snapshot. I don’t know. We’re gonna, each month, keep making things better, And figuring out what you all like, but it’s been so cool to just see all of you chatting, getting to sit down and chat with Nir and Henrik. We’ll have a special community guest every month, like Iskall. It’s just gonna be super awesome, And obviously showing a lot of cool things that you made. Let’s close that vote and see whether it’ll be warden creations or lush mountain builds. I’m saying a drum roll, but I don’t know how long it will take to close that poll. -What’s it gonna be? -Who’s it going to be? What do you think? Warden! It’s Warden! Yes! I’m so excited about that. It’s hard to beat the Warden, he’s very strong. So I’m gonna say, for Warden. You know, think outside the box… Think outside… Nir is so pleased now. I rendered him speechless again. What can you do? But anyway, it can be in real life, it can be in the game, it can be a build. It can be pixel art. Like, really, just make cool things. Submit it to #minecraftnowsubmit on Twitter. I mean, we can’t wait to see it and show it off. And, with that, we’re done. Like, it’s time. We’re done, so thank you all. The next show, January 13, get ready for it. We can’t wait to see you back here, so sending hugs from snowy Sweden. -Have a great night, everyone. Bye! -Bye, bye. Video Information
This video, titled ‘Minecraft Now: December 2021 ft Iskall85’, was uploaded by Minecraft on 2021-12-09 18:18:31. It has garnered 1235328 views and 79886 likes. The duration of the video is 01:09:31 or 4171 seconds.
The very first episode (snapshot? beta? whatever it was!) of Minecraft Now is hosted by Lydia, who explores the Caves & Cliffs Update with Henrik and Nir. We get a look of the amazing community creations you submitted, Jewel updates us on the latest from the world of Minecraft, and special guest @iskall85 shows off his skills and builds something live! Watch the first episode of Minecraft Now, our new monthly livestream! #minecraftnow
00:00 Countdown 09:45 Intro 12:00 Caves & Cliffs Playthrough 26:50 Iskall85 Laugh Compilation 27:23 Iskall85 Intro 31:32 Iskall85 vs Ulraf 37:42 Iskall85 Build Challenge 41:37 You Made It (Community Creations) 52:12 Block Buzz with Jewel 56:27 Community Highlights 01:00:00 Iskall85 Build Reveal
