#technical instructions

Patternmaking

           Upon starting Minecraft, you will be prompted with a login page. To play Minecraft you must have an account. The game costs $26.95 and is a one-time only purchase. If you do not have an account, head on over to www.minecraft.net, register an account, and purchase the game.

           Once you have an account switch back over to the login page mentioned earlier and login with your credentials. Once logged in successfully, it will show you the news board and a play button. We are more interested in playing the game so go ahead and click Play. If this is your first time running Minecraft on your computer it will download the latest version of the game. Once completed the game will begin. A Mojang logo will appear and shortly after the game will begin and display the main menu. You’re now logged in and ready to play!

           Click the single player button and you will be shown a nearly empty screen with buttons near the bottom. Click the Create New World button and the options for that world will appear. Go ahead and name your world whatever you like. As for game mode we will keep it on survival for the sake of this tutorial. On the bottom left, click the Create New World button and the game will begin.

           This game is a first person video game so right of the bat you will see your hand and the world in all its glory. The entire game is randomly generated so if you ever create a new world, it will not be the same. The game is a survival game so it’s time to survive.

           To control your character use your mouse to look around. To move, use the W, A, S, and D keys to walk.

·         W will make your character walk forward

·         A will sidestep your character to the left

·         S will make your character walk backwards

·         D will sidestep your character to the right

By combining the mouse and keyboard you can move your character and look around in any direction. Lastly, to jump, press the spacebar. You can only jump one block high so if something is too high you might have to find an alternate route.

           Once you have the controls fairly mastered, find a tree. It can be any tree of any shape and size. We need to collect the wood from the tree, so once you have found a tree, put the crosshair (plus sign in the middle of the screen) on the wood of the tree, and left-click and hold. The tree will start to look like it is breaking. After 4-5 seconds of clicking and holding, a block of the tree will break and drop a tiny version of the wood. Run over the wood to pick the wood up and the wood will now be in your hand.

           Repeat this tree gathering process till you have at least 24 blocks of wood. The number of wood you have will be represented by the number on top of the wood in your item bar. With 24 pieces of wood collected, press E on your keyboard to open your inventory. This will bring a menu up with quite a few squares and your character. Located to the right of your character is a 2x2 grid labeled, Crafting. Click and drag the wood located at the bottom of this open menu and drag it to any of the open spots on the 2x2 grid next to your character. Once done, a little box to the right of the 2x2 grid will have wooden planks.

           Hold down the Shift key and click the wood planks in the box. The wood in the 2x2 grid will then be converted into wooden planks. This will give you two stacks of wooden planks. One with 64 pieces and the other with 32. At 64 pieces the stack is full and the item will then start to populate an open box in your inventory. You are now ready to build a house. Press E once you are ready to close the menu and find a nice location for a house. A flat area is best so go ahead and start breaking blocks the same as the tree earlier to flatten an area out.

           Once you have a nice spot to set up your house, select the wooden planks in your item bar by using the scroll wheel or the number keys at the top of the keyboard. With the wooden planks selected, use the right mouse button to place a wooden plank at the position your crosshair is. Keep placing blocks to build a wall that is three blocks high. It doesn’t have to be the biggest since we are limited on blocks. You can, however collect more wood if you want a bigger house.

           Finally, create an opening in the side of the wall and a roof on the house by placing wood planks on the sides of the top layer of your wall. Your house is now complete! With your house finished we have one more step to set you on the path to adventure.

           Press E to open the inventory as before, and fill the 2x2 grid with wooden planks. Put one of each plank in the open slots and a Crafting Bench will appear to the right. Hold shift and click the Crafting Bench to place the Crafting Bench in your item bar. Once done, close the inventory and place the Crafting Bench just like the wooden planks. With the Crafting Bench in place, right click the Crafting Bench to open up an advanced crafting menu. From here there will be 3x3 grid for larger creations.

 This concludes the Minecraft Beginners Guide. With the knowledge you have now, you can adventure and create anything.