Welcome to the weekly Minecart, a weekly story about the events in Thomas Kuzma’s Landmark Minecraft server. There has been a lot of activity since the first volume came out, including some new builds, a brand-new building challenge, and some construction work for an upcoming event.

While I was at it, I decided to unleash my inner creativity, and make some creative builds for the server, including a yacht, and a lighthouse.

Starting with the yacht, I got the idea as the wharf looked a little plain and boring. What is something that people who can afford to cruise on the water with? Something up their alley? Oh wait, that’s called a yacht! I started building it midway through one of our sessions. While I used a reference to build it, it looks original in its own way. I had to redo it a few times, as the symmetry of it from the center appeared off, and the tip should only be one block wide, not two.

There are numerous components to building. One of them is the blocks you decide to use to build it. For example, the sides are in quartz, and the lower part is concrete/terracotta blocks. In another case, I could have used oak wood for the entire deck of the ship, but that is overused and kind of boring. I thought that a mix of oak and jungle would make a good contrast on the deck of the yacht. Small details, such as flowerpots, add a little bit of a special touch to a build, just don’t go overboard.

Gallery • 6 Photos

In coming up with ideas for building projects with preparation for other activities in the background, I decided to build a lighthouse near Kuzma Wharf. I used numerous reference images online of both actual and other Minecraft lighthouses. During initial design, I built a plot of island and laid out the symmetry on how I wanted it to be built. I wanted the center to be one block, and not two or four blocks. After building it up the first time, I decided to revise it, as I wasn’t happy with it at first, and I thought that I could do better with it. I did two rebuilds. I built it with a friend of mine giving me advice while building it, always good to have another perspective.

The inside of the lighthouse features a beacon of glass in the colors of the rainbow. One thing I did discover with beacons is that the glass alters the color, but you can have various shades of different colors, and mix different colors of glass to make different combinations. While this did annoy me a bit, I found it very fascinating.

Gallery • 6 Photos

I’d also like to cover some creations from the previous boating challenge, including this underwater beast and an oversized version of the traditional Minecraft boat.

For the next edition, I’ll be covering the Wharf shop challenge, where players were tasked with building shops to fill Kuzma Wharf, and you cannot wait for the excitement that is coming soon with the creativity we’ve got so far.

If you want to join Minecraft Night, the session meets weekly on Mondays from 8-10 p.m., online and in Davis Hall #002. (Only open to LC Students)