.png)
What started as a joke over drinks with friends has turned into a months-long ongoing project of adding in my friends' favourite beers to a beloved game - Minecraft.
With Minecraft's Forge, I use Java to code silly new items and features into the game, and create custom skins and visuals with Procreate.
As a designer and artist, I see code as another medium for me to work with to create new things. My friends and I love playing the hit sandbox game, Minecraft, together. We also love to hang out and grab a cold brew.
So what reason would I have not to use my programming skills to merge the two? I had no reason - so I did. Learning through tutorials and forums online, I’ve started working on a long-term project to add my friends’ favourite beers to my friends’ favourite game!
The first beer I wanted to add to the game was a classic Labatt 50. I added the appropriate item class and registered a new item “labatt”. Then I added the new item to the “ingredients” tab so it could be fetched in-game. Finally, I gave the new item “labatt” a name and the texture I designed using Procreate and Photoshop.
After checking that “Labatt 50”’s texture generated properly in the client game, I added the natural next step for my “Labatt 50” item, to test myself further - an “empty_labatt”.(“Empty Labatt” on the left, “Labatt 50” on the right)
(“Empty Labatt” on the left, “Labatt 50” on the right)
When pondering how I could translate a beer into block-form, I was inspired by stacked cases of beer seen in the backs of bars and storage rooms. The goal here is to eventually spawn these “cases” in villages and once broken, these cases drop the beers the block pertains to.
The first block I registered and created textures for was the “labatt_block”, which is a case full of “Labatt 50”s (when broken, dropping 9 full Labatts that can be drunk by the player). I designed it to have vivid green, clean packaging - to indicate to the player that the case hadn’t been opened yet.
To match my second item, the empty Labatt, I created an “empty case” of Labatts with a decayed, dull texture to symbolise that the case had been rummaged through already. When broken, it drops 9 “Empty Labatt”s.
When deciding on the recipe, I originally wanted to follow a recipe using Minecraft’s brewing station for making potions; however, as I was still new to modding with Forge, I went with the classic “cake” recipe format.
I did some quick research as to what the various notes of a Labatt 50 were. I knew a typical ale would be symbolised by wheat, sugar, and water, but when reading up on what signature flavors were present in a Labatt 50, I found it was recommended as dry and fruity. This led me to add a “sweet berry” as the final ingredient in the Labatt 50 recipe.
My next step is to create an effect of the Labatt item so that when a player drinks the Labatt 50, they’re either given some sort of drowsiness or dizziness potion effect. I also want to work on making the Case of Labatt blocks spawn in villages, working the item further into the game’s lore.
I have many plans to add more beers and accompanying blocks to improve on this concept. Keeping up my dev skills is definitely a benefit to this project, but the most rewarding part of it certainly is the joy my friends get from seeing their favourite items come to life in-game!