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Monday, August 26, 2013

Fortifying your Fortress with HiddenWorm

Mechanicaljack: Mechanicaljack here, with an interview with HiddenWorm. I found Hiddenworm's work in Minecraft on the /r/Minecraft sub forum of reddit. I really enjoyed his tutorials and got in contact with him to arrange a meeting. Why don't you introduce yourself?

HiddenWorm: Hi, I'm HiddenWorm, a 17 year old Minecraft player from Holland.

Mechanicaljack: And how long have you been playing Minecraft?

HiddenWorm: I've been playing the game since March 2011.

Mechanicaljack: Do you have a favorite play style, for instance creative or survival, or adventure maps, or competitive?

HiddenWorm: I've always really been into building, so when creative came into Vanilla (1.8 beta?), I switched from survival to that. I've been playing on multiplayer almost exclusively since January 2012.

Mechanicaljack: I haven't enjoyed single player as much as multiplayer in a long time myself.  Have you used mods at all?

HiddenWorm: I actually had my first experience with mods (besides flymod) 2 weeks ago at a friend's house. I'm not quite sure which mods were enabled exactly, but it involved a lot of industrial buildings and automated things. Other than mods, I recommend playing flatcore if you want a more interesting time playing SP.

Mechanicaljack: Sounds like a FeedTheBeast or Tekkit modpack.  Those can be fun, but also overwhelming in all the new content. Flatcore, so a flatworlds map?  On hardcore mode?

HiddenWorm: Yes, hardcore mode on a superflat world. You can get a lot of supplies from trading and blacksmiths.

Mechanicaljack: Wow, I'd never considered trying that.  Sounds like a real challenge! Do you have any texture packs you like to use, or are you a default kind of player?

HiddenWorm: I have a slightly modified version of default that I made myself.

Mechanicaljack: Oh cool!

HiddenWorm: It makes some blocks look a little bit better, but not so much better that buildings look ugly without the texture pack.

Mechanicaljack: Ah, so it's an aesthetics change to suit the building style?

HiddenWorm: Yes, it makes smooth sandstone and double slab blocks into coloured versions of the stone brick texture.

Mechanicaljack: Sounds interesting!  So what brought me to contact you was your reddit post titled "A Guide to Stronger and Better Looking Fortifications."  What brought you to create that post?

Fortification

HiddenWorm: I had a very basic design for the merlons and the murder holes, and when I saw a post of a castle wall on /r/Minecraft, I noticed most castles in Minecraft have room for improvement when it comes to fortifications, both in historical accuracy and in actual use as fortifications.

Mechanicaljack: I've noticed similar, which is what made your post stand out to me.  From there I found the follow up you did with the title "I Taught You How to Fortify Your Walls, Now let's lay a siege!"  In both, you get into descriptions about what you're showing, and reference historical examples, like why a catapult isn't just a catapult. I take it fortifications and sieges really interest you?

trebuchet

HiddenWorm: Well, when I was young I thought knights were super cool, most of the knowledge I have about the fortifications I learned when I was around 10. I actually think renaissance architecture is cooler than medieval architecture, but I've already built a lot of that. I constantly switch to different building styles and now I’m in a medieval phase, I guess.

Mechanicaljack: I took a quick look at some of your other tutorials that I'll have to go back to in the future, like the gothic rose window, so I know what you mean.  Where do you get your inspiration?  I guess I'm asking, what are your sources?

Gothic Rose Window

HiddenWorm: I have two main sources. The first one is a book that summarizes almost everything there is to learn about architecture between Mesopotamia and the 1970s. Sadly, it is only available in German and in Dutch, as far as I know. It's called Atlas zur Baukunst or Atlas van de Bouwkunst, so if it was translated into English, it is probably titled 'Atlas of Architecture'.

When I want to build something, I learn about the building style from this book, and then research similar builds that exist in real life. For this I use Planetware.com, it has a very wide variety of maps and pictures of tourist attractions.

Mechanicaljack: That's an amazing amount of effort and work to put into your building, but it looks like it pays off, given the screenshots you've posted.

HiddenWorm: Thank you! Mind you, I only post my best builds, but in general the best builds are the builds that I put most of my time researching for.

Mechanicaljack: Do you have any tutorials planned for the future?

HiddenWorm: Yes, I'm currently working on a tutorial about monasteries, where I will also touch on the differences between Romanesque and Gothic architecture. After that's done, I might expand the two posts I made about fortifications into a full guide on castles.

Mechanicaljack: Awesome!  Well, to wrap this up, is there anything you'd like to see added to or changed about Minecraft?

HiddenWorm: Having stairs not reset from their corner shape when you remove adjacent stairs would be really nice. Also, vertical half slabs would allow for a lot of extra variety in details such as windows.

Mechanicaljack: I think you and I are on the same page with those two changes. Thanks so much for dropping by for the interview!

HiddenWorm: Thank you for having me!

You can find HiddenWorm's tutorials on Reddit, and Imgur in the following places:
http://hiddenworm.imgur.com/

http://hiddenworm2.imgur.com/

http://www.reddit.com/user/HiddenWorm

Give him a look-see, maybe learn something, and spread some upvote-love.


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