After spending a far bit of time squinting at my screen in the deep dark and trying to copy an architectural masterpiece (that was out of my league) my idea for the Sky Island was to do the opposite. I wanted lots of light, creativity and colour. Ali also wanted to have more say on the builds now. She doesn’t like the deep dark and the intricate geometry of the Hagia Sophia is quite meaningless to her (she’s 6 years old). I was happy for her to have a big creative input. So some of the Sky Islands are more from a child’s perspective. Basically as far away as possible from the black basilica.
Constuction
I wanted the islands to look as if they are floating because of some sort of technology and thought that bubble lifts looked quite futuristic. So every island would have at least one of them. I also really liked the textureless look of concrete blocks, their dark pastel tones and that it had colours to choose from. So wanted every island to be built on a different coloured concrete base. Because the islands are built above the castle, grounds and the cave town lighting vents I needed to use a lot of glass so I wouldn’t ruin the lighting on those builds. Apart from that I wanted each island to be fun and different and Ali to be able to help choose what would take shape. The first job was to extend the bubble lifts up to the Sky above the castle then we’d build Ali a home of her own.
The islands
So far we have built nine islands and in this post I’ll take you though the first five of them. The other four are quite large or intricate and deserve a post for each.
1. Ali’s Palace
As soon as we had extended the bubble lifts up to cloud level our first build was Ali’s Palace. I chose yellow concrete for the base and she chose emerald blocks for the walls. Lots of glass and some green concrete also because emeralds blocks are rare and the castle (directly below) needed sunlight.
2. The Swamp
The swamp was all my idea. It is situated a few blocks behind the worlds new (sky) spawning location. It’s not a very big island but because of the mangroves it’s quite easy to get tangled up and lost. It has a very small mud brick village on it. The Sky Swamp is a dangerous place at night. Ali is not a fan.
3. Azalea Tree Island
This island was mostly Ali’s ideas. She wanted a heart shaped pink island with flowers and azalea trees. I came up with the giant azalea tree. It’s a copy of a potted azalea tree that’s scaled up
I left the inside of the tree empty for Ali to think about and she found a cute ice cream van from the internet that she wanted inside it. The van fitted in the space well + enough room for some tables and chairs. Looks pretty cool, so credits to whoever originally designed the van. I stocked it with food ingredients an oven and a sink. Ali had some fun running it as a business.
4. The Meadow And Thrown Room Island
The meadow sort of reminds me of a nativity seen.
This island is waiting for Minecraft to add the right content, whatever that might be – maybe the throne room would make a good airport.
5. Free Fall
The smallest of all the island it’s just a hole at maximum hight that you can fall down into a pool in the deep dark. I did try to build one of those tall cobblestone buildings that I’ve seen videos of people making – by pouring lava down a few blocks – It didn’t work for me though and I ended up with an ugly mess to clean up
Next up – 5. Watermill
Minecraft survival world builds 