3rd July 2012 ARTICLE: Cauldron Lake Lodge in Minecraft (1/2)

Imagine the world of Alan Wake, filled with giant rope-giving spiders and skeletons trained in archery. Where Cauldron Lake is overlooking a small village of squid people and Bird Leg Cabin is constantly being overrun by chickens. The sun sets behind a large rock-face and the final light of the day is slithering out of the gaps in between blocks....So with that image, I had a desire to create an ambitious Alan Wake related project in the game.

Like many fans, my favourite section was Episode Four. I loved exploring Cauldron Lake Clinic and shooting down Taken to the sweet sound of Poets of the Fall (aka The Old Gods of Asgard). So as an ambitious first creation on my newly purchased copy of Minecraft, I attempted to recreate the clinic with the help of Fraps to tell you how it went!

Here it goes!

For this, I built the walls first just so I knew approximately how big the room was going to be. I had Minecraft on my PC and the original Alan Wake game loaded on the XBOX360 just to make it easier when it came to comparisons. The start, like all projects, was quite slow. I marked out where the windows and doors were going to be and then got to work on the floor.

As night fell, the building I was working on increased in size. Whereas before I was just working on the reception area, I was now focusing on the entire bottom floor of the foyer and adding the staircase. Strangely enough that wasn't the most difficult section of the build, the second floor on the other hand was quite frustrating. By the time it was sunset, I had several torches placed down so I can work on the outline of the foyer. This section is perhaps the only part of the building that I didn't rearrange the width and length during the construction.

About 30 minutes later, I had the walls up and a ceiling over the reception area which would also be the flooring for the meeting area above. At this point getting the entire building up was a priority before trying to place items in the room. Unfortunately this does mean that you have to perhaps reorganise some sections but it's a lot more rewarding if the building is up before you start furnishing the place despite realising that the room needed to be a bit bigger to fit everything in.

The design of the clinic is quite complex, it makes for a great level but incredibly fiddly when it comes to reconstruction. In the main foyer (and in quite a few of the patients' rooms) there are numerous slanted roofs. It isn't difficult to get the effect, however it does take a while to traverse down the entire hallway placing down wooden blocks as you go.

The second floor has to be the most difficult section of the entire building. As well as trying to get the right widths for the floor above, you also have to consider where the beams are going to go and if they fit into the original design if you're on the bottom floor. Luckily for me, they were pretty much spot on - luck not talent, believe me!

And now, TO THE ROOF!

 

...but first dealing with that fence on the section floor, because without it; that fall is a death trap!...Also with saving the game and taking a break, you forget what your main priorities were and forget that you needed to ...And that, ladies and gentleman, is why I'm never having children...Also I believe the nightmare levels from Max Payne with the screaming child crying if you fall has scarred me for life. 

 The entire [Minecraft] day was spent trying to place a roof on the foyer, kind of important. It does make the entire room incredibly dark and black...Like my soul! Although it's nothing a few torches couldn't improve. It's very strange to see the level like this, especially since the large stone fireplace in the centre is absent.

Speaking of the LARGE stone structure IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOYER, I only just noticed that I was missing it while reconstructing the lodge, after playing Episode Four again...Not a word, anyone. Believe me there are more fails in the not too distant future....

Because then this happened:

I decided that I wanted to explore how deep the ground went after my friend told me you can only go three blocks deep before you meet the blue screen of death. So I decided to try this out with the block I was standing on. It turns out that you can go to five blocks before you bury into bedrock and in a blind panic forget your "fly"command. It was nighttime as I decided to persue with this little "experiment" and as I re-spawned I remembered that I had walked a good distance before deciding to build. So I had to find a building...In the dark...On an infinitely developing landscape. It's a good job I walked in the right direction!

Returning back to the building for the daytime...

Following my strange night of dying and getting better. I went to the second floor to create the bear rug. It's what people usually do after facing death and then living through it with a bemused expression. Look it's a bear! I'm not kidding when I say that is this section of the lodge, made from brown wool*, is my favourite achievement.

*No sheep were harmed in the making of this bear...

This is the issue with installing your fireplace after the construction of the foyer. I now have a dodgy foyer and fireplace. But at least I can't fall down the right side of the room now.

Better go to the bottom floor and fix it....

...Mondays ¬_¬

CLICK HERE for Part 2 of the article.
CLICK HERE to see images of the final product.

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ARTICLE: Cauldron Lake Lodge in Minecraft (2/2)

Welcome back to part two in a series of articles in which I recreate Cauldron Lake Lodge, facing problems ranging from almost falling into oblivion, spontaneously catching on fire and getting distracted and burn lots of stuff. 

Accidental yet quite accurate pathetic fallacy:

So we start this build in true typical English weather with us looking out of a window with a bemused expression. As a country, you would think that we would be familiar with this sight, you also think that as a country we might be prepared for snow during the winter...3 inches last year caused the entire transportation system in London to come to a halt with business and schools shut.

Why blocks! We had a beautiful relationship! The issue was easy to correct, but still annoying. All I had to do was to remove the left column of dark wood and add another column in the center. I didn't actually do this until later due to procrastination, but the intention was there!...Also I was distracted by the sunset and at this point, I was too busy narrating this moment like I was Max Payne to care.

Now that the walls and roof were up, I could now focus on putting some furniture in the room! This was actually quite difficult mainly because we were in Minecraft where there are no chairs or tables and everyone gets backache quite often. The only solution I found was to have a wooden block representing the table and wooden stairs making the seats.

Close enough...

Putting the reception desk in, and slowly the project is coming together...Slowly...At least people can now go to a place to complain about the wrongly constructed beams and unusable chairs.

The bottom floor was coming together, so the next place to go was the meeting area on the floor above. This bit was quite fun to do because I managed to scale it up correctly (surprisingly) the first time so I was just adding the content. I'm quite pleased about how it turned out...The bear? Probably less so.

Returning to the bottom floor, I wanted to create the corridor and the room which leads to the area where the player firsts meets Odin and Tor.  Now I have a question, how do you make the wooden bear statue in Minecraft?....

 
...Rawr?

Naturally the next room would be the area in which the player is introduced to Odin and Tor.

When all the walls and floor are installed, the room was suddenly dark. I prefer to set up the room like that before taking away the window blocks.

And the room after the windows had been installed...

The rest of the room was constructed more quickly than the others. The main issue was making sure that everything managed to fit in and there was still room to move. I swear after this level, I am never using wood to build anything ever again, I'm planning on living inside a cave with a pet deer called Geoffrey.

Returning upstairs to avoid the ravenous killer strange-looking bears near the doorway, I got started on the patient rooms. I didn't take a photo of every single one, as I was planning on doing a gallery walk through anyway at the end. But this is what generally happened...

...Just making sure no terrifying bears were after me. Although with the number that were around the original Cauldron Lake Lodge, I'm surprised the bears near the grounds didn't start an uprising. Bears with swords, flashlights, and guns marching towards the building. Or perhaps Nightingale was in fact the bear leader, it would explain the phone call on the tape player at the lodge!

Original image from Alan Wake Wiki

(I need more coffee) They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. No. It's actually having the above image in your article because it fits in perfectly with something you've mentioned.

Moving swiftly along, this terrifying corridor which reminds me somewhat of Legend of Grimrock, another game which should incorporate bears( ...Ok fine, I'll shut up about the bears). This corridor leads to all of the patients' rooms. 

 One of the fully furnished bedrooms...

And the elevator room, which is down the hall...

The full tour, including the rooms, will appear in the gallery at the end of the article. Where all questions will be answered and a full complementary breakfast will be provided for you at the check-out area.

Now that the main house is pretty much done. All that needs doing is a few final details. For instance, adding the balcony section where Alan meets the painter...

 Now for the devastating truth, the scene when Alan discovers the truth; his wife maybe still alive, the manuscript has come true, and the first person to discover goat's milk was indeed very very thirsty.

Hartman's office...

This is taken from the reception area, looking towards the section where Alan meets Barry.
Down that dark, dark ominous corridor...Full of bears.

The small storage area which a conveniently placed supply of flares...

To conclude the photo tour, there's a couple of aerial photos from the level. 

This one is taken, from here you can see the one of the corridors leading from the second floor. These corridors don't actually lead anywhere, but in the game you can see through the windows of locked doors and see a long corridor ahead, so this was something that I wanted to incorporate into the Minecraft level.

And the one taken directly from above...

And that's the conclusion of the project, I hope enjoyed this article. There's a full gallery with photos of each room; CLICK HERE to view the images.

If you've created any Alan Wake related Minecraft levels, be sure to email me and I'll mention it on this site.

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