Tutorials Island vol.1

Building is essential thing for Minecraft, and some people told me they are sad they don't have good building skills. Let's start by building one small house similar to those you may see in Outer Town of Capital.

This is one nice island that i started on in singleplayer. Well suitable for some village or town.


Pressing F3 will show us some more technical info. This is not necessary for building itself but i decided to fit houses into chunks the same way as we have to fit into plots on Main World. So i need to see my coordinates.

These two lines are important:
X: -68,67111 (-69) // c: -5 (11)
Z 291,67803 (291) // c: 18 (3)
So my exact coordinates are X -68,67111 (note that Minecraft uses decimal comma instead of decimal point) and Z 291,67803. More important, is c: -5 (11) that is telling me i am in chunk #-5 and standing on block #11 of that chunk in X and c : 18 (3) means block #3 of chunk #18 in Z.

Time to find chunk corners

Once you stand on block #15, it is the edge of one chunk. Once you stand on block #15 in both X and Z, it is the corner of one chunk.

Let's place torch and move to block #0 in both X and Z

Done. Now you can use two more torches to make group of 2x2 torches, showing corner blocks of four adjacent chunks.

Walk around and place more groups.

Four groups of torches, one chunk is between them. One torch of each group belongs to chunk, other three torches are outside.

 

Let's quickly build some shelter.
Stack of stone, few logs and few pieces of glass is enough to start with. But when you wake up and see that hut...


Chopping more logs to change corners does not save the look but it shows way to go. Dirt staircase is always better than towering up and then falling down.


Time to make some wooden frame that fits inside chunk. Leave at least one block on each side of chunk empty - it will be used later. I usually use odd number of blocks between columns (it is 5 blocks here), because even number of blocks gives somehow odd results. Basic frame then looks like this.
It fits into 13x13 square, leaving one block on two sides and two blocks on other two sides. No need to build corner-to-corner.

Fill walls with stone.

I was lazy so i used just cobble. Choice of different materials will give the house different looks - dark logs with stonebricks look much more fancy.

Make ceiling and extend upstairs walls by rising pillars and filling walls. I used birch planks this time.

Not so obvious but still important is that you have to keep on mind how much space should be under roof. If you don't need rooms in attic, you dont have to build upstairs walls at all, just place roof directly on ceiling.

I want to have a sloping roof, so i used more planks on some walls - roof will follow that shape.

But, but... roof made out of planks?

No. This time i will not be lazy. Using stairs instead of planks gives smoother look. Logs under the top are sturdy support for the ridge.

But, but... why does it look so plain still?

Roof should overhang walls - that is what you use that one block on each side for.


Much better. Also notice additional line of slabs covering ridge.


Yet one thing that can help the look is putting upside-down stairs under roof.


What about here? Log to extend timber, glowstone to light up roof, or just upside-down stairs facing the wall.



First small detail - stairs instead of slab on the edge of roof.



Time to start making windows.

That glass block in cobble wall remains from first hut. Don't be lazy and replace it with glas pane.

Moar windoze!


As you may have seen on many houses in capital, trapdoors can imitate window shutters.


Okay. Now there are two things that need to be fixed.

First not so obvious is that doorway is too low compared to window height. Second more obvious is that we need to replace dirt in wall with cobble.

It should look this way.

 

Time to start with interior.


Simple floor using planks.


Let's remove remains of first hut and make some storage room. Storage should be easily accessible, as it is the most used room, so i want to have it close to entrance.


That hole in ceiling remained from building walls and roof.

Time to fill it.

Also time to find place for staircase.


Again, reinforcing from under with upside-down stairs.


What to do upstairs? First, one part should be separated to make more private space.


Yes, it will be bedroom. Bed or beds and chest as bedside table, some chair..


And closet. Let's use this place to try one of my favorites.


Stay beside wall, turn your back against the wall and place the door.


Then second one.

This allows to put something in between doors and wall.

And i want to have some chests in there.

Also notice sides, made of stairs.

Flowerpots will sit on sides. And slabs will cover the top.


Fine, we have bedroom, now it is not only a house, now it is the home!



The rest of upstairs needs some stuff too. First of all, fence to prevent falling onto stairs. Second, some place to sit and relax.


And some entertainment.


Table.

We can put some flowerpots or bookcases on it.

Could kitchen fit into this place?

I hope so.

 

Some fridge - lets use the same way to place door as we did in bedroom.

Crafting table and furnace will cover sides.

I would use droppers instead of iron blocks but you know, forbidden stuff. So this fridge will not store anything.


So we have kitchen.


Decorating. Le nightmare. Prepare half stack of paintings, half stack of item frames, some items and few stacks of patience.

There are no rules, no recommendations. Be creative.

Item frames will improve storage room too.


Another staircase leading down - i do not care what you do in your basement, as long as it stays inside your plot.


And some fine details to exterior. Flowerpots in front of windows. Rain shelters above door. Stairs in front of door.


Yet we still forgot something. Do you see that dirt block under corner of house?


Fixed. These things cause headache.


So, that is all. One chunk does not offer much space but it is still enough to have cozy home.

 

Tell me how many noobs you've met with the patience for this.

But in seriousness, nice little tutorial. I took notes.

 

Decent tutorials for sure, but Eltono has a point. The majority of people that this would be useful for necessarily don't have the patience to view this despite the minimal amount of reading required. All in all, it's good for those that are interested in such things, such as myself. Looking forward to seeing your other volumes.

 

Ohh, I have always been lazy with my houses. Now, imma go buy another plot and friggin build my best home ever!

 

awesome tutorial

 

Great job barry. I will use some of this information when doing some building

(My builds are normally a wood box..)

 

Suggestion: Make tips for different materials and how to use them (what blocks go well with other blocks, how to use quartz in a build, etc.) Thanks for the general tips! I could use some of them.

 

Imma start linking new people in town to this thread. Maybe they'll take notes

 

Me too really nice tutorial
I was a s### (bad) builder in veligrad till patient barry shared his mojo

 

Wow, nice little tutorial. I loved it. My building skills, are well, non existent, and there's a house nearby me that has the exact same roofing, and I couldn't figure out how he got the detail. Shall be using this in future builds. Many thanks!!

 

nice, now the question is what other building do you have a guide for?

 

*bump*
more!

 

Thx for the tips. It's a much different style then i normally (try to) build. I have always tried to stay away from cobble, but you made it look good. I think I'll make one for grins.

 

I like the tutorial. Playing minecraft as long as I have its not for me but it is definitely useful to ones that still need tips like this. Like using regular logs as corner posts and the decoration tips are great. I agree with some people do some block by block tips for decorating that would also be useful to new people in minecraft.

 

You should see if you can make an area for teaching about better building styles in minecraft for those who need it.

 

It is very nice I use that a lot now

 

Thanks to Mightytitans for bringing, but I making a custom map and I was wondering about all the furniture you know how to create.