Building BIG in Minecraft

In the early months of 2020, How Nam Chung’s school suddenly closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The teen was forced to spend the rest of his senior year at home. Like many people quarantining across the country, How Nam was bored within a few weeks. He missed attending The Bronx High School of Science in New York City. He joked to his friends that they could go back to school—at least virtually—if they built a 3-D replica of the entire campus in the video game Minecraft. To his surprise, his friends jumped at the idea.

Early in 2020, How Nam Chung’s school suddenly closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The teen had to spend the rest of his senior year at home. People quarantined across the country.  Like many of them, How Nam was bored within a few weeks. He missed attending The Bronx High School of Science in New York City. He joked to his friends that they could go back to school—at least virtually. They just had to build a 3-D model of the entire campus in the video game Minecraft. To his surprise, his friends jumped at the idea. 

Every month, 140 million people around the world play Minecraft. It’s called a sandbox game because it gives players the freedom to create whatever they want, just like kids do in an actual sandbox. Some Minecraft players, like the Bronx Science students, have used that freedom to re-create real-world locations in amazing detail. These incredible builds include entire cities and amusement parks complete with working rides. Some ambitious players are even teaming up to re-create Earth’s entire surface! Minecraft’s geography, physics, and game design allow its players to build accurate reproductions that are just as impressive as their reallife counterparts.

Every month, 140 million people around the world play Minecraft. It’s called a sandbox game. That’s because players can create anything they want, just like kids do in a sandbox. The Bronx Science students and other players have re-created real-world locations in amazing detail. Some players have built entire cities. Others have made amusement parks with working rides. And some determined players are even teaming up to re-create Earth’s entire surface! Minecraft’s geography, physics, and game design allow its players to build accurate models. These can be just as impressive as the real-life originals.

Minecraft’s immense popularity lies partly in the fact that the game offers a wide variety of experiences (see The World of Minecraft). Players seeking adventure can play in “survival mode.” They explore different biomes—distinct regions with their own communities of plants and animals adapted to a specific climate. Many Minecraft biomes mimic those in the real world, such as deserts, snowy plains, and forests. Players roam these areas mining materials in the form of blocks from the surrounding landscape. There are more than 150 types of building blocks. They represent materials like ice, sand, stone, wood, and even diamond, plussome ready-made structures, like stairs and trapdoors. Survival mode players use these materials to craft shelters and supplies. But they have to watch out: Villains like creepers, which explode, can sneak up during the night and destroy all of players’ hard work.

Why is Minecraft so popular? One reason is the game offers a wide variety of experiences (see The World of Minecraft). If players want adventure, they can play in “survival mode.” They explore different regions called biomes. Each one has its own community of plants and animals that live in a certain climate. Many Minecraft biomes copy those in the real world. For example, some are deserts, snowy plains, and forests. Players roam these areas and mine materials from the landscape. The materials are shaped as blocks, and there are more than 150 types. They represent materials like ice, sand, stone, wood, and even diamond. There are also ready-made items, like stairs and trapdoors. Survival mode players use these materials to build shelters and supplies. But they have to watch out. Villains like creepers can sneak up during the night. They can explode and destroy all of players’ hard work.

The game can also be played in “creative mode.” That’s where huge builds like the Bronx Science campus usually take shape. All materials are freely available to select from a menu, and players don’t have to worry about creepers. But that doesn’t mean the task is easy.

How Nam and his friends wanted to build their school and surrounding neighborhood to scale, which meant that structures needed to be the right size in relation to one another inside the game. The group used satellite images from Google Maps to measure the buildings and streets. A floor plan of the school, plus photos other students shared, helped with the interior.

How Nam converted these measurements into Minecraft blocks, each of which is equivalent to 1 meter (3.3 feet) cubed, and mapped everything out on paper. “Not everything in the real world is measured out with 1-meter blocks,” says How Nam. “So I had to do a lot of improvisation.” To build smaller objects, he repurposed other items that were available in the game. For example, he used fence posts for desk legs and stairs for chairs.

The game can also be played in “creative mode.” Players usually use this mode for huge builds like the Bronx Science campus. All materials are freely available. Players just select them from a menu, and they don’t have to worry about creepers. But the task still isn’t easy.

How Nam and his friends wanted to build their school and surrounding neighborhood to scale. That meant the structures had to be the right size compared to one another inside the game. The group used satellite images from Google Maps to measure the buildings and streets. For the interior, they followed a floor plan of the school. Other students shared photos that helped.

How Nam turned these measurements into Minecraft blocks. Each block is equal to 1 meter (3.3 feet) cubed. Then he mapped everything out on paper. “Not everything in the real world is measured out with 1-meter blocks,” says How Nam. “So I had to do a lot of improvisation.” To build smaller objects, he used other items from the game. For example, he used fence posts for desk legs and stairs for chairs.

Minecraft may look like a blockier version of the real world, but it doesn’t necessarily follow real-world rules. In creative mode, players’ characters can fly. This skill came in handy when constructing higher, hard-to-reach parts of the Bronx Science building.

And even when players’ characters aren’t flying, gravity—the force that pulls objects toward the center of Earth in the real world—behaves differently in the game, says Gardner Marshall. He’s a physicist who teaches a class on the physics of Minecraft at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. On Earth, gravity causes a falling object to accelerate toward the ground at 9.8 m (32.2 ft) per second squared. But Marshall’s students found that in Minecraft, a player who falls off a cliff accelerates at three times that rate. “Gravity is much stronger in Minecraft than it is on Earth, but your onscreen character is still able to jump really high. So these characters apparently have some seriously developed leg muscles,” jokes Marshall. Plus, unlike on Earth, the acceleration of gravity varies for different Minecraft objects. And some objects just float, as if gravity doesn’t apply to them.

Redstone, the fictional power source in Minecraft, has been compared to electricity because players can use it to power everything from lights to roller coasters. But unlike real-life energy sources, redstone’s power seems limitless. According to the law of conservation of energy in the real world, the amount of energy in a system must always remain the same. For example, a battery’s energy decreases as it supplies electricity to a flashlight’s bulb. The bulb then transforms this energy into heat and light. This isn’t the case when you power a light with redstone. “The light will just keep emitting light forever, and it will never run out of energy,” says Marshall.

Minecraft may look like a blockier version of the real world. But it doesn’t always follow real-world rules. In creative mode, players’ characters can fly. This skill came in handy for the Bronx Science students. They used it to work on higher, hard-to-reach parts of the building.

Even when players’ characters don’t fly, gravity is different in the game, says Gardner Marshall. He’s a physicist at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, and he teaches a class on the physics of Minecraft. Gravity is the force that pulls objects toward Earth’s center in the real world. On Earth, gravity causes a falling object to accelerate toward the ground at 9.8 m (32.2 ft) per second squared. Marshall’s students measured gravity’s effect in Minecraft. When players fall off a cliff, they accelerate at three times that rate. “Gravity is much stronger in Minecraft than it is on Earth, but your onscreen character is still able to jump really high. So these characters apparently have some seriously developed leg muscles,” jokes Marshall. Plus different Minecraft objects fall at different rates, unlike on Earth. And some objects just float. Gravity doesn’t seem to apply to them.

Redstone is the fictional power source in Minecraft. Players can use it to power everything from lights to roller coasters. Because of that, it’s been compared to electricity. But unlike real-life energy sources, redstone’s power seems limitless. In the real world, the law of conservation of energy applies. It says that the amount of energy in a system always remains the same. For example, a battery’s energy decreases as it sends electricity to a flashlight’s bulb. Then the bulb turns this energy into heat and light. That doesn’t happen when redstone powers a light. “The light will just keep emitting light forever, and it will never run out of energy,” says Marshall.

How Nam and more than 20 of his classmates worked on their build for a month. One night, some of them stayed up until 3:00 a.m. tweaking stairs to make them more realistic. To get the school’s elevator working, they used a feature called a command block. One student typed lines of code—instructions a computer can understand—into the command block to program the elevator. They even added quirky touches, like secret rooms that don’t exist in the real building.

The finished project consisted of more than a million blocks! As his Minecraft character, How Nam got to visit familiar classrooms one last time before graduating. “I was able to explore every nook and cranny of the school,” he says. He also relived one of his favorite scenes—leaving the school at sunset after robotics practice. “I was able to see the sun setting digitally as I was walking out of the school,” he says. “It was pretty surreal.”

How Nam worked on the build for a month. More than 20 of his classmates helped. One night, some of them worked until 3:00 a.m. to make the stairs more realistic. They used a feature called a command block to get the school’s elevator working. To program the elevator, one student typed lines of code into the command block. These are instructions a computer can understand. They even added fun touches, like secret rooms that aren’t in the real building.         

The finished project included more than a million blocks! Before he graduated, How Nam returned to school as his Minecraft character. He got to visit familiar classrooms one last time. “I was able to explore every nook and cranny of the school,” he says. He also relived one of his favorite scenes. At sunset, he left the school after robotics practice. “I was able to see the sun setting digitally as I was walking out of the school,” he says. “It was pretty surreal.”