A few days ago I started to play Minecraft Pocket Edition. Minecraft can be an addicting game, therefore I've made a commitment to only play for one hour a day, so that I don't overplay and become addicted.
(Here you can make your world)
For those of you who don't know what Minecraft Pocket Edition is about, it's a game that is never ending. You create worlds and interact with them, building things, hunting, eating, sleeping, anf making plans for the future. To start, you have to type in a name to create a seed, which generates a world. The name of this world you created is the name that you typed. At the bottom right side of the screen there are two buttons you can press; either creative or survival. Creative mode is a lot easier, while survival mode has the added challenge of needing to avoid attacks by spiders and zombie type creatures. In either mode, friends can visit your world and you can interact by typing messages to each other and by working together to hunt and build things.
Getting around is different in the two modes. In creative mode you can fly by double tapping the jump button in the centre of the digital joystick (bottom left) or walk around by using the buttons surounding the centre jump button. In creative mode it's a lot easier to create structures because you can fly. If you chose the Survival button, things are a lot harder. When it becomes night time, monsters, consisting of zombies, spiders and skeletons, can come out. To allow monsters to be created, which is called spawning, go to settings on the pause button in the top right side of the screen. From there, choose options, then turn difficulty to the top. If you've done all this already make sure you find a safe place and make a house to hide in when it gets dark, so that the monsters can't get you.
(This is the options setting for spawning monsters)
(This is the Crafting Table, here you can make items)
So, I guess you need to know how to make a house. In both modes, at the bottom of your screen, there are seven boxes that show what resources you've just collected. On the farthest right is a box with white dots. If you tap on that, a screen will come up and you can see all the resources you have. You collect resources in a number of ways. For example, if you see an adult sheep, tap it with your finger, repeatedly. It will turn red and try to get away. After many taps it will disappear and a white cube will appear in it's place. Walk forward, over the cube, and it will appear in one of the boxes on the bottom of your screen. This is the resource wool, and you can use it to make a bed. To get lumber, put your finger on a tree trunk. A white circle will appear and slowly fill in. When it is totally white, the tree trunk will turn into a small brown cube that you can collect and it will appear in your resources inventory. When you have enough, you can use them to build a house. Similarly, you can go to the mountain and cut out cubes of rock to make a house in a cave.
You need to know, specifically, how to make a house or a chest or other items. When you have a safe place to hide through the night, wait until morning, then leave your house and cut down trees or hunt. When you have some resources, go back to your house near evening and tap the three white dots. Scroll down until you find Oak Planks. Tap the box at the top right that shows a block of tree trunks you cut down earlier, until you don't have any more. Then tap the Crafting Table and tap the top right box I mentioned earlier. In your inventory you will find the crafting table. Tap it and place it inside your house. Tap the crafting table and choices will appear. Touch the stick and make at least six of those. At the side there is a picture of a sword and a pickaxe. Tap on them to make two swords made of wood and two pickaxes. With the pickaxes you can go mining. These are some simple things I did when I got started.
(Steve, Sue and I playing together, you can change your view as well)
I like survival mode because you can play multiplayer. This picture shows me, in the brown t-shirt, with two players, Sue and Steve, who came to my world. Steve had an idea to make our house inside the mountain, so we made lots of pickaxes and cleared a space. The name of our world is Katie's World because Steve's real name is Katie and we chose her world to meet and play in. I went to hunt sheep, pigs and cows for their resources and food. So far I think we've created a pretty good world. I hope in the future we can all get bows and arrows, and armor like mine. But that will just have to wait for tomorrow's one hour.
