Adventures in Minecraft

Introduction

ARE YOU AN adventurer? Do you like to try new things and learn new skills? Are you a huge fan of Minecraft? And would you like to push the boundaries of what you can do in Minecraft by learning how to write computer programs that interact with your game, and amaze your friends with your creativity and magic? If the answer is a resounding “Yes!” then this is the book for you.

What Is Minecraft?

Minecraft is a sandbox indie game, where you build structures, collect items, mine minerals and fight monsters in order to survive. It appears to you as a 3D virtual world made of different types of blocks, each block having its own place inside the grid layout of the 3D virtual world. Figure 1 shows an example of the Minecraft world.

FIGURE 1 The Minecraft world

The Virtual World

In a sandbox game, you are a player inside a virtual world (a sandbox with very distant edges, like a playpen filled with sand). Instead of being offered levels in a pre-set order, you roam around the virtual world and make your own choices about what goals you want to achieve and how to set about them. Because you are making your own choices right from the start, sandbox games have limitless possibilities. You make up your own stories and move through the 3D world, learning new skills and features ...