Hi all! I don't know how many of you all play Minecraft but I have rather recently begun working on a NiGHTS themed adventure map. It's looking to be a VERY long process (especially since I'm a bit new to Minecraft myself) but I'm really enjoying it! I figured I might as well post some shots of the progress here as I work on it in case anyone wants to see it unfolding over time. I will certainly make an announcement here when it is done and available to be downloaded and played.

My hope is that in the end this map will be just as enjoyable to those who aren't familiar with NiGHTS as it will be to those of us who are. Hey, with any luck we may draw some more people to the actual games and they can experience the same love for them that we have! But regardless, I want it to inspire that same wonder and desire to explore while still keeping in mind the overall goal that NiD and JoD did. I want people who play this map to experience the thrill and accomplishment of facing nightmares head on and winning back your dreams.

This first image is from one of the earliest stages of work (taken March 23, 2013). I decided to start with the Dreamgate as I am going to use it as a hub where you can go to all the Nightopias as you unlock them through the storyline. However, for this to actually work with the gameplay mechanics I'm actually going to need to make about 14 different Dreamgates and place them throughout the map. Fortunately, with a program called MCEdit, this is going to be much less painstaking than I initially thought. The first Dreamgate is built within a Mushroom Island biome so hostile mobs will not spawn on it. This will not hold true for the copies, however, but at least the initial introduction to the world will be safe.



Unfortunately I can't really make it all as elegant and pretty as the actual games, especially taking into account certain mechanics needed to make this map run properly, but I still think its coming along nicely. You might notice there are more doors than there were in JoD. I plan to include all 12 nightopias (I'm leaving out Bellbridge and Twin Seeds in favor of something a little different) in the plot. Yes, I am insane. (At this point I didn't know how to take screenshots in the game so I took the picture with my phone. I apologize for the poor quality.)



My current setup as I build this map. Run around the game a bit to get the feel for the layout and then build the section in Minecraft. Lots of fun but sometimes I get a little too distracted by Journey of Dreams and end up playing the game for a while... I also have to adapt some of the layout to fit within the biome because all it takes is one block outside of it for a hostile mob to spawn and wander it's way into what is meant to be a safe area.

The following are of the progress as of April 15, 2013.




An overhead view of the progress so far

The following seven images are on-ground screenshots taken with the HerrSommer Rustic texture pack I'm probably going to recommend as it looks quite nice in it. In other words these are similar to how the map might appear to the player (obviously disregarding the blatant signs of it being a work in progress).


The fountain actually has a sort of hidey-hole inside it, a dry area behind where the water is actually falling.












Here we see the first message from our mysterious, unseen, unnamed ally in the story. They won't all be so cryptic but some level of discretion is necessary, whoever it is makes it very clear that they do not want to get caught helping you.

As a matter of fact, it was intentional. The way that the rules and cards currently interact on that point causes Characters to attack only once per turn, except if using more expensive Attacks.

Ah, I see. I suppose I'm just used to games where when a character is spent they remain so until your next turn.

This is very exciting, I can't wait to start playing! I've been in the TCG scene for years and this seems pretty well thought out. Of course it will take some test playing to get it fine tuned but you have a very solid base here. There is only one thing that I found strange. It was stated in the rules that attack events were the most common cause of a character being spent, however the restore spent characters step immediately follows the play events step, effectively restoring all the characters you spent immediately. It seems a bit odd to even have to spend them in the first place when that effect would be immediately undone. Was this intentional or am I simply misunderstanding the ruling?

PS: I'll see what I can do as far as artwork goes for you.