Before Toys To Life

There are plenty of physical Minecraft toys—Legos, HotWheels, 3D printed fan pieces—even if players can’t bring them into the game. Kal spent hours playing Minecraft on and off the TV

“Why are there chests full of uncooked meat and weapons?” “In case we come back as survival.” These are the conversations I had with my small child. Survival is going to be like Tutorial—you will need real tools and fuel and a furnace. You need a farm with irrigation. You have to protect it from Creepers (because there are no real world problems like flooding or a drought).

Your farm and your animals need to be accessible. You can’t live on a beach or at the top of a mountain cliff and just zip over to the farm in survival.

If you are going to slaughter animals, you ought to breed more first. And then you need to feed and shelter the new animals. Real animals are not spontaneously spawned. You can make puppies if you feed the wolves first.

It’s hard to whip up a cake in survival mode. Kal knows all the parody songs about mushroom stew but he’s not helping me write the recipes for how to go farm to table.

Kal plays Minecraft on a TV that had to be protected with a baby gate while jumping on a trampoline...

Madeline Vega

There are many kinds of farming in Minecraft: Mob, Experience, Food, Block, and Item Farming, according to Minecraft Wiki. Books have been written about all of it. Animal husbandry goes to the mob section because you slaughter them the way you would slaughter spiders or zombies. Although, it is entirely possible to not slaughter your animals and instead wait for them to drop wool blocks, pork chops, steaks, eggs, and milk. You will need to grow wheat, carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, and melons to pull this off. You can also farm mushrooms in order to create mushroom stew.

Kal planted small sections around some of his houses, but he was more concerned with having a beacon so he could find the house again. He wanted to go to the Nether to fight Zombie Pig Men and Ghasts. Then he was obsessed with getting to The End. All of his play was offline, so watched videos about Hunger Games, but never actually played on other people’s creations.

The Saddest Day in Kal’s Gaming Career (from 2016)

DirecTV suddenly stopped streaming YouTube. Every day I would see there was a video with a frowny face icon at the top of the search results, and every day I would ignore it. So the day YouTube videos ceased to exist on DirecTV, we were all needlessly shocked.

The thought still brings Kal to tears. Who wants to watch StampyCat on an a tablet when you’ve been watching him in 50” HD?

Boom played one of Stampy’s videos this afternoon, and it was kind of creepy to hear his voice again. —MV

Kal's favorite plush with a saddle he created for it

Madeline Strum Photography

Kal on the 100th Day of 3rd Grade

Madeline Vega

For the 100th day of school in 3rd Grade, Kal dressed like it was the year 2109, which he imagined to be a dystopian wasteland that required help from his trusty salvage-hunting pig. Then in 6th grade he sewed a faux leather saddle. Betty has dressed up her Endergirl, but no one is loved like Rueben.

Endermen

Madeline Strum Photography

TURNING 5

In 2014, Kal started Kindergarten—and loved Minecraft

The DOE assigned Kal to a school far enough away we decided to buy a car. Then we decided to go visit family in Illinois before school started. I had been hearing about mines for so many hours every day, I decided it was time visit a real mine. Kal was more than happy to get a green helmet and tell the guide everything he knew about mines. Then he watched more Stampy Cat videos on the iPad in the hotel room. His birthday in school and out was all about homemade Minecraft goodies.

Kal getting ready to go into an actual mine

Madeline Vega

Kal's 5th birthday theme was Minecraft

Pretending to be Stampy

Madeline Vega

Decorating and redecorating the cake

Madeline Vega

Turning the last scrap of cake into The End

Madeline Vega

Still loving Minecraft for his 7th birthday

Madeline Vega

Terraria was the next obsession

Madeline Strum Photography

Do It Yourself Terraria blocks as birthday cake

Madeline Vega

Kal took a break from Minecraft to play Skylanders. Then he took a break from that to go back to Little Big Planet Karting. This led to more and more Little Big Planet. Today he went to Minecraft, waited for an update, started to scroll down to the Skyrim pack... Minecraft has mashed up with Mass Effect and other video games for new packs. Their newest addition? Little Big Planet. We had just seen the real pod, so it was obvious how well they had recreated LBP even down to the same music. (from 2016)

Madeline Vega

PINTEREST FAIL Between Minecraftthemed birthdays, Kal had a Terraria birthday. We brought pizza to his class and then everyone made their own Terraria blocks at home. Who needs cake when you can have a plate full of candy? I think it about sums up what I see when I look at Terraria on screen.

KAL’S GAME from 2016

Kal has a better idea for Terraria: You build before introducing characters so you’re not weighed down by their lack of ability to reach the places you want to place blocks or walls. Don’t tell him that’s LBP or Infinity Toy Box.