After almost two years since its establishment, Minecraft UW has expanded from its humble beginnings of just a few buildings to all of UW campus and beyond.
In March 2020, a group of students decided to build UW’s campus in Minecraft. They’ve built campus buildings and even the U Village. Now, the Minecraft server hosts events for several UW clubs, such as graduation ceremonies and Humans vs. Zombies Tag, and also partners with Seattle organizations such as International Community Health Services.
In its early stages, Minecraft UW comprised of Red Square with Odegaard Library, Kane Hall, and Suzzallo Library, according to Minecraft UW’s president and fourth-year construction management student, George Panniker. The initial buildings were built with no stringent floor plans, however, and as the server expanded, it became more difficult to build accurately without those plans.
Panniker alluded to the difficulties of expanding from the initial buildings, especially with all the buildings being at different angles.
“As soon as we went away from [the initial builds], I was building Savery Hall in the Quad,” Panniker said. “I didn’t know, I learned through this, but the Quad is basically built at a 45-degree angle off of north. So I basically built Savery Hall on an axis. And then I realized that if we’re actually going to do this for the whole campus, it has to be angled at 45 degrees and you can’t just turn something in Minecraft. So I had to build the whole thing again but at a 45-degree angle.”
Eventually, Minecraft UW was able to figure out a more efficient way to build the campus thanks to Steven Hu, a third-year history student and the events coordinator for Minecraft UW.
Members of UW have access to floor plans and blueprints of campus buildings. Hu said he took the blueprints for these buildings and traced them in a pixel art program. He equated each pixel to a Minecraft block from the game. It was then uploaded into the server and all that needed to be done was to place the blocks to create the interiors and exteriors.
“That helped a lot [with] accurate measurements and making sure that the proportions are right for each room,” Hu said.
Hu and his fellow builders were able to complete Paccar Hall in just one week using this method.
Approximately a year after its establishment, Minecraft UW was able to finish the entire campus. Panniker said this success was thanks to “Build Nights,” which are held weekly on Wednesdays, and allow builders and decorators to come together over Discord and complete buildings
For future plans, Panniker said Minecraft UW is currently expanding into the U-District and is hosting more events for UW clubs and organizations outside of UW.
The Minecraft UW Discord currently has hundreds of members from a variety of backgrounds and skill sets.
“It’s such a wholesome community with Minecraft because it’s so diverse and welcoming,” Hu said.
Reach contributing writer Aisha Misbah at arts@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @aishatheewriter
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