After having repeatedly discussed the elusive Away Missionfor the SFAC (Starfleet Fiber Arts Corps), I'm so happy to finally show off the completed project!
Here's the handsome devil now:
Clearly, he is calibrating something for use in Engineering.
And based on the Panda's suggestion, I had BTC take a selfie, which I then tweeted:
BTC was kind enough to retweet the image (Mini Fangirl Fiesta!) and I picked up a few new followers on Twitter, including the Walking Dad! (He's done some of the stickers and things for BTC to give away at meet-ups.)
Immediately after finishing this plushie, I put together the proposal for the Time Lord Travels' Time Vortex Challenge, which features a new-to-me plushie: SkyDoesMinecraft.
I'm working on him from just an image of his Minecraft skin; no papercraft pattern this time. So far so good:
Other than that, adventurers, we're closing in on the end of April! Lots of crafting ahead!
If any of you follow BlameTheController on his livestreams (and I'm not saying you must), you might have picked up on his sewing projects of the catblobs.
For the other 98% of you, BTC owns two large cats, which he affectionately calls his catblobs. Lately, he's been sewing/making (okay, I don't watch the livestreams, but I see screenshots on Twitter) stuffed blobs that could be classified as slightly creepy:
KeishaMaKainn (one of the builders from the Broken Buttons) posted an adorable picture in our team Skype chat with what she had thought the plushies were going to look like:
Well, this looks like a crochet project in the making...
Here's the result from my first attempt:
Clearly smaller, and the ears need work.
In relation to a Minecraft plushie:
So tiny! But yet, at home.
So the ears were taken from an amigurumi wolf pattern, which might be part of the problem. I made them smaller, but I don't like the way the base of the ears taper where they get sewn on, so I need to find a more feline-looking alternative.
Also, I would prefer to make the body bigger, but I was playing with the last few yards of a skein, and didn't want to run out.
So, look for Kitty Puff 2.0 sometime in the future...
One last close-up:
Aww, so cozy!
Don't worry, I'll be back with more Minecraft plushies before you know it!
...the world ahead. And there are many paths to tread--
What?
What do you mean I can't quote Pippin?
Fine.
So, I've successfully made it through one month of blogging without slacking off too badly.
(I could give myself cookies, but that means I'd have to use the oven and heat up my house. Bleh.)
I had a pretty good weekend; I just forgot to bring the pictures of my crochet projects with me to post them on the blog today. >.<
Tomorrow for sure!
I'm in the final stages of sewing two PauseUnpause plushies together, but these are the "v.2" Pauses; I am going to attempt to make their headgear out of something more durable and better-fitted than hodgepodge crochet.
Although I had hoped to be done this weekend...clearly I'm not. (What're ya gonna do? Creative people are just so unreliable sometimes.)
I was also semi-interrupted on Saturday by a Broken Buttons event--we played a couple of games with BTC and he livestreamed. He killed me. I took a few whacks at him. I think we're all still friends.
But I digress; I'm pretty sure that I kept my crochet within reach during the downtime between games.
So, here's to tomorrow's post, hoping that I have picture proof of partial shenanigans this weekend!
Every once in awhile, since I sell on Etsy, I tend to look up forms of 'competition'. (Thusfar, I've found no one else making and selling the huge Minecraft plushies I do.)
So here's where it gets interesting. At first, I browsed through his Etsy set-up to get ideas on how to improve my own store layout. I actually added the "Custom Order" button to my own store, as well as discovered that I could put a banner up.
And then as the time grew closer for my first convention, I decided that rather than having my huge girl purse to lug about with me everywhere, I wanted to put some money forward into a personalized wallet I could carry just for nerdy cons.
So I submitted a custom order to DuctTapeCreations17 for a BlameTheController wallet.
Kyle was amazing; he suggested putting the Broken Buttons logo inside!
Though it wasn't ready for the con, here are a couple of the first look pictures the artist sent to me:
I of course sent him my profuse thanks and awe at his ability to transform the Broken Buttons logo into just duct tape. He also posted a time-lapse video of him making the wallet:
So amazing! Took a lot of time and it looks great!
DTC tweeted me the link, which I passed on to the Broken Buttons build chat--I think he earned himself some new subs from a few of the members! (Is this what they meant by networking in college?)
So if you are looking for a new craft to try, or just like the look of his stuff, check out DuctTapeCreations on YouTube and on Etsy. He's got several tutorials for many different items including the wallet, a backpack, and other various types of cases and protectors.
'Til next time (when we might get back to talking about Minecraft crochet...I keep promising, but other stuff just happens)!
(Insert appropriate phrase about saying that X amount of times fast.)
So my endeavors to equip plushie Etho with a redstone torch to carry to the SC Comicon are for the moment, foiled. I worked extensively on his torch last night...after receiving some Skype messages in the Broken Buttons - Lore Writer chat.
As I may have previously mentioned, I wrote some blurbs for different bits of the blamethecontroller.com website and a few maps.
The Broken Buttons has now officially rolled out the new Blackbeard PvP map, available on BTC's fan server only. It is currently builder- and member-play only while it's in beta after writing new plugins, but I'm hoping that BTC is going to ask some of the Mindcrackers to come on and horse around with it in order to do some official promo recording, and to raise awareness of the game's existence.
All that leads me back to the Skype messages last night, requesting a how-to-play script for a short video BTC was putting together. My poor other lore writers responded quickly, but they are both in university and have mega projects and tests going on (both are from Europe, so they say 'university' instead of 'college').
Since I don't get home from work until mid-afternoon, I was the latecomer to the conversation, but I asked some questions, narrowed down the scope of BTC's request (and managed to do all of it without fangirling excessively).
Let's make one thing clear:
I am not strictly a BTC fangirl.
I am a Mindcrack fangirl.
I fangirl all Mindcrackers equally.
(Except Aureylian. She's new.)
I think I may have told BTC in a different Skype chat that I was going to go fangirl over his latest video. Wisely, he did not have a comeback for that. Perhaps I should have clarified that I was going to fangirl over the fact that my pixel art design is now on the Mindcrack Server.
My Minecraft username might not go down in infamy, but...how cool is that anyway?!
But I digress.
(Oh, here's the pixel art:)
(Now I really am getting back to the main point.)
So, script! BTC needed a script for a video. I referred back to my MineCon Map script from last year, and went to work. It ended up looking something like this:
INTRODUCTION
Begin at spawn, where new players will automatically appear when they join the server for the first time.
BTC:Hey guys, I’m BTC and this is a quick introduction to the Broken Buttons’
newest minigame map, Blackbeard.
Blackbeard is a multi-player PvP map where the Royal Navy and the
Pirate Crew are battling to collect enough gold for their team to win.
The address for the server is MC.BLAMETC.NET, and the server is
running Minecraft 1.7.5.
Text for the server address should appear on the screen. (Recommend a nautical/pirate-style such as lowercase Blackadder ITC.)
BTC:To find Blackbeard once you join the server, follow the signs
from spawn and jump through the portal, which teleports you to the
Blackbeard lobby.
Footage switches to the lobby area of Blackbeard, or jump into the portal.
LOBBY
BTC:A full game hosts 20 players, and team selection is random. Every time
an instance fills up, a new one begins, so there’s no waiting for a match to
finish.
Consider doing a wide-angle, panning shot of the lobby.
INSIDE THE GAME
Perhaps open with a few select fly-over clips to show the general terrain and the three main landmarks.
BTC:Winning the game sounds easy; the team that collects ten gold ingots first
is victorious!
(It's all very script-y and straightforward, etc., etc.) So we'll see how that goes; there haven't been any changes to the script so far (I've left it open for the other lore writers and BTC to make changes or leave suggestions) and there weren't any messages left on Skype this morning saying good/bad yea/nay.
There was a link to the forums of a new person requesting a lore writer application. Thaliest was awesome enough to point her in the right direction, and I posted the old lore writer app for her to refer to.
Hmmm...not much else happening. D&D session tonight. Need to plan that.
(Don't tell my players that the GM is still unsure what evil things she's going to do to them tonight.)
Until tomorrow, or even Sunday (depending on the con?) adieu!
So today I'm actually baby-sitting the BTC Fan Server UHC match. (No, I do not have the slightest idea what I'm doing.)
In Skype, they asked which admins would be available to help out, and since I sit at home on Saturdays and crochet like a mad fiend, that's not too much of a stretch, and I really don't mind.
However, there's no set hours for the amount of time the match could take, thus I thought it best to just do a flashback of some of the early nerdy crochet projects that got me started.
First up is the blue Cthulu:
No, I do not read H.P. Lovecraft. It would give me nightmares.
Then I learned a hat pattern and decided to adapt it to a couple Marvel characters:
Captain America Iron Man
By this time I was gaining momentum with inventing nerdy adaptations and alterations of current patterns and I went right for a commission for a friend:
Would you believe he is double the size
the original pattern called for?
I'll get into how I started on Minecraft stuff tomorrow...if I manage to survive the UHC today.
Although I do not subscribe to his videos, I have on occasion enjoyed his exploits with PauseUnpause and VintageBeef. He has close to 1.5 million subscribers, and has one of the largest audiences on the Mindcrack server.
Here's the finished plushie:
This is the classic posed-against-the-doorframe photo I use for all new plushies.
I made Etho and then had no close third friend to give him to, so he remains steadfastly beside my PauseUnpause and has posed with him for quite a few photos, some of which have never been published to any of my social profiles.
Fun Fact:
I had originally planned to do
a webcomic using photos of
my plushies and their many
adventures. I only got through
one strip before other things
grabbed my creative attention.
Here was the first and only panel of the comic:
The premise was that the MineCon cape I had tied to the Pause Plushie would bring any of the plushies that wore it to life. And they'd have adventures all over my house, up to and including holding my husband (the Panda) hostage so that I would crochet Etho and Pause a new Beef for them to play with.
Anyway, that never happened. But here's the picture proof that plushie Pause went to MineCon:
But as it happened, I started working on other projects, some of which were my very first commissions, and first inventions. I've only ever published one crochet pattern to date, and that was only here on this blog. That will probably change in the future, as I choose to divulge the new techniques I've learned/invented/muddled through to the masses.
Other Minecraft creations:
Mini-VintageBeef
(Also known as 'why you can't make those big plushies smaller'.)
Patches done after the style of the Minecraft creeper, pig, and sheep.
A little cake keychain.
All three of the above are for sale in my Etsy store!
Well, that was a short post, but with more pictures! Tomorrow I'll share about how I got started on taking commissions...
After the MineCon map was finished, I think everybody wanted a little bit of a break. Most of the builders on the team are between the ages of 12-20 (yes, I am an exception) and they had final exams, holiday plans, and all of that.
There was a lull, at least for a little bit. The rumors of releasing Blackbeard (a mini-game type of map) had been quiet; the same with Juggernaut. Additionally, I had heard that with the new resource pack, the team might want to go back and revamp Kingdom of the Sky I.
I set my sights on that, and began with transcribing all of the Youtube sound files BTC had recorded as the audio.
(For those who might not know, in the original game, there were signs placed around the adventure map saying 'Watch Video 1'. There was a menu on BTC's channel where you could sit and listen to the character dialogue for what you were seeing at that particular moment, and directions as to what to do next.
With the resource packs, these sounds could now be included in the game with no break in the player's immersion.
So I got that transcription all written out and posted to the private Build Team forums.
(Somewhere along the way, I also acquired a promotion to moderator on those forums, so I could help evaluate new lore writer applications. I turned down a few; the process was highly selective.)
Then BTC contacted me directly. He had a pet project that had been on a back burner for awhile; in a TeamSpeak call he laid out the basic premise and the ideas he had.
I practically couldn't talk. I mean, I'm sure I tried to sound intelligent. I hope I asked good questions. There's proof that I took notes, but at the time I couldn't tell you what they said.
(It is so embarrassing sometimes to be a fangirl; you come off as a star-struck idiot.)
TL;DR: I was informed of a new map that he wanted to do, that hadn't even been started yet. Woot! I was thrilled; this meant that I didn't have to try and figure out what all the parts of a pre-made map were for!
(The worst part about writing lore for a pre-made map is what if you missed something cool, and because you didn't write a quest or something for that one particular area, the players never get to see all the artistry and hard work that went into it?)
And then another surprise--I was added to the admin group. (Don't even know if I should say that here.) There's an admin group for the team leaders and such so that they can discuss new applications, the progress of the small build groups as they are assigned to different tasks, and tricky things like problems with the fan servers.
(I would have loved to have seen the conversation that occurred before adding me to the group. But then, I think all people want to know what 'right' or 'good' thing they did that gets them approved for a promotion/more responsibility.)
All that aside; I came into the group right before there was a major restructuring of all the little build teams. It was done in an effort to organize our resources better and keep ourselves on task amidst the resuming busy school year.
And then something even crazier happened: BTC had made a custom Broken Buttons t-shirt for his build team members and made it available in his spreadshirt store. You could have your name put on the back, which I thought was nifty.
But then he bought mine for me.
And sent it to my house. (I saved the envelope it came in, along with the stickers inside.)
Fangirl Fiesta!
To be fair, he bought two dozen of them and sent them out to his builders all over the world. Doesn't mean my little fangirl heart went pitter-patter-pitter-patter-boom. (That was the implosion of fangirl love at the end.)
My very own Build Team shirt! My face was aglow with bemused happiness!
And I have promised myself that if I ever manage to go to a large convention of geeks that might have the slightest clue about Minecraft, I will wear that shirt. (I'm going to practice by wearing it to the SC Comicon that's coming up on May 17, in less than two weeks!)
Bonus points if BTC is actually at the large con I attend, because I will muster up all of my nerve, say hi, and wait for him to ask me to turn around (so he can read the name on the back).
(No joke, that's what he did to Akeisu "the Woolmaster" at a con in Atlanta earlier this year. Best story ever!)
Tomorrow I'll have to tell you about how I became the head of the lore writers.
(WHAAAT?)
Yeah, you heard me. That was a twist I didn't see coming!
But for now, I leave you with this exclusive, rarely-seen belated Christmas photo of Team Canada:
(What do you mean, I never told you I'd made an Etho?)
So, back to how it all got started with the Broken Buttons!
As I started out on the build team, the senior builders would leave messages for me in Skype and ask me to do small paragraphs.
I wrote a few summaries for some websites concerning maps I had never seen, mentally praising my informative writing professor Dr. Spence for teaching me the value of action verbs and word limits. Although I'd originally thought that everybody was hard at work on Kingdom of the Sky III, it seemed to be on hold. The upcoming project was some kind of map for MineCon that featured Mindcrackers.
Doesn't sound like a big deal, right?
Or so I thought. Here's the teaser trailer:
At 0:15 when Guude speaks, official nerd-outs began.
As it so happened, it was a map designed to showcase the entirely redesigned resource pack system, which included for the first time custom sounds. In addition, it was the official MineCon map, and needed to have references to Mojang, the history of Minecraft, and lots of other things I had no idea about.
And they needed a script done ASAP, because they were going to distribute it on USB drives in the MineCon goodie bags, and Guude had to get it all sorted out a few weeks in advance. The builders had to have time to finish the map, add the custom monsters and all additional redstone devices (apparently there have been significant changes in command blocks that now render all this hard work a whole lot easier) and on top of it all, debug the entire play space.
They. Were. NUTS.
And I was apparently as crazy as all the rest of them.
This time praising my choice to take Play Writing instead of Technical Writing in college, (yet cursing my short-sightedness in not also taking Script Writing), I roughed out a script format in Google Docs and shared it on the private Broken Buttons forums.
Then the mad writing began! I took multiple tours of the different completed areas in the map, trying to fit them all into the script in their correct order, and then make that order seem logical. I couldn't believe that the team had made these enormous, beautiful builds without knowing precisely where they were going to fit into the plot!
But that, as it turns out, is a lore writer's job. They build it, we interpret it into the overarching story for the players.
So I worked, wrote, deleted, and wrote some more. I tried to get the Mindcrackers into my head enough so that I could write them believable dialogue using some of their inside jokes and catch phrases. I factored in the different quests and requirements laid out in the flow diagram and spreadsheets. I got confused, held quick TeamSpeak conferences with some very patient builders, and then went back and rewrote entire pages.
And finally, I reached the point where I either needed to tell the builders the script was finished, or spend the next week picking over it looking for errors.
...I sent a message and took my hands off of the keyboard. And then (of course!) I panicked. What if it wasn't good enough? What if I had missed something crucial?
What if the Mindcrackers hated it?
For all my years of college study, I have never had anything published by a paying publisher. I have written a few successful fanfictions (some more than others), and I'd only submitted one short story to a publisher because I was forced to in Short Story Writing. (And subsequently rejected, which we were all warned would happen. I still have the rejection letter somewhere, to remind me that success doesn't happen at first.)
Thus, I am a huge critic of myself, and I fear public humiliation.
But then BTC sent us a zipped file of all the sound clips that the Mindcrackers had recorded so far. I opened the file, and just listened.
They were saying my words. With almost-straight faces. My words.
(Bet you can't guess what happened next.)
Fangirl Fiesta!
It was beyond awesome! I wanted to dance around like a moron! (I restrained myself for the public safety of everyone I might have given black eyes to with my flailing fists.)
And then came the questions. As it turns out, when you're the one who writes the script, that sort of makes you the authority when it comes to last-minute details. The other builders, (particularly the redstone team) were working for hours just up until the deadline debugging, tweaking, and making sure everything ran all right.
(I even helped work on some building while I was online. I actually designed and built most of the Museum of Mojang in the final area at the end of the game.)
Finally, finally, I thought it might be all over when the teammates attending MineCon started leaving for Orlando. I had already sent the Pause plushie up to Washington state for Whitherunn, and he had arrived safely.
(I myself was heading north to visit my parents in New York.) But over the weekend I watched the feeds from MineCon, checked for updates, and kept my eye on Twitter.
Perhaps my favorite moment from all of this was from Mhykol:
(To this day, I have no idea if he knew I was the lore writer on the project.)
The feeling of accomplishment was amazing. I had finished something! And for the most part, people liked it! I felt like I was ready for the next project, whatever it was.
(No, you don't get a hint right now. Check back tomorrow!)
Recap: I totally was dared to apply. Just because Whitherunn accepted me doesn't make it my fault!
Ahem. What? Oh, right.
I joined the Broken Buttons team. I had to remove my last name on Skype, I got a new Twitter account, and I installed TeamSpeak.
(No, I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing!)
I decided to get to know my "employer". My viewing of his Youtube channel had started in a previous UHC (Ultra Hardcore--a tournament event in Minecraft invented by the Mindcrack server) because he had a really terrific interface with extra sound effects and graphics that I found helpful and entertaining to watch.
I've watched a few of the other Mindcrackers' personal vlogs and other videos, and I've always been particularly fascinated by fanmail. I've watched Guude, GenerikB, and Pause get amazing handmade art projects, drawings, crafts, and other souvenirs from fans all over the world. (I mean, somebody sent GennyB a didgeridoo from Australia!)
And then it started again. The tiny voice wouldn't leave me alone!
You have a unique art style.
You should send BTC something
for him to open on camera and
make all other fanmail go cry.
Well, we all saw how well I resisted listening to my crazy side last time. So I got my crochet hook and got to work.
Sixteen days later, I mailed a box off to a little P.O. address up in Whitinsville, MA. And then I waited. (Do you ever get so uncomfortable in your own skin that you want to just crawl out of it?)
And then! A vlog!
(Jump to 5:18 for the Horrible Purple Box from Aldi.)
Phew! At least I knew the large box had gotten all the way up north safely. And then I waited some more.
Come Monday, I discovered for the first time ever that YouTube has inboxes. (I'd never needed to use mine before!) Here was the note:
You may have already guessed:
Fangirl Fiesta!
But that was just the rehearsal, because he did indeed put out a fanmail video just for his plushie:
At this point, I was pretty much in a useless fangirling stupor. I'd heard from BTC over TeamSpeak once or twice as a junior lore writer (the newbie) in more of a listening capacity. There had been general chatting among all the builders about who was going to be attending MineCon 2013 in Orlando, FL.
I had even gotten the senior lore writer (one Mr. Whitherunn as mentioned in the video) to agree to take my PauseUnpause plushie to MineCon and get his little homemade cape signed by all the Mindcrackers. (I mean, apparently I was going to be working on a map for all of them, right? Seemed fair.)
Needless to say, BTC (as evidenced by his reaction in the video) liked his plushie a lot. He even talked about it this year at PAX East 2014 during the Mindcrack panel! (Mike the coworker had watched it and tipped me off.)
And it remains true to this day: BlameTC is the only Mindcracker to possess a plushie of his Minecraft skin.
But he is cute as a plushie!
(Then again, plushies are just adorbs anyway.)
There wasn't much in this post about the MineCon Map of 2013...look for the details of how it all happened tomorrow!
What are they, you ask? Well, as of July 19, 2013 I hadn't heard of them either.
Setting: April and I are spending all possible time together between my crazy summer work schedule (during the school year, it's five days a week; summertime it becomes four looooooong days per week).
She has had this notion that we can play cooperative Minecraft maps over a LAN connection in the house. I'm all for that! The only way I play Minecraft is with friends!
I had heard of maps like Herobrine's Mansion, but there had been a trailer for a map in particular at MineCon 2012 that I thought was pretty: Kingdom of the Sky III.
(The trailer has since been taken down, likely because there's talk of doing a new one.)
Well, since it was clearly #3 in the series, there had to be a #1 and #2 that made it popular. Commence the search!
Sign us up! We played through both of these maps together (encountering some broken redstone, but still we had fun just being dorks together, as geeks often do). Somewhere along the way, there was a link to the BlameTheConroller forums, and a mention about joining a build team.
Build team? Hah. I can't build a mud hut to save my life on the first night of Minecraft!
But then, there was April. She often gets blamed for two important things in my life: the first Minecraft plushie, and daring me to apply to join the Broken Buttons Build Team.
Little Known Fact:
April and I met in college.
I majored in creative writing.
She minored in it.
Me: They want builders.
April: And lore writers!
Me: Okay... (not sure what to do with that information)
April: At least apply.
Me: Why?
April: I dare you to apply.
Me: (Oh, now the gauntlet has been thrown.)
Long story short: I applied. (After reading all of the rejected applications for lore writer and the one accepted application.)
I was accepted!
And every time I think about this story, I ask myself: why didn't I dare her to apply right back??
Serves me right for not having forethought. There I was, getting thrown into a community of people from all over the world who had way more technical expertise with a game I had only dabbled in. A couple of them took me on a tour of the Kingdom of the Sky III build server, and it was everything I had seen in the trailer, plus tons more! What in the world was I doing there?
But they needed something: a person who could write summaries with action verbs, blurbs for website headers, and even scripts for map projects.
They now had me.
And my first big project? The MineCon 2013 map script. The theme? Mindcrack.
Cue another
FANGIRL FIESTA!
That's a story for another time, though. Besides, I had to make April's little creeper before she left!
And consider how I got to making plushies in the first place. In actuality, VintageBeef was not the first attempt I'd done at Minecraft plushies. The chest piece on the right belongs to the first attempt.
Any idea who it belongs to? (If the horrible title of the post didn't give it away.)
VintageBeef's best friend on the Mindcrack server is PauseUnpause.
(The two of them frequently play through maps together, and are sometimes joined by a third guy. When they play all together, the three of them are known as Team Canada. More on that in a future post.)
So if I was going to do this plushie thing properly for my best friend, I figured there needed to be one plushie for her, and one for me. I think I waited maybe one entire day after finishing Beef to start Pause.
April was arriving in late July. (I finished Beef on July 6th.)
Let the crocheting commence!
After many long evenings after work, some frantic housework so that April would actually have a bed to sleep in while she was with me, and some stress, I was finally able to set up the surprise in the guest room:
Was I proud? Oh yes.
I had achieved something I thought would be impossible! My husband was secretly in awe of my magical crochet abilities! It was fabulous! And then...started the tiny, infinitesimal thought process...
What if I sent this as a tweet
to the REAL VintageBeef?
Because in my mind, there was nobody but me, the Panda, and April to appreciate my crafting genius. Oh, and Mike at work. (This whole Mindcrack thing is his fault.) And I had completed a mighty craft!
But no. I settled for pinning it to my Minecraft Pinterest board and called it good. For about two minutes.
So what if he never sees it?
Maybe his followers will like it.
Oh boy. So I used my personal Twitter account to send the following to both Beef AND Pause:
Four favorites? Pretty good. Not exactly a viral reception. (Because everybody knows about Mindcrack, right? ...guys?)
And then I got an e-mail (since I don't own a smart phone or similar device). What was inside?
It's here that I began what I now call "Fangirl Fiestas".
They take place in my head when I'm in no public position to dance like an idiot out of sheer happiness.
That was my first and only 'famous' tweet from that account. But that's another story which segues directly into joining BlameTheController's (BlameTC or BTC for short) Build Team.
