7d ago

This Minecraft map that recreates [Kowloon Walled City], one of history's most notorious slums made me reconsider what's important in 3D level design

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This Minecraft map that recreates one of history's most notorious slums made me reconsider what's important in 3D level design

23 comments

There's a video of Kowloon Walled City from a university student (Suenn Ho) if anyone wants to see how it looks like from the inside. It's incredible how people even managed to live there.
- There is also the old german documentary.
That was a good read, thanks!
He cites a lot of Immersive Sim level design, Minecraft does not have that sort of detail; it merely provides a block-by-block construction system with some rudimentary decoration, it's not gonna achieve his design requirement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWZQB9zDD3Y
Pretty cool! Wish I could have seen it when it still existed!
- You can still see this one https://youtu.be/fo14gDswZeg
Stop with the clickbait please.
- That's a decent little article which makes a fair point well. Which criteria are you using to define it as clickbait?
  
  The headline is omitting a vital part of the article, namely the "one ingredient". You have to read the artivke to finish the title, which can be a definition of clickbait.
- What is the clickbait
  
  ExCepT for OnE InGreDiEnt!!
- I read the article. It appears to deliver on the promise of the headline pretty completely. What is promised is a little bit too nuanced and complex to be neatly encapsulated in the headline any other way. The headline also isn't sensationalized or misrepresentative of the content. And, honestly, the reason I think most people are clicking is for the Kowloon part, not the level design part. Are you just upset because it sounds a little bit like a LinkedIn status in its construction?
  
  "This, it should be stated, was not the objective of Sluda's build. But it nonetheless made me think about what I deem important in virtual architecture and level design more broadly. My favourite games are always those that give me a complex, natty 3D space to unpick, like Dishonored 2's Stilton Manor, Hitman's Sapienza, and Thief: Deadly Shadows' Shalebridge Cradle. But playing Sluda's map made me realise these levels are more than just environmentally challenging sequences of rooms and corridors. They say something about the people who lived in those spaces, exuding their virtual history from their grimy walls, spooky attics, and beautifully recreated gelato shops."
  Yeah, but...
  Minecraft will never achieve the writer's design requirement; immersive sim level design philosophy is where he is aiming, where highly environmental detail for storytelling and possibly some competent AI, both hostile and friendly, to support the immersion.
  MC is just a block-by-block construction, competent with building form, and it offers some simple decoration, and no more; I can't see how it is a fair comparison.
  
  I'd orefer a title to summarize the article so that I know whether it's worth my time investment to actually read it at all. Now, I'm put if by the blayant cliff hanger at the end of the title.
- You might be too easy to bait.
  
  I wasn't baited. Didn't read it.

23 comments