WAKING UP: the ebook and Minecraft map
May 14, 2012 5:36 PM   Subscribe

WAKING UP: the ebook and Minecraft map
My digital short story Waking Up launched today on Amazon, and to accompany the 14K-word ebook is a hellaciously difficult Minecraft map (by evil mastermind Vechs, of course) based on the world of the story.

About a month and a half ago, my young adult novel GIFT was published, and to celebrate the launch, I commissioned a Minecraft map to go along with it, based on the world of the book. That went over so well that I decided to do it again -- this time for a short story.

Unlike the GIFT map, the WAKING UP map is really, really hard, and incorporates in-game challenges heretofore unseen in Vechs maps (or any adventure maps, for that matter). But even more exciting than that is the fact that this map is built on the 12w17a snapshot -- the update with readable, writeable, in-game books. Which means the player can read a book referenced in the actual book -- and even read the first chapter of the actual "Waking Up" book -- in the game.

Soon after starting the map, the player will discover a chest with a curious sign on it. Within the chest is a pamphlet (titled "Your Guide to Lucid Dreaming") that the player can open and read -- just as the main character in the story "Waking Up" does -- which sets the scene for the next stage of the map. Once the player moves to the next area of the map, they'll find, among other things, a chest with another book inside it -- it's "Waking Up," and it contains the entire first chapter of the real book "Waking Up" (which translates to about 12 Minecraft book "pages"). Then the player's real journey begins, as they must play through the map to escape the dream (or is it a nightmare?) they're trapped in.

Since the map is based on the 12w17a snapshot this is a kind of a sneak peek at the potential for in-game books once they are incorporated into a stable Minecraft update. (Players comfortable installing snapshots can of course play immediately -- otherwise, we'll be updating the map for whatever stable update including in-game books is released first.)

The WAKING UP ebook is available via Amazon for 99 cents, and the Minecraft map based on "Waking Up" is, of course, free.
Role: Author
posted by mothershock (2 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite

Awesome, I can't wait for a longplay to appear.
posted by Theta States at 7:14 AM on May 15, 2012


Oh, yes! I should say that JoeHills is doing the official Let's Play!
posted by mothershock at 12:18 PM on May 15, 2012


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