Change of pace

Looks like were back in action, expect more in the following days.

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A look back at Classic Minecraft Pixel Art

Just got back from the server last week and managed to pull off a crazy dare my Friends and I had. If you're wondering what it is, the following picture below might give you an explanation.

Long story short; I had to make or re-make (I suppose) a couple of highly acclaimed paintings from the past. One of which was Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh which hold dear to me when I was growing up. It turned out pretty well in my opinion and we ended up not removing it. These paintings are now part of our super cool Minecraft pixel art Hall of Fame. It's relatively easy to make when it's done in a team environment and it usually speeds up the building process.

I definitely look forward to making more amazing Minecraft builds in the future. In the meantime, what would you guys want to see on the future updates? more pixel art? more epic structures?

Leave your ideas in the comments below.

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My Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Experience

I remember the past Elder Scrolls game being centred around open word adventure. But Bethesda seemed to made a doozy out of this one. Out of all the past Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim made the biggest leap in terms of gameplay and the overall concept of the series. The environment is now detailed at point of that the past elder scrolls provide little to no significance. Well, if you look at the details at a farther distance. However, what Skyrim's environment lack in element, it provides in the adventure and amazing discoveries. I explored the lands and found a cave that hosts a rare species of crab, I managed to encounter a ghost of a horse rider and also found a couple of enchanted weapons along the way.

With all the places to explore, there is also the storyline to follow. I just can't seem to finish it with all other requests asked by other characters. It looks like that I will never able to finish this game. It's not a bad thing though as the emmersive gameplay will just keep me from playing it. At one point, I felt like I needed to focus with completing the 20 quests I have and stop hunting giants and looting their treasure chests. The quests that I required to do though links to the main story line so progressing through it is what I wanted the most. The main story that the players needed to follow is almost associated to every other quest. The chance of knowing a back story about it is something quite evident.

While being the "Dovahkiin" and ridding Skyrim of dragons is fun and all, knowing the full story of their arrival to the kingdom is a much fulfilling aspect to tackle with. What made this game amazing though is the ability to perform shouts. Your character being the dragon born can speak in dragon tongue. This new feature exempt from the past Elder Scrolls game is what makes Skyrim better. Overall, performing heroic deeds and fending off dragons is a fun way to play, which is why I would recommend playing Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. It would appear time consuming to some but if you take the shortcuts properly, you'll be finish with the game in just two days. (non-stop playing of course)

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My great Minecraft experience

If you've never heard it before you should have now. There are a lot of video games out there but this one seem to stand out due to its creative component and survival in an open world content. I for one have spent countless hours destroying blocks and making eye pleasing master pieces artist of old will envy. Well... maybe not Leonardo da Vinci but old artists in general. Seriously though, gathering materials, making a house in the middle of nowhere. It's some of the aspects you'll encounter in Minecraft. All in all, it is one of the most fascinating games I ever played.

Creating items in Minecraft is one of the most important actions the player will do. The problem though is that the game is not going to give you tips so you basically need to figure it out yourself to make some progress. The first time I played, I made my way into the forest punching trees to gather wood -obviously had no idea what to do with it.



Best House EVER!!

 Even though there is the part that it's time consuming to find resources, the game is pretty rewarding at times and after all, an adventure based game is nothing if all the things you need is just handed out to you. Speaking of adventure, Minecraft doesn’t just have items that needs crafting but also monsters that needs defeating... and also wolves that needs taming. What is amazing in Minecraft is that daylight does not last forever. When night time comes, monsters will spawn and take over the dark surroundings. It gives me a fright even though it’s just a game but equipping my character with a sword takes it all away.



A mighty fine ship

 The thrill of having an unpredictable adventure makes my every play in Minecraft just purely exhilarating. Sometimes I just end up having a plan in building something disturbing my train of thought. I might end up hunting chickens or just go and make a huge pirate ship. The randomness that every world is generated differently every time makes me want to play some more. There is always a new world to explore, a new dungeon to conquer and that odd house to build. This, of course just gets better when playing with friends. Minecraft’s multiplayer feature allows cooperative gameplay with other players. With this feature, you might just end up with a more amazing build with your friends help. You will have the option to explore and build epic structures that makes it a lot more fun with friends.

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Poptropica S.O.S. Island Walkthrough

To all the kids and the kids at heart out there, here's a Poptropica S.O.S island walkthrough. I just recently finished this island and thought sharing a guide with you guys.

First of all, use your blimp to head to the S.O.S. island. Once you got there walk to the left and talk to the first mate. You are now given the task to save all the passengers of the sinking ship.

You'll notice that the entrance is blocked by mountain of snow and the only way to get rid of it is by destroying it with the boulder above. Move further left and you will see that there are some boats where you can jump on. Continue jumping from the boats until you reach the deck of the ship.Once you've reach it, head to the right where the boulder is located. When you click the snow boulder, your character should be pushing it to fall at the snow mountain.This will clear the entrance and once the ship's entrance is cleared, enter it.

       

After you're in, you'll see that there is a door to the bridge. Enter through this door and head further to the left and speak to the captain. You ask him to leave the ship for his safety but he will stand his ground as the "captain always goes down with the ship!"

You will need to open the emergency door and once it's opened, leave the bridge and head to the left until you find door six with a trapped  passenger. You'll realize that the passenger you saved is a whale caller. Once you saved him, he will give you a whale song maker. The ship will take more water and be near to fully sinking. Head back to the ship's entrance and talk to the captain of the ship again. This time, he'll ask you to save the ship's cruise director named Starbuck. Leave the bridge and head to the left of the hallway until you find the ballroom. Starbuck can't swim so you'll need to find another way to save her. Click on the floating bottle of champagne at the juice bar and head to the farthest floating chair. Stand on it and click on your acquired bottle. Shoot the crack on the glass to raise the water level and help Starbuck reach the small life raft. Once this is done, head to another floating chair located at far right of the ball room. You will see another crack in the glass. Shoot it with the bottle cap like you did before. Once the water level is raised again, push Starbuck's raft to the door to be able for both of you to leave the ballroom.

      

Once you saved Starbuck, more than half of the ship will be sub merged in water. The only way to go inside now is through a hole in the hull. To get to this hole, jump you way through the ledges, windows and umbrellas till you reach the stern which is now located at the top. Once inside, jump down until you reach the flooded floor. You will notice a gear that you can turn when you click it. This gear will raise the water level a little bit which is needed to progress through the story. Once the water level is raised, you will see an open vent where you will need to enter. Once entered, head upwards for some air and remember to avoid the jellyfishes! There will be platforms where you can step on to move upwards further. You need to continue jumping up to find the boiler room where you need to reroute some pipes...

Reroute the pipes like how I did it above and it will give you access to another room at the top left corner. Head to the upper right corner until you see the engineer. You'll see that you need to turn the valves to let the pressure flow. Turn the four valves one by one to get past the steam and you'll be able to save the engineer. Once you saved her, the ship will took a nose dive and will be almost fully sank. This time, you will need to save the chef. Another hole will be visible at the stern which is now the highest point in the ship. Jump your way through the platforms and climb up the ropes till you reach the stern. Once you're inside again, move the the lower left corner of the room you are in and exit through it. You'll notice that you are once again in the ballroom and you need to head for the door. Once you're inside the hallway, move up and use the lights as platforms. Enter through the vent and you should end up in the ship's kitchen. Move a little bit down and enter the freezer. You will notice that you need to break some of the crates to find the frozen chef. Push him through the exit door and navigate your way down with the frozen chef to the oven to melt the ice. Make sure that you use the crates so the chef will not be stuck. Once you've melted the ice and the chef is saved from the sinking ship, head back and save the final passenger—the captain.

You'll realize that the ship is completely upside down but the hole that is located at the stern is still visible. Enter through that hole and head to the lower left side of the map. Once you're on the next map there will be sharks with big jaws trying to slow you down, head to the upper left corner and you will be directed to the ballroom. Navigate your way to the left again and head to the vents. Once you're out of the vents, move to the right corner of the room and enter another vent. This will lead to the kitchen and you will need to navigate your way to the left side of the room. Once you're out of the kitchen , you will be now at the bridge. head down and avoid the crabs and electric wires. Once you talk to the captain you'll realize that the whale was not at fault for the sinking ship but the captain running after it and hitting an iceberg was. 

The only way out now is by using the whale song gadget and getting help from the whale. The whale will spit you out to an island where you and the captain will be both in safety. The captain will thank you for saving everyone's lives and this will be the end of your island adventure as you receive the S.O.S island medallion.

Well, that's the end for this guide. I hope you find use for it. If you have any questions or queries, just post a comment below.

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How to make a paper plane

Building planes is serious business. Especially paper planes. I'm writing this post as a tribute to all of the friendly competitions I had with my siblings for the last couple of years building paper planes. Of course they're too young to understand the concept of aerodynamics. But if a kid tells you that it's a plane, it's a plane. Like when a kid hands you a ringing toy phone. No matter how tough-looking you are, you still answer it.

First of all, when you build a paper plane or "paper dart", you have to make sure that it is aerodynamically designed. This means that all the edges should be thin so there would be as less drag as possible. Paper planes tends to be less air resistant if it's thinner in width. A plane with thick width will produce more drag than a plane that is thinner. As a thinner plane will be able to "slice" the air more efficiently, we will use a thinner design for our paper plane.

Some planes have a thicker front end for their wings to stabilize the aircraft but this doesn't apply to planes that is smaller in size i.e. the paper plane.

Basic wing shape or the "airfoil" of the plane.

Thick airfoil

Thin airfoil

Note that we're not making a Cessna 172-esque  wing but a fighter jet one.

When you build your paper plane, always make sure that the edges are as smooth as possible. The smoothness also affects the drag so be sure you take it into account.

Now, the part where we make the plane. There are lots of  ways to make a paper plane. The design can range from simple to extremely complicated. Today, the first one we will make is the classic "Belly Button Glider". This type of paper plane is moderately easy to make and the only material you will need for this is only the paper itself.

Instructions:
Belly Button Glider

What you need:
-Paper

To build this plane,
-fold the acquired paper lengthwise:

1. Fold the top corners inward to the center line.

2. Fold the tip down as shown.

3. Fold the left corner to the center line.

4. Fold the top flap to meet the left edge.

5. Fold the top flap layer in half.

6. Unfold the two top layers together as shown.

7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 for the right side. Then fold up the center triangle tip. This tip is known as the belly button.

8. Fold the paper in half lengthwise as done at the start.

9. And finally, make the wing folds.

The completed plane should look like the picture. You can bend the traced back edges to make the nose point upwards while in flight which would slightly give the paper plane longer air time. Of course you can use any light material to make your plane but the most commonly used and highly recommended one is paper. There are a lot of paper plane designs out there that can outbeat this one any day but this classic design is what I kept on making for every "flying competitions" that my siblings have. I always make a plane with this design because it always win. Whether we're judging between the best distance flier or the one with the most flair. This one will always be the best to get the job done.

Lastly, this post is probably too long just to make a simple paper plane. This is the only plane design I'm going to post so I hope you found good use for it. Always remember that when making paper planes, you need to take aerodynamics into account. Make sure the folds are nice and neat and there are no rough edges. Oh, and you can always experiment with paper plane designs and materials so just give it a go. There countless possibilities you can make a plane design. Who knows? you might just discover something completely extraordinary.

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A game from my childhood

Being a kid once, I loved playing uncomplicated games. When I was first introduced to the Internet, I had no idea what it was about. Then one of my friends told me of Poptropica: A fun virtual world that runs in your Internet browser. Now I had no idea how the heck I'm supposed to play it but using the mouse really helped me with that part. Being able to play a game from a browser was an entirely new concept to me, I only played games that came off a CD or was located somewhere in the games section in the start menu. However, the experience was not a bad one as I started to venture farther to the world of online flash games.

Flash games of course needs flash player to run. A game like Poptropica needs the latest Adobe flash player so be sure to update. It's not a game you usually found and play in a console like PS3 or xbox 360 because Poptropica is one of those simple 2D virtual worlds where you can go find places to explore and adventures to complete. Back then, it was more than just graphics for me. Playing this game yesterday, nostalgia hit me in the face like a giant brick. Its not as old as Super Mario but the gameplay keeps reminding me of the good old 2D platform days.

It's a great virtual world for children to explore. You can also interact with other players in multiplayer with pre-scripted chat. The interactive puzzles is probably what I loved the most in this game. I can spend countless hours solving clues and decoding riddles and not be bothered with how much time I'm taking. Best of all, it actually takes a decent amount of skill. Not like a 360 no-scope on COD but actual skills if you get my drift. You will also be required to put your thinking cap on because the puzzles look simple but are more complicated than you think. Most puzzles even require you to do a lot of complicated jumping and back-flipping. But in the end, it will be all worth it. Another island safe from harms way, another mystery solved, another fan of the great deed you've done for society and another evil-doer put to jail. (over cliché I know)

I remember once that I had to go back in time to help Sir Edmund Hillary climb to the top of mount Everest. It was probably the hardest platforming I have ever done. I also remember when I had to be a superhero and take to the skies a battle that will be known for ages. These adventures made a significant meaning to me when I was a kid. It showed me that I can be anything I can dream off; whether someone who defeated the multi-headed Hydra or be the first man to discover a civilization at a new unknown planet. I will cherish those magnificent moments for the rest my  life... Really, I will.

Poptropica is one of those new online worlds for kids that is constantly being updated and kept on having more islands to explore. It's been a while since I last played it and there have been more than a couple of new islands that sprouted. It will definitely take some time to gather all the new medals I can get from every island but by gosh it is going to be worth it. Finally, I would like to take the time to recommend and play this game. It's undeniably a wonderful experience and whether you're a kid or a kid at heart, you'll see how a simple flash game can give you the most amazing experience out of something so simple.

Well, that's my view about Poptropica. Give it a try and you might just like it. It's aimed for children though so the younger you are, the better. Till next time.

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