Building a Minecraft City

The coolest kid-friendly Minecraft projects If you have a Minecraft fanatic on your hands, you're about to be the most popular adult on the "block." Offering young Minecraft enthusiasts the ultimate sandbox experience, Building a Minecraft City gives kids aged 7 – 11 an outlet to enhance their love of the game and take their creative play to new heights. Brought to you by the trusted For Dummies brand, this kid-focused book offers step-by-step instructions and simple explanations for completing projects that will teach your child invaluable new skills—all while having a ton of fun! They'll gain confidence as they design and build truly impressive Minecraft structures, and you'll delight in watching them develop and refine their problem-solving skills as they work on their own. It's a win-win! Features a kid-friendly design that is heavy on eye-popping graphics Focuses on three basic projects that set young readers on the road to further exploration Boasts a small, full-color, accessible package that instills confidence in the reader Introduces basic engineering concepts to kids in a way they can understand Screen time can be as educational as it is fun, and this book shows your child how to approach their favorite game from a new angle to think—and do—outside the box.

Introduction 2 About Minecraft 2 About This Book 3 About You 3 About the Icons 4 Beyond the Book 4 Project 1: Entering Minecraft 5 Registering a Minecraft Account 6 Purchasing and Installing Minecraft 6 Playing the Game 8 Logging in and operating the main menu 8 Starting your first game in SinglePlayer mode 9 Understanding basic controls. 10 Watching the Heads-Up Display (HUD) 15 Project 2: Prebuilding Strategies 17 Building Different Minecraft Buildings 18 Gathering Materials for Construction: Creative Mode 19 Setting up the inventory in Creative mode 20 Using the Creative mode menu 20 Organizing your materials for Survival mode 24 Obtaining a good inventory in Survival mode 25 Organizing your materials in Survival mode 28 Getting Ready to Build in Portable Edition 29 Getting around the structure 30 Using scaffolding 30 Using ladders to scale your structure 32 Location is Everything 32 Building on fun landscapes. 34 Reshaping the landscape 35 Leveling mostly flat surfaces 35 Leveling large structures 36 Wire Framing the Build on Paper. 38 Wire Framing the Build in Minecraft 41 Project 3: Building Your Dream Home 43 Building Your First Building 43 Clearing your building site 43 Choosing your materials 44 Building walls 46 Building a ceiling 49 Building a door 50 Adding light 53 Building Your Dream Home 55 Protecting Your Dream Home 64 Thinking about New Designs 66 Project 4: Building Your Own City 69 Planning Your City 69 Choosing a theme for your city 70 Sketching your city 70 Making Space in Minecraft 71 Outlining your city 74 Connecting the paths 75 Starting Construction. 77 Building a tall building 77 Making a moat 84 Building a simple house 85 Using Commands to Build. 89 Fill command 89 Clone command 90 Playing around with commands 92 Making Your City Unique 92 Project 5: Building City Attractions 93 Fancy Fountains 93 Simple one-block fountain 94 Tall fountains 97 Tall fountains without walls. 100 Wide fountains without walls 103 Water Slides 107 Multiple Story Buildings 112 Roller Coasters 117 Rail types. 117 The structure 117 The track 119 Making Your City Unique 122