New Minecraft video reveals the process behind adding a new structure

Minecraft has been one of the most popular games for more than 15 years which is quite an achievement. One of the reasons why the game has managed to stay in the limelight when many others failed is the constant updates to keep the game fresh and exciting. Every year, players expect and ask for new content, mobs, items, and biomes, and Mojang Studios obliges with their updates. Now we know how the team plans, prepares, and implements new features in the game.

In a fun yet detailed video released on YouTube on Minecraft’s official channel, the developers explained the process behind adding a new level or area in the game, and it shows how much planning and preparing these updates take.

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Behind the scenes of adding new structure in Minecraft

The nearly 7-minute-long video shows the process of how the team adds new structures to the game, especially the recently added trial chambers in the Tricky Trials update. The video focuses on the level designs in the game, from the concept art creation to the structure of the game.

Not only that, but the developers and level designers implement different ideas and themes into these structures. The video shows how the trial chambers were designed to evoke a sense of curiosity and overcome challenges with their labyrinth-like structure and closed spaces.

The video then shows perhaps the most interesting bit about level design in the game, mixing procedural generation with level design. We know that Minecraft is a large game; finding the game borders by just traversing the game would take months at best. This is all possible as the structures are procedurally generated.

The trial chambers (Image via Mojang Studios)

But the video reveals that things are not that simple. While the structures and levels are procedurally generated, there is also a level design ‘blueprint’ of sorts that guides the algorithm to make random structures within a frame. This is the reason why areas such as the trial chambers or ocean monuments are different from the inside, yet have a similar overall structure.

The video then talks about how the levels are designed so that players have to use the entire 3D space around them. The threats (and rewards) are everywhere. What’s funny is how the title cards for each section of the video quips about various things.

For example, the title “Use all your 3D space!” has a subtext that says “Because it's not like a 2D version of Minecraft would ever be popular.” This refers to the success of Terraria, a 2D scrolling game that is inspired by Minecraft.