Minecraft Survival Journal

A NOTE BEFORE WE BEGIN: Read the following directions carefully. Anyone doing something different from the assignment will be kicked off the program and will not have the opportunity to do the Minecraft extra credit.

worth 3 points/day!

Play Minecraft in survival mode on either the "normal" or "hard" difficulty settings. Do not use mods or special commands (bonus chests, command blocks, "/summon", etc). You must play solo. As you begin the game, it will be daytime. Play for one day/night cycle, snapping screenshots on interesting things as you proceed (buildings you're making, monsters, interesting plants, ruins, etc). 

In a Google Docs document, title the first page DAY ONE and write at least three paragraphs (3-4 sentences each) in the first person as if you are the main character of the video game about his journey to survive in this world. Include at least three pictures per day that relate to your text. Be sure to wrap the pictures!

At the end of EVERY SINGLE DAY (that is to say, before it becomes light again), you must quit and start writing. You cannot play for more than one day without writing about the day. You may play for a maximum of five days/five journal entries. If you're underground and you don't know if it's day or night, know that a day/night cycle is 20 minutes in Minecraft. If you've been playing for 20 minutes, write a journal entry.

Survival in Minecraft is hard! Be sure to build a structure in which to live as soon as you can...at least before nightfall!

So what happens if you die? Continue the narrative on the following day with a mystery! "Day 2: I remember my fight with the skeleton and the feeling of his arrow piercing my body...but as I woke up today, on a seemingly different island with no trace of my previous house in sight, the wound was...gone. How strange."

If you're trying to take screenshots, press the F2 button at the top of your keyboard. If you're trying to find your screenshots, do the following:

1. Check your desktop for a folder called "screenshots - Shortcut." If you find it--congrats! That's it.

2. If it's not there, press the Start button and then "Computer."

3. In the address bar, type "%appdata%" (without the quotation marks).

4. Click minecraftedu, then minecraft. You'll see a folder inside called screenshots.

5. Right click on the folder, press "Create shortcut," and drag the new folder to your desktop. Your screenshots will now live on the desktop!

Mr. Alexander's DAY ONE example is here.

Can I do this extra credit from home?: MAYBE (do you already have Minecraft on your computer/phone?)