The chaos around sandbox games in the industry didn't affect Lucas at all.
The promotion plan for Minecraft, as well as the timeline, had already been fully set.
Right after New Year's Day, on January 3rd, which was also the first day of the lunar month, Minecraft would begin single-player testing.
Multiplayer wouldn't be opened yet, only basic friend co-op and single-player, running for five days.
Then, on February 1st it would officially launch worldwide.
Lucas had already finalized the promotional strategy with Ethan.
Besides regular ads, this time they needed a special approach: showing off jaw-dropping builds in Minecraft, along with some simple redstone creations.
To put it plainly, it was about showing off skills.
The goal was to let players see exactly what Minecraft was and what they could actually do in it.
This wasn't really a new trick.
After all, game promotion always follows the same basic idea.
Just like how some games start by giving players a "nostalgia blast," where they begin at max level with full gear.
Why?
To build up anticipation. To make players look forward to what's coming, and let them see that the game has exciting content waiting for them later on.
The same idea applies to game trailers and movie previews—they're all about getting people excited for what's ahead.
The only difference with Minecraft was that all the content had to be built by Lucas and his team themselves.
But the good news was that Matthew and the team over at Galaxy Intelligent Technology had made big progress in AI.
Lucas figured this was probably because the countdown progress bar was almost at its end, which had pushed them into a frenzy of patent filings. Galaxy Intelligent Technology was basically going all out.
They couldn't compare with the world's top AI labs, since they weren't even working in the same field. What Lucas wanted them to focus on was in-game behavior.
Compared to the stiff results when they used it in Dark Souls: Age of Fire, the improvement was huge.
Thanks to Matthew's tech, Lucas developed a tool for fast building.
There had been similar tools in the previous world, saving lots of time.
But with Galaxy Intelligent Technology's AI, things became even easier. You could design something in the software, and then have the AI generate it in the editor's backend.
Of course, overly complex builds still had to be done manually by Lucas and his team.
Even so, it saved a lot of time, which gave Lucas the confidence to promote Minecraft this way.
Later, they could also use it to release official landmark builds from time to time.
As for the tool itself, Lucas had no plans to release it. Even if he did, players wouldn't be able to use it, since it required AI computing resources—unless they paid.
But aside from a few rich players, Lucas figured most people wouldn't be able to afford it. So instead, he planned to release simpler tools like "WorldEdit."
After finishing part of one building project, Lucas stretched and got ready to check out Hector's progress.
At this point, Minecraft's content was already complete. Dark Souls still had the Ringed City and Painted World DLC left, but there was no rush. They were already in progress, and releasing them at the three-year anniversary would be just fine.
For now, everyone at the company was involved in building houses, and today was the first day.
But Lucas didn't really expect them to build anything impressive. His plan was to use tools to make the main templates himself, then hand the finished models to them so they could make small changes and fill in the details.
When he arrived at the project room, he saw everyone sitting in a row, all with Minecraft on their screens.
They looked like they were working in perfect sync, talking back and forth.
"I'm done here. Hector, you handle the inside."
"No problem!"
"Anna, is the foundation ready?"
"Don't worry, I've got it!"
Hearing their back-and-forth chatter, Lucas was surprised.
Could it be he had underestimated them?
But as soon as he walked closer, Lucas fell silent.
"Wait… are you guys building the pharaoh's pyramid from ancient Egypt?" he finally asked after looking at their screens.
Everyone froze at his words. A pyramid?
That wasn't right—they had thought about that idea before but decided against it.
Then they quickly realized what Lucas meant. A pyramid?
Wasn't that basically saying their building looked ugly, like a pharaoh's tomb?
Everyone immediately protested. "Lucas, come on, this is the product of our combined creativity! It's not some tomb."
Anna jumped in too. "Exactly! You're underestimating us! You may know more about game design, but you don't know architecture like we do. Sure, it looks rough now, but we based it on the Musée d'Orsay in France. At first we wanted to build the Forbidden City or maybe the Mogao Caves, but that felt too difficult, so we decided to start with something simpler."
Based on the Musée d'Orsay?
Lucas quietly opened a search engine, pulled up a photo of the museum, and then looked back at the big lump in front of Anna and the others.
No matter how he looked at it, he couldn't see any connection between the two.
The Musée d'Orsay… where did they even get the confidence to say that?
"Forget it, I'll fix it for you," Lucas sighed, sitting down at Anna's spot.
He first turned up the movement speed in the game, then began building quickly and smoothly using the tools.
Everyone crowded around him, watching.
His speed was way faster than theirs.
The only question was—what exactly was he building?
"This doesn't look like a house."
"Is Lucas making a statue?"
"I get it!"
"What do you get, Anna?"
"A statue! Remember, there are lots of sculptures outside the Musée d'Orsay."
"Wait, Lucas has been there? He doesn't even need reference photos?"
They kept guessing as they watched.
After about twenty minutes, Lucas placed the last block, let go of the mouse, and clapped his hands. "Done!"
Everyone fell silent as they stared at the structure.
"Lucas really did build a statue, just like Anna said."
"Yeah, and not just any statue—it's one of the most famous cultural relics of ancient Egypt."
"The Great Sphinx!"
"So Lucas… are you trying to hint at something here?"
Looking at the lifelike Sphinx Lucas had just built, everyone exchanged awkward glances.
Wasn't this basically saying their building looked like a pile of graves?
"Ahem, I didn't say that. You're the ones saying it," Lucas coughed lightly.
Everyone was speechless.
Did he even need to say it? This wasn't a hint anymore—it was straight-up calling it out.
But then again, taking a closer look now… it really did look that way!
A blocky structure, dirt mixed with stone, completely sealed off for now since they hadn't added windows yet—it looked airtight, and all it needed was torches inside for lighting. Wasn't that exactly like the tombs shown in archaeology documentaries?
Anna stared for a few seconds, especially at the Sphinx in front of her, feeling a bit unsure.
As she looked at the Sphinx, the image of the Orsay Museum in her mind started to slowly change.
After thinking for a moment, Anna turned to her colleague and said, "How about… we change it a little?"
"Change it?"
"Maybe we could make it a pyramid instead? It also seems easier to build!" Anna suggested.
"And you have to understand, changing building plans is totally normal." Anna explained.
"Oh, come on, Anna!" Rachel couldn't help but say.
Hector and the others also sighed with the same feeling.
During the development of Minecraft, everyone had truly experienced the fun of the game.
But when it came to building houses, they never turned out the way you imagined!
(End of The Chapter)
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