Minecraft UW
HCDE 403
Chris, Peter, Jonathan, Elliott (Team Minecraft)
12
Group Project Report
HCDE 403
Chris, Peter, Jonathan, Elliott
1
Planning Phase:
Problem Statement: Using Minecraft to develop a near 1:1 model of the University of Washington. This
will teach important aspects project management towards dealing with limitation in tools, and
cooperation with an intermittent system.
Project mission statement: Developing a scale model of the UW campus in Minecraft to be presented to
our 403 class and teach our group project management fundamentals.
Project objectives:
1. Plan the initial design of the model, what parts of campus the team will build.
2. Setup the server and learn how to use Minecraft.
3. Lay out the initial foundation of each building, pathway, and other major parts.
4. Add elevation to the model.
5. Build all parts of the model.
6. Present our finished model to stakeholders.
List of stakeholders:
1. Class and professor – For the deliverable and demonstrating our understanding of project
management.
2. UW Minecraft club – A custom map of the UW Campus allows for the club to start up projects
that could involve said campus.
3. Minecraft community – The general players of Minecraft.
a. Developers
b. Modders
c. Players
4. UW Students – School events could be planned around using the map in a UW hosted server.
Project work requirements:
1. Minecraft Video game software – The software is required to both create and use the map.
2. Bulk editing software – MCedit was used for this project. This program allows for creation and
movement of extremely large sections of “blocks” in the game itself. Considered third-party,
and not a true part of Minecraft.
3. Skype communication – For meetings that are outside of the classroom, as well as discussing the
project while working in the game itself.
4. Map of UW campus – Multiple maps and pictures are required to keep the campus as accurate
as possible.
a. Google maps
b. Personal pictures
c. Facility blueprints
Exit criteria:
1. Plan of what will be modeled and a Minecraft server setup so work can begin.
Group Project Report
HCDE 403
Chris, Peter, Jonathan, Elliott
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Finished layout of the foundation of major parts of the model.
Finished elevation of the entire map.
All buildings and front façade finished, map is ready for a walk through.
All deliverables finished including report and presentation.
Work breakdown structure (WBS): The final goal of the project is to create the UW Campus in the world
of Minecraft. Each step we must take builds upon what the previous step accomplished. For example,
to build Mary Gates, we must have the outline of where it will go on the map. However, because of this
setup, it is very difficult to go back down the tree once we have climbed upwards, making this example a
waterfall design project.
Gantt chart and network diagram: The first paragraph displays our original vision for the project,
encompassing research, starting up a server, foundation, elevation, building, and presentation. With an
additional week of time added for completion, our scale of work increased to allow for more time to
build than to design. Unfortunately, we learned that designing the layout for everything on the
university, as well as take into account Minecraft’s limitations in creating shapes, causes the designing
process to take up a much larger portion than originally intended. The final chart displays the actual
time all elements took in the project.
Group Project Report
HCDE 403
Chris, Peter, Jonathan, Elliott
3
Risk areas:
 Scope too big – Too many buildings or too much to work with will cause the project to fall short
of where the goal is.
 Team members not doing enough work – This is a large project; all team members will be
required to work in order to accomplish the task on time.
 Minecraft sever crashes – In order to work on the map, it must be hosted on a server. If the
server crashes, all production is halted until the map is online again.
 Minecraft angle and elevation issues – Minecraft does not work well with curves, and has a strict
“block” element; this can cause issues during the design and build of the structures.
 External factors – These can range from Minecraft itself no longer working, map being lost due
to hardware failure, etc.
Execution Phase:
For our project we designed and developed a scale model of UW’s campus in Minecraft, specially the
quad, red square and fountain areas of the campus. To do this we initially set up a dedicated sever in
Minecraft and played under creative mode. Minecraft allows the user to build structures piece by piece
laying down one block at a time. A basic foundation and outline of the entire map was made and then
elevation added to simulate the elevation of UW’s campus. Then buildings were made and other
ascetics such as trees and pathways were added to finish the model.
Our design method uses a waterfall style, as opposed to agile. The group went step by step for
accomplishing each task, and did not continue to the next portion until the previous one had been
accomplished. One of the main reasons for a waterfall approach was for how Minecraft is played. In
the game, each block is placed by the player individually, with no method to grab, move, and delete,
large amounts of placed blocks. Anything that we placed would most likely be final. The exception to
this rule was for placing the elevation and adding extremely large portions of blocks, in which the thirdparty software known as MCedit was used.
The final result was the full design of the campus’s three main sections: fountain, Red Square, and the
Quad. Despite delays, hardships, and uncertainty at times, the team persevered and accomplished the
goal that it set out to create. All steps that were required (host the server, design the layout, elevate,
build) were completed successfully.
Group Project Report
HCDE 403
Chris, Peter, Jonathan, Elliott
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The map itself can be found at https://rapidshare.com/files/3656554167/UW_Campus.zip (requires
Minecraft to view).
Re-planning phase:
Problems:
 The actual building phase took longer than expected.
 Red square is at an angle in real life, it was hard to account for in Minecraft.
 Staying on project timelines/milestones.
Actual construction of the project was delayed due to differences in personal schedules and workable
hours. This required a change in how team meetings occurred. This is due to the original plan of iterating
on designing and building. However, with more time building and less time designing, aspects of
aesthetic details were pushed to later on in the schedule.
Some initial debate on how to fix structure creation was solved a quarter into the project. Buildings in
Minecraft cannot be at non 90 degree angles. Both Red Square and The Quad were at angles. Changing
them to 90 degree turns required some changes to the building layout and presentation. Also, this
challenge changes the class presentation of the world created.
There were a number of issues that the group as a whole ran into. While there was a unified sense of
scale for feet to block (3 feet = 1 block), there were times where what one person intended during the
creation was interpreted differently by other group members. For example, during the creation of the
Quad’s layout, the designer determined the area to be from the edge of Red Square to the stairs at the
Group Project Report
HCDE 403
Chris, Peter, Jonathan, Elliott
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other end. Other members took part in creating the layouts and construction of the halls located there.
Because of the lack of communication, the far end of the Quad is stretched out much farther than in
reality. Further examples can be seen in creation of other buildings where the layout and construction
were created by two or more different people.
Following this chain, the individual members of the group worked separately on the layout of the map
and construction itself. While this allows for the design process to be completed at a faster rate, and
the group agreed to each person working on a separate part (Quad, Red Square, etc.), it would result in
each building and design having its own style that reflected the person who built it, rather than a unified
campus.
To solve these previous issues, a stronger sense of communication and regular meeting times would
allow for the group to synchronize their plans with the others. It would allow for consistent building
plans and styles, scale, and other possible issues that would arise. Having regular scrum meetings, for
example, would have been a perfect implementation for the group as a whole.
A feature that would have been added to the project but was scrapped was a specialized texture pack
for the map. A texture pack for Minecraft changes how each block looks to the user. The original plan
was to change a number of blocks to reflect different styles of bricks, walls, grass, and other material
suited to make each building look accurate. Due to time constraints and wanting the map to be
recognizable in the default texture pack, this idea was shelved partway through. However, an upcoming
feature for Minecraft will allow players to download a texture pack directly from the server hosing a
map; this would allow for everyone visiting the map to view it in the same style, and would be
implemented in a future attempt at this project.
Given more time and resources, we could create the full campus in true 1:1 scaling, where the buildings
would not be arranged to best convenience (Quad and fountain 90 degrees apart), the structures are
not just frames, and each building has an interior. This type of project is of a much larger scope, but the
accomplishment we have made with our current model could be one step towards the full UW campus.
New Work breakdown structure: The new work breakdown structure is similar to the original. The
changes that were made were very minor including:
 Additional buildings that surround the area that was created in the first draft.
 Collaboration on what each scale should be.
 The creation of a texture pack that would make the map even more similar to the campus we
visit each day.
Group Project Report
HCDE 403
Chris, Peter, Jonathan, Elliott
6
New Gantt chart and network diagram: with critical path identified.
Conclusion:
Many concepts learned and discussed in project management were valuable in the creation and
execution of this project. Most importantly towards the success of this project were the Agile’s scrum
meetings. It was a good method to keep everyone on track while completing a project that was
seemingly waterfall. While this could have been done more regularly, it did accomplish enough to keep
the group on track and complete the project successfully.
Due to our project having a very waterfall like approach it was crucial that team members were all on
the same page during the entire project. This was done by communicating constantly what was being
accomplished by individual team members so work did not overlap or conflict and to make sure all parts
of the project were being worked on and completed in a timely manner. It was helpful to work on the
actual project together by having a group Skype call and working in the game together. This allowed for
better communication and more importantly a way for each other to bounce ideas off one another. It
was often easier to stay on task and build parts of the model faster and at a higher level of detail when
our entire group could meet online due to the improved communication it allowed. For example, having
a scrum and assigning the task of building a specific building worked well, but having all members online
during the execution of that building allowed for questions to be quickly answered, feedback given, and
help with the actual design, which lead to a more successful design.
The main surprise for the project in general was how unprepared the group was for the design and
foundation process taking much longer than originally anticipated. As can be seen on the original Gantt
chart, the foundation process was to take less than a week to finish, devoting the rest of the time to
building the project itself. This puts the concept of “double the expected time” into perspective, as in
Group Project Report
HCDE 403
Chris, Peter, Jonathan, Elliott
7
doing so, we would have allowed for a smaller scale to ensure that the project would have been
completed.
From that surprise, the members of Team Minecraft agree that biggest takeaway from this endeavor is
to give time for the unexpected. Time estimates for a successful attempt can be made quickly and
often, but actually accomplishing said task is another issue. When you take into account schedules,
familiarity with the materials, miscalculations, and other factors, a “simple” timeframe like the one
created for this project can be skewed greatly. Without the extension, the final result of our hard work
would be a large number of lines in the ground of a digital world. Surprises in how long something will
be can be taken the opposite direction as well. Our time estimate for constructing all of the buildings
was twice that of how long it actually took the group.
Minecraft is a game that lets the user create whatever world they want, from a castle to the Starship
Enterprise. The members of Team Minecraft have took our vision of the UW campus and implemented
it into a digital world. Through the good and bad, there have been a number of lessons that we have
learned in relation to project management. A simple game with a simple premise has allowed us to gain
experience in what will help shape the rest of our lives.