Building Advice from Your Local Purple Slime!
Wrote this out for someone who asked for advice and someone else gave me the idea to post it here for anyone to see (with better formatting)! (Thank you,
@Impostor !)
I am not the best builder out there, but I do have some advice that may help. So, when starting a house, I always gather the blocks I plan to use and place them all around each other in a sort of color pallet. I think the biggest thing that's helped my building is learning that I have such a
sheer amount of different blocks at my disposal and learning to be super experimental with them. Placing any potential block I might use next to others helps me get an idea of what might fit with what, and I
always recommend trying
every idea you have even if you think it might not work (you can always remove the blocks and try again!) How I discover blocks I can use is fairly simple, I just go to the Guide and see what potential things I can make with the basic materials I own (this is how I learned of utilizing Ecto Mist). Also!! Paints will be your best friend throughout all of your builds. There are tons of textures that go super well together but the default colors clash, so using paints to alter blocks will open up a whole new world for color/block combinations (the desert house on the left is almost entirely painted blocks!). For me, I am a lover of detail and tasteful clutter since it makes builds feel so much fuller; if there is room to add more detail, then I will add more detail. Of course, if that's not your style, I highly encourage you to embrace the beauty of simplicity and learning how to make it work.
As for working on the build itself, I always work from broad to specific. I start with a basic wooden outline of the rooms and form of the house (focus on what you want for the silhouette), I will then change the wood into my desired blocks and add doors and platforms where they're needed, then I will either add the furniture
or the walls (it depends on what I have more of a solid idea for), and then I start focusing on the small things and adding clutter. Also, be open for gathering inspiration from other builders! I have a board on Pinterest that has a ton of interesting builds that I like and I will usually pull at least one idea from them and implement it in my own way (the desert town is a huge amalgamation of different ideas I liked from other builds + a bunch of my own!) Sometimes, it can also be good practice to see something you like in someone else's build and try your best to recreate it exactly. As long as you give credit where it's due, then copying is a super good way of learning how certain builds and styles actually work! Then later you can apply that knowledge to your own original build.
As with everything, you gotta be bad at it before you get good (not saying you are bad!! just saying that I also used to thrive on basic shoebox houses lol) and it just takes time to get a good sense of what works. If you find that you're struggling to figure out what you're doing or you're getting frustrated because something just isn't working the way you want, go and do something that isn't building for a while! Take as many breaks as you need (I personally take tons when I build), usually when you revisit something you've been working on with fresh eyes you will be able to see what you were missing or doing wrong. Finally, try to have fun with it! If something turns out hilariously bad, laugh at it and take note of what specifically you don't like, and if something turns out insanely good, be super proud of it!! You deserve to take pride in the work you do!
I'm sorry if this is a little long winded, but I wanted to give a little more than just "practice and get good" since that alone isn't very helpful. I hope whoever reads this is able to learn something from this and if you make something with any of the advice I gave you in mind, please ping me, I would love to see it!!
)
(Sorry for the double post!) I've been doing a long playthrough on a drunk world seed, and here's the desert town I finished today! I am happy that I have this town done and over with since it took me forever jkhdskf
