A Beginner's Guide to Minecraft

Minecraft is a PC sandbox game by Markus Persson and is still in development as of 2011. In it's beta stages, the alpha state of Minecraft was sold for under $15.00 to people who wanted to test it. Knowing about Minecraft and what makes it interesting is a beginning step in playing it yourself.

Basic Information
The game takes place in a 3D environment where everything is in block-shape. Although it may look like a low-quality game from the 1980s, Minecraft encompasses creativity and freedom to do as you please. You are able to bust up a variety of items such as rock, sand and trees and you must gather resources from these items. Wood, coal, clay and a wide range of other materials help in your endeavors.

Crafting
Crafting is the most creative part of playing Minecraft. With your crafting dashboard you are able to combine different amounts of your available resources to create new items. For example combining coal with sticks creates torches for lighting your way while the environment is dark. These crafting variations are called recipes.

Recipes range from basic to complicated and you are able to make anything from torches and blocks for building to boats for seafaring and meals to keep your character's health nourished. You can even create weapons and armor to help in defending yourself against monsters.

Foes
The world of Minecraft is frightening in the dark. Spiders, zombies and bow-wielding skeletons await you when the sun goes down in your 3D environment. It's best to create as many torches as you can and light an area around your base-camp as large as you can. This keeps the monsters from spawning near your environment. It doesn't necessarily keep them from wandering into your camp, but if you keep them from spawning nearby you have a chance to continue building your safe-haven.

Building
It's your world, and building is a large part of playing Minecraft. In fact, if you don't begin building a shelter immediately, the monsters can terrorize you at night, making it impossible for you to mine for resources when the sun is down. Making use of a wide range of crafting recipes you can create structures out of brick, sand, glass and other materials. Be careful though, because sand shelters tend to cave-in when monsters attack.

Downloading Minecraft Skins
Minecraft skins are usually free and found easily on a variety of websites and forums. The game was designed to accommodate the use of skin downloads, so no modding or software knowledge is required to achieve this. Simply locate the skins folder of your installed game and then save the downloaded skin to the folder. Once you open the game and click the skins tab, you will be able to select from the Minecraft skins you have download.

Multiplayer Mode
Just like Minecraft Alpha, Minecraft Beta provides players with an online multiplayer option. This allows you to enter other players' worlds to see what they've been building. Some worlds are locked from alterations, but other worlds are designed to let you customize what the other player has created. This makes Minecraft an enjoyable, interesting and unique game to try out.