The realization

Before we started building, there was a period of meticulous planning. We picked single sights and analyzed in detail especially distinctive building elements as well as memorable places. During the planning, we had to pay particular attention to the scaling. We could not rebuild the whole city, otherwise we would have gone beyond the limits of the project. That is why we had to connect the most important buildings in an artful manner. Finally, the island has the true shape of Madeira and has a size of about 4000 x 2000 blocks.

One requirement which meant a lot of additional work for us was the involvement of the RTX features in conception and realization. And then, we also wanted to equip the map with a few minigames. Just to make it more attractive for Simon when being the first one to play the map, but also for any other player in the future.

The build

"Madeira in Minecraft" is a map that has been built by Pixelbiester for German youtuber Unge who has chosen to live his life on Madeira. The map reflects various impressions of Madeira’s capital Funchal and its surroundings. You cannot only discover a lot of sights, but also play a few games.

You’ll find there for example a jet ski race, an easter egg challenge and a mirror maze. Of course, if you prefer, you can just relax on the promenade or skate in the park. Just like you’re on holiday.

Gameplay

One main thing in the map are the minigames. We have tried to offer quite a variety of games. There is a Jump and Run, a boat race, a zombie tower defense, and a skate game. We also present a mirror maze in which we demonstrate the new RTX features.

In the livestream, Simon got the task to detect his own mascot (called Schleh). A lot of them were hidden on the map. After each five Schlehs he had found, he was enabled to unlock something, for instance his dog, a car, or a new villa.

The event

Shortly after the release of our own video on the Madeira map, Simon reacted to our clip on his channel. A little later, he was playing the map over three and a half hours in a live stream. For us, it was an outstanding feeling to see how all our insider jokes we had implemented for him worked out. He was partly euphoric and there were lots of things from his daily environment to discover for him.

After hours of playing, Unge came up with his personal conclusion: "This is the most amazing Minecraft map I have ever seen and played in my entire life ... I take a bow to all the work and all the love that is in this map." If you want to watch or rewatch Unge's livestream on our map, you can still do it.

Due to the high demand for our "Madeira in Minecraft" map, we have delivered a version that has been available for everybody on the Minecraft Marketplace since 15th September 2020.