Welcome back to part two in a series of articles in which I recreate Cauldron Lake Lodge, facing problems ranging from almost falling into oblivion, spontaneously catching on fire and getting distracted and burn lots of stuff.
Accidental yet quite accurate pathetic fallacy:
So we start this build in true typical English weather with us looking out of a window with a bemused expression. As a country, you would think that we would be familiar with this sight, you also think that as a country we might be prepared for snow during the winter...3 inches last year caused the entire transportation system in London to come to a halt with business and schools shut.
Why blocks! We had a beautiful relationship! The issue was easy to correct, but still annoying. All I had to do was to remove the left column of dark wood and add another column in the center. I didn't actually do this until later due to procrastination, but the intention was there!...Also I was distracted by the sunset and at this point, I was too busy narrating this moment like I was Max Payne to care.
Now that the walls and roof were up, I could now focus on putting some furniture in the room! This was actually quite difficult mainly because we were in Minecraft where there are no chairs or tables and everyone gets backache quite often. The only solution I found was to have a wooden block representing the table and wooden stairs making the seats.
Close enough...
Putting the reception desk in, and slowly the project is coming together...Slowly...At least people can now go to a place to complain about the wrongly constructed beams and unusable chairs.
The bottom floor was coming together, so the next place to go was the meeting area on the floor above. This bit was quite fun to do because I managed to scale it up correctly (surprisingly) the first time so I was just adding the content. I'm quite pleased about how it turned out...The bear? Probably less so.
Returning to the bottom floor, I wanted to create the corridor and the room which leads to the area where the player firsts meets Odin and Tor. Now I have a question, how do you make the wooden bear statue in Minecraft?....
...Rawr?
Naturally the next room would be the area in which the player is introduced to Odin and Tor.
When all the walls and floor are installed, the room was suddenly dark. I prefer to set up the room like that before taking away the window blocks.
And the room after the windows had been installed...
The rest of the room was constructed more quickly than the others. The main issue was making sure that everything managed to fit in and there was still room to move. I swear after this level, I am never using wood to build anything ever again, I'm planning on living inside a cave with a pet deer called Geoffrey.
Returning upstairs to avoid the ravenous killer strange-looking bears near the doorway, I got started on the patient rooms. I didn't take a photo of every single one, as I was planning on doing a gallery walk through anyway at the end. But this is what generally happened...
...Just making sure no terrifying bears were after me. Although with the number that were around the original Cauldron Lake Lodge, I'm surprised the bears near the grounds didn't start an uprising. Bears with swords, flashlights, and guns marching towards the building. Or perhaps Nightingale was in fact the bear leader, it would explain the phone call on the tape player at the lodge!
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| Original image from Alan Wake Wiki |
(I need more coffee) They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. No. It's actually having the above image in your article because it fits in perfectly with something you've mentioned.
Moving swiftly along, this terrifying corridor which reminds me somewhat of Legend of Grimrock, another game which should incorporate bears( ...Ok fine, I'll shut up about the bears). This corridor leads to all of the patients' rooms.
One of the fully furnished bedrooms...
And the elevator room, which is down the hall...
The full tour, including the rooms, will appear in the gallery at the end of the article. Where all questions will be answered and a full complementary breakfast will be provided for you at the check-out area.
Now that the main house is pretty much done. All that needs doing is a few final details. For instance, adding the balcony section where Alan meets the painter...
Now for the devastating truth, the scene when Alan discovers the truth; his wife maybe still alive, the manuscript has come true, and the first person to discover goat's milk was indeed very very thirsty.
Hartman's office...
This is taken from the reception area, looking towards the section where Alan meets Barry.
Down that dark, dark ominous corridor...Full of bears.
The small storage area which a conveniently placed supply of flares...
To conclude the photo tour, there's a couple of aerial photos from the level.
This one is taken, from here you can see the one of the corridors leading from the second floor. These corridors don't actually lead anywhere, but in the game you can see through the windows of locked doors and see a long corridor ahead, so this was something that I wanted to incorporate into the Minecraft level.
And the one taken directly from above...
If you've created any Alan Wake related Minecraft levels, be sure to email me and I'll mention it on this site.
