Last fall semester, Anastasia deFerbrache, senior education major, was talking with one of her roommates, Miranda Pfahler, a senior social work major, about Geek Off, an annual event at the college library where students showcase their talents through the creation of unique projects. As a joke, Pfahler suggested deFerbrache build the Goshen College campus on Minecraft for the competition. This casual conversation would later spark a much larger idea.
When deFerbrache mentioned the Minecraft idea to her dad, Jason deFerbrache, he immediately ran with the concept. Jason deFerbrache was already a fan of the game, playing casually over the years, but had never taken on a project of this scale.“A lot of people in my family play it,” Anastasia deFerbrache said about Minecraft. “I think he started the day I told him.”
The deFerbrache’s were not familiar with GC before Anastasia deFerbrache began studying here. During visits, her family would often join her for lunch at the campus dining hall. “My dad loves Westlawn,” she said. “He loves their food.”
In preparation for building the Minecraft campus, Jason deFerbrache went the extra mile, studying the college campus through Google Earth to make sure that the virtual version would be as accurate as possible.
The process of building the virtual campus started by mapping out the campus layout. Anastasia and Jason deFerbrache focused on the paths, carefully replicating the walkways and roads. “We mapped out the corner by Westlawn where Main Street is all the way to the direct opposite corner,” Anastasia deFerbrache said.
Next, they began on the key buildings. “We started with Kulp, Westlawn and AD building,” Anastasia deFerbrache explained. “We squared that out, and then started from there.” Besides transforming a real-life campus into a square world, building the Minecraft campus had other amusing challenges. Anastasia deFerbrache joked about the difficulty of keeping the virtual campus free from random animal visitors. “Occasionally, we’d have a cow or a pig wander onto campus, and we’d have to shoo them away,” she said.
One of Anastasia deFerbrache’s favorite details was adding caution tape by the Westlawn area as a fun touch. “I put it there as a joke to the judges,” she said.
Meanwhile, her dad took pride in adding real-life details to the build, like the vines that drape over some of the buildings. “He bragged about that for a little bit,” Anastasia deFerbrache said.
After it was finished, people were impressed by the Minecraft campus. Anastasia deFerbrache loved hearing reactions like, “Hey, I recognize that!” It was clear that the project made an impact, but she felt that not everyone fully understood. “I don’t think everyone got the breadth of it,” she said, noting that the competition pictures only showed a small part of what had been built.
Looking back, Anastasia deFerbrache admitted that if she could have changed one thing about the project, it would have been to invite more collaboration with the build.
But the project isn’t finished yet, and Anastasia deFerbrache is already thinking about the future. “I’m looking for someone to hand this off to,” she said, hoping the Minecraft campus will continue to grow after she graduates. “I hope it will be around a lot longer than just my time here,” she said.
