I loved going to malls with my mom, Central WOrld, is my most favorite. I went to a restaurant, me, my brother and my mom used to sit one seating area in the restaurant beside one table that had a mom and a dad and a kid. But she was playing on her iPad, on Mini World: Block Art, she had a Wushuang skin on and she was in a creation mode room with a Fine Bird Mount that she probably bought from the shop. I screamed, "Hey, she's playing Mini World!" but then she gave me dirty looks. I regretted to tell the tale but that was worth it for my memory.
Back in 2016 I used to play bootleg Minecraft just because I am a kid and too lazy to collect money. But one day I found a trailer in Google's Play Store and you knew it. IT WAS MINI WORLD! The graphics are nice, similar to ps3 games, the models are lowpoly and it looked like I found a land filled with hearts and charms. Lots of skins are my HUGE favorite, I was only 7 and they released Dragonet and Wushuang (Was it her name?) for the first time. I met alot of 2nd graders who abused the age settings just to get the voice feature. And to be fair I was one of the kids.This was the first time ever in my life I first heard of Dropper and Parkour maps; AlfNotMe was one of the first to build that, I was sad that he (pretty sure it was a he) went inactive. Pretty much upset by this, I found lots of more gems. Find the key, My Creation Room, Christmas maps with rollercoasters and music circuits in it. And I met the guy who built and made an adaptation of HK1, I forgot the name of the game but it is a horror game, and that was when custom functions and flags and area configuration was added.
By the time I started playing this, most of the players are kids and people who played Minecraft before. The Mini World Youtube account used to post alot of nice, and I REALLY MEAN PERFECT trailers of leaks and skin releases. By far my favorite was MMD's of the characters dancing to songs. Other than that I used to download or go to one map that showcased the World Trade Center (A smaller one) by a Chinese user and I built a sub-Saharan salon on grass infested with sheeps. And I thought the 8 default blocks are meant to be used.
There's this question floating around over the past years... what is the story behind this game?
Mini World started development some time in 2013 or was it 2015? There was a beta version of late 2014 Mini World, the models were kinda PS2-ish. The aim was to get kids creative, not that it caused an uproar in Minecraft communities. There were old NPCs, I found a blue creature that was ripped from the files and an old cart (Thank you, Mini World Museum!), also some old items that no longer exist. It first got popular around middle and late 2017, whereas 2018 was the golden age of Mini World. Maps would literally rock the whole *Earth.
* As of 2024 maps are no longer creative and people resort to illegal content. It sucks to hear that. Hopefully this resolves soon.
Mini World: Block Art is developed by Mini Devil, later Shenzhen Miniwan. The team used to be small but later on formed more than 1000 employees but at least not universal like Starr Park. Sometime in the end the license goes to a Taiwanese company. The craziest thing that this company got outside to street vendors outside the headquarters, one guy from somewhere in this world leaked an update that thunder weather is going to be added, and it is true.
The game was most popular in Thailand and Vietnam. Leaks usually come from Vietnamese players, then the second it arrives Thailand already stacked the news. I forgot to mention that it is also popular in Spainish communities and some parts of America; Most talented builders are from there. But to be honest by the time i found out that UnknowMing was from Singapore I realised there are a few Singaporean players. And due to the size of Indonesia's population it was also part of Mini World's Asian community.
This might not be relative to the overview, I want to say something. The old concept of Mini World: Block Art and yes I refuse to call it Mini World: Creata is centered around graphic appealing and functions. Layouts would clutter to look useful and much to see. The landing UI is heavily decorated and there used to be a gallery function in the user profiles but they removed it because kids would put political pictures on it. By far in the turn of 2021 they changed the whole interface to modern minimalist. And, trying to be concise, I LOATHE IT. I just want that one pop-up that said "Host is on the call, please wait" and its them tabbing out of their screens and gone offline, now we have to deal with art and functions pulled away.
Sorry for some prejudice against them, they had to do it for the sake of optimization and standards. And mentioning "Host is on the call", The game's UI also had differences. When loading your creation room, your torture map, or going to your friend's creation land, there are bottom texts that vary. I remember "We recommend doing your homework first, after that playing Mini World will be more happier" and something that goes along the lines of "Mons will go out at night, beware!". To me the doing your homework is extremely threatening because why would I constantly thinking over what I learned? it feels nerve-wracking to do it.
