Minecraft on the 3DS

Hey guys. Today I will be showing my concept art for Minecraft for Nintendo 3DS. Enjoy!

All images are displayed in their original size to give you, the reader, the most accurate view of each screenshot possible.

Controls 

The controls are different from the consoles due to the lack of a second circle pad, but I think they would be fairly simple to adapt to.

Similar to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare DS, for anyone familiar with that, walking will be controlled with the face buttons. X would be to walk forward, B would control walking backward, and Y and A would move the player left and right respectively. Players can move in a total of 8 different directions along that plane.

Looking around is controlled by the circle pad. Since the circle pad has 360 degree control, I felt that it would give the player the easiest control over how they view things.

Jumping is controlled by pressing up on the D-pad (or with the C-stick, for anyone with a 2015 model New 3DS or a Circle Pad Pro). It's fairly simple to reach, and since it's close to the circle pad (at least on the original 2011 model), it's fairly easy to look around and jump at the same time. This is unlike the Xbox 360 controller, due to the analog stick and face buttons being a good distance apart, as well as the analog stick protruding a good distance out of the controller, forcing the player to hold the controller oddly to do so.

Crouching is easy. All the player must do is double-tap down on the D-pad. This controls similarly to crouching in Pocket Edition, but just a bit easier due to it being a physical button.

Breaking and hitting are controlled using the R trigger. Players can just tap it to break things in creative mode, but they must hold it down in survival or hardcore mode.

Placing blocks, eating food, shooting a bow, or opening a menu is controlled by pressing the L trigger.

The START button opens the idle menu, but more on that later.

The SELECT button changes the touch-screen display, but you'll have to wait for more on that later as well.

The Touch Screen

The inventory is displayed on the touch screen by default. It shows 4 rows of 9 slots, just as it does in native Minecraft for the PC. The selected item has a box surrounding it. Rearranging items in the inventory is simple, by dragging and dropping the items to their desired locations. Players can shift between the main inventory using the left or right arrows on the D-pad, the ZL and ZR buttons on newer 3DS's and Circle Pad Pros, or by tapping them on the touch screen. Items can only be used when highlighted; items can only be highlighted while in the main inventory, which is the bottom row.

As you can see, aside from the default inventory, there are 2 other tabs.

The first of which is crafting. Here, the player can make a decent amount of items using a 2x2 grid, just like in the PC/Mac edition. The inventory cannot be viewed completely at once, so the inventory is scrolled through using a set of up and down arrow buttons. Once the player finally creates an item, that item will show up in the box to the lower-right of the grid. From there, the item is to be dragged into the inventory using the stylus.

The final menu is the armor menu. This menu will allow the player to place armor on their character by sliding them into the designated spots using the stylus. The inventory is the same as it is on the crafting page.

"But wait! What about the creative inventory? These 3 menus certainly don't look very creative-friendly!" is, I'm sure, what you are saying to yourself right now. And you are correct. Creative mode has a special inventory that looks similar to the Pocket Edition inventory. Each item is categorized the same, and it works very similarly to the regular inventory.

The final touch-screen feature is activated using the SELECT button. Pressing the button will toggle a map to display. Pressing it again will change the screen back to the default inventory. Unlike all other versions of the game, the character does not need the map item to view the map. In fact, the map item is unavailable altogether.

The Menu 

The Main Menu is fairly simple to navigate, as it must be to fit onto the 3DS screen.

The title screen is very simple. The top screen displays a sky graphic with the title
"Minecraft for Nintendo 3DS" The touch screen only displays 3 buttons: "Singleplayer," "Multiplayer," and "Options..." First, we'll go through the singleplayer menu.

The Singleplayer Menu

The singleplayer main menu consists of 3 buttons: "Play," "Create," and an arrow that directs back to the main menu.

 Tapping "Play" will display a list of worlds that the user has created, which are all available to be accessed at any time. Worlds are organized with the most-recently played at the top of the list. The world left idle for the longest will be on the bottom. The screen can display up to 3 worlds on each slide. Slides are changed using a set of up and down arrows.

 Selecting a world will boot the game as regular.

Now let's go back to the screen before.

Tapping create will open a menu allowing the player to create a new world. All worlds must be named before they are created. Settings brings up a menu of more advanced world creation options.

 

  

Settings shows a few options. This includes the seed; the game mode, including Survival mode, Creative Mode, and Hardcore mode (This currently can't be changed, but I'm brainstorming ways to get around this.); and world type, including Default, Superflat, and Limited (a default world that is sized 2000 long, 2000 wide, and 256 tall).

The default settings are a randomly generated seed, Survival mode, and a Default world.




Tapping "Create World" on either of these screens will create a world and spawn the player in it as soon as possible.


The Multiplayer Menu

Tapping this menu will allow the player to use 3 multiplayer modes; Download Play, meaning that only one person needs a copy of the game for 2-3 people to play (Limited worlds only); Multi-card Play, where a host can play any of his/her worlds with up to 9 others so long as they have their own copies of the game; and Online play, where anyone can host a world online for up to 10 people, and server hosts can hold up to 64 players on a world at a time.

If the text on the Touch Screen looks a bit off on the Multiplayer images, you eyes aren't deceiving you. These were the first images I made, and I hadn't completely understood the font program I was using.

On the Download Play menu, the host must wait for 1 or 2 others to join. After at least 1 person accepts, the host selects a limited world from the world menu. If no limited world exists, the host will be asked to create one.

 

I know that it says Singleplayer on the top, but you get the point.

After that, the game will boot as normal.


Tapping multi-card play will allow the player to either host or join. Tapping "Host" will allow the player to choose any of their worlds to play on. Anyone within the 3DS's local multiplayer signal range can join at any time until the 10-player limit is reached.

Tapping "Join" will allow any user to join another player's world. Worlds are organized alphabetically by the host's username (Miiverse name/NNID).

Selecting any name will allow the user to join the game that they chose as soon as possible, spawning them at a location within 100 blocks of the host.

On the online menu, players can choose to play on other users' worlds or on servers. Users can share their maps by connecting their NNID's with Minecraft.net and will go online by selecting their own name from the user list. Servers are hosted on a computer for a low price.

Tapping "Users" will display all users currently online. If you are hosting, you will play in singleplayer mode until someone else joins. Users can host their world for up to 9 other players. Once the 10-player limit has been reached, the name will disappear from the list. It will reappear once a player leaves. Names are arranged alphabetically.

Tapping "Servers" will display a list of all active servers. Servers are hosted by Mojang and 4J Studios, but can be created by anyone for a small price per month. Servers can hold up to 64 players per world; unlike the users' menu, the name will be marked in red once full. Servers are active at all times unless the creator decides otherwise. They are ordered alphabetically.

The Options Menu

The options menu is a lot simpler than the Multiplayer menu. There are 2 options: Skins and Settings.

Tapping skins will allow users to choose from dozens of skins. This roster will include traditional Minecraft skins like Steve, Alex, and Villagers; and skins of characters from popular Nintendo franchises like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, Splatoon, Donkey Kong, and more. Skins are navigated using left and right arrows.

I couldn't find any good skins of Minecraft characters on PMC to screenshot, so this is what I got.

Settings is a bit different. In the Settings menu, players can toggle perspective and sounds. Tapping the Perspective button once will allow the player to change the view. It is in first-person mode by default; tapping once will change to second-person, a front view of the player; tapping it a second time will change it to third-person, a rear view of the player; tapping it a third time will reset the perspective to first-person. Tapping the Sound button will toggle how loud the sounds are. Sounds are at medium volume by default; tapping once will make them loud; tapping twice will make them quiet; tapping thrice will turn the sounds off; tapping a fourth time will set the sounds back to medium.

The Idle Menu

If the player closes their 3DS or presses START at any point during gameplay, the idle menu will appear. From there, users can continue playing, toggle the settings menu, or save the world and exit to the main menu. The map will always display in the background of the Idle Menu. The top screen will display the Minecraft logo over the game while playing in Singleplayer mode or on a server.

Playing using Download Play, Multi-card Play, or on a user's world online will result in a different idle menu. Instead, the game will be blocked off by a list of all joining users in the world, ranging from 1 to 10. The host's name will appear on the bottom of the touch screen.

All Menus

On any Singleplayer, Multiplayer, or Options menu screen, tapping the back arrow in the bottom-left corner of the touch screen will bring the user to the previous page. Holding the button will bring the user back to the main menu.

On any Idle menu, tapping Save and Quit will bring the user back to the main menu.

Exclusives

All Minecraft versions have exclusives. The 3DS version will do the same.

Currently, there are 4 village types; regular, desert, savannah, and taiga. All will return (the latter 3 shown below), but there will be 2 others as well.

Villages found in snowy biomes such as the ice plains will be made primarily of snow and ice. Since there are no ice steps, the stairs will be made of thin snow layers built up to create a slab.

Villages found in mesa biomes will be made primarily out of clay, with just a bit of sandstone.

So that's all I have for today. I will likely update this in the future, but in case I don't, goodbye!