PULLMAN, WA – A group of Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture students are working to recreate the WSU Pullman campus in the popular video game Minecraft.
The students hope the project will allow prospective students to explore and experience the campus virtually without ever setting foot on it, while giving alumni the chance to walk through campus and relive memories.
“I’ve been meaning to do this since I was freshman. I think it would be really cool for people around the world to walk on WSU’s campus without having to actually be here. But I lacked the motivation to do it all by myself,” said Matthew Johnson, an architecture major who has been playing Minecraft since he was in middle school.
Virtual campus tours are increasingly popular, and in the Minecraft, players use three-dimensional pixels or blocks to explore, gather, and construct buildings, landscapes, and machines.
This project is a culmination of the technical stuff you learn to do in Minecraft and the creative skills of being able to represent WSU Pullman accurately to where it resembles a screenshot.
Alec Kritsonis, student
Washington State University
Johnson’s motivation for the project came from Kacey Gavin, a mechanical engineering student who runs DisCougs, an unofficial WSU Discord server, when she posted about the WSU Block by Block contest hosted by Washington State Magazine. They were joined by Alec Kritsonis, and together, they began recreating the WSU Pullman campus, one building at a time, starting with the Rogers Practice Field. The trio later won the contest.
“Our project has gotten a lot more traction since the contest. We had a ton of people join since the magazine article was published. Yesterday someone hopped in and finished the Insomnia Cookies building. We also have Orton Hall, and we are currently working on the South Dining Hall,” said Kritsonis, who is studying computer science.
Kritsonis developed a program that converts images, like satellite photos of campus buildings, into Minecraft pixel art. This made it easy to accurately scale the buildings, eliminating the need to walk around the campus with a measuring tape, trying to figure out how many Minecraft blocks are needed to build each structure.
“This project is a culmination of the technical stuff you learn to do in Minecraft and the creative skills of being able to represent WSU Pullman accurately to where it resembles a screenshot,” he said.
For Johnson, the experience has been all about building skills and attention to detail. He chose Thompson Hall as one of the first buildings to replicate.
“I started with the massing, the basic outline of the building, and added details once I got more comfortable with the shapes. Then, realizing the limitations of Minecraft, especially how big the blocks are and how little texture I can add, I opted to add a little bit of creative flair,” he said. “When I found out about a telescope that used to be stationed at Thompson Hall, I added a telescope to my build. I love adding tiny details that no one will ever see.”
When asked about the most challenging aspect of this project, the team unanimously agreed that calculating spaces between the buildings and connecting them was most difficult. “It requires a lot of creativity,” said Kritsonis.
The group is recruiting current students and alumni through Discord to help build the rest of the Pullman campus over the summer.
