Teens build Vaasa in Minecraft

Minecraft is a popular online game where players can create virtual worlds using blocks and various other features in a three-dimensional environment.

WasaCraft, or Minecraft-Vaasa, was built by children and youngsters participating in a winter holiday camp from 28 February–3 March. The camp was arranged remotely. The participants took part from home, each via their own computer, and communicated via the Discord app.

It is intended that the world built during the winter holiday camp will be used later in Mine clubs and future camps. The WasaCraft world is built on a private server. This means that only those who participate in the youth service’s upcoming camps and clubs can view the game world and make changes in it.

A large 3 x 3 kilometre piece of Vaasa

Before the camp, a real foundation for the Minecraft game was created in Vaasa with the help of open data. Help was also taken from the Geoboxers service.

– The Vaasa that has been built into the Minecraft world comprises an area of ​​approximately 3 x 3 kilometres, namely the city centre, Vöyrinkaupunki, Klemettilä and part of Palosaari and Kotiranta, explains youth spokesperson Pia Kokko.

The instructors at the camp are Minecraft instructor Niko Hakkarainen, as well as Vaasa peer instructor Aaro Helo. The popular YouTuber Paqpa was responsible for the opening and final commentary of the camp week.

The final commentary of the camp, i.e. the presentation of the finished world, as well as Paqpa’s comments were streamed live and can be viewed from 8 March on YouTube. A link to the video can be found at https://linktr.ee/reimari.info.

Including young people online is also important

The intension for the future is to use the Minecraft world on the private server every week for game meetings, to listen to and engage with young people and above all to reach out to young people who are interested in community games.

– The digital youth work taking place online is a form of cultural youth work. There is a great need for this  among young people who became accustomed to remote connections during these coronavirus times, says Kokko.

The Reimari youth counselling and information service wants to offer young people new types of channels to participate in as well as opportunities to influence and create a virtual Vaasa that they can relate to.

– One of our boldest ideas is to hope that the copy of Vaasa we created could be used in the future both at consultation and information meetings held by both the city’s various actors and the private and third sector, and in the mapping of development opportunities, says youth secretary Karita Mäkinen.

Previously, similar Minecraft projects have also been implemented in Helsinki and Jyväskylä.