Cool. I installed the demo for the first time on my MacBook Air (should probably connect my mouse to it) and tried out Minecraft. This is such an atmospheric game, so much that I get scared of Creepers made out of blocks!
What's starting to annoy me a little bit is, that I'm not quick enough to build something safe to survive the night, which means I end up getting killed every night.
I know I have to create a work bench, and then some wooden planks to make tools that I can use to get other materials like coals.
Any good advice for somebody totally new to it?
I just want a safe place in this cruel dark world at night.
Here's how I start a game generally.
Firstly, I look for a place with dirt and wood and hills.
Start with wood - get 8 blocks of wood by hand.
Convert these to planks. You should have 32 planks.
Turn 8 of your planks into sticks. Create a workbench and plonk it down.
You should have 16 sticks and 20 planks left.
Create an axe, a shovel and a pick out of wood. You should have 10 sticks left and 13 planks left.
By this stage there should be plenty of daylight.
Cut down another 10 blocks of wood with your axe. Chop up your workbench and find a place to dig out your first house. In a hillside of dirt is ideal. Flatten the front and start digging inwards with a 1x2 hole. You want to start a fair bit down from the top of the hill - you don't want to have to waste time building with blocks, you just want to spend time digging, not building.
Dig in a bit and start widening inside, leaving a doorway 1x2 behind you. By this stage the sun should be getting a bit low.
If you're digging into a hillside, you should start to encounter stone. Use your pickaxe on this. You want at least 12 pieces of stone before you start thinking about making any stone tools. If you're lucky, you'll find coal. If not, build a furnace out of 9 pieces of stone and put two pieces of wood in the bottom section and the remaining blocks of wood in the top - this is to make charcoal. By the time the first piece of charcoal is made, it should be almost dark but you can make your first torch by this stage. Seal up the doorway in your house with dirt and start to hollow out and mine down a bit during the first night. Build up stone and make some stone tools - pickaxe, shovel and axe and a sword.
The next morning, emerge and look for food and chop some more wood down. Try not to kill all the pigs / cows in the area - try and leave two of each for a future farm. As you're walking along, cut down grass and collect a bunch of seed for a future grain farm.
By the end of the second day you should have a bunch more wood and about 10-20 pork chops or beef steaks. Go back in your house, seal it up and cook your food up and make more charcoal if you haven't found any coal yet.
By this stage you should be pretty well set.
