CONNECTING WITH THEIR CRAFT
Thousands gather at ‘Minefaire’ to celebrate engineering video game, meet YouTube stars
It took two weeks and three tries for Evelyn Rosales to craft a costume that measured up to the expectations of her 9-year-old son, Rodrigo Ochoa.
It had to be good enough to show off on stage in front of hundreds of people at Minefaire, a two-day Comic Con-like experience for fans of the wildly popular building video game “Minecraft” that took place this weekend at the NRG Center.
About 12,000 “Minecraft” enthusiasts and their parents flocked to the event that featured hands-on gaming, Lego and robot construction, YouTube celebrity gamer meet-and-greets and the costume contest.
Rosales’ first two attempts at depicting the “Minecraft” version of the speedy superhero, The Flash, were made of fabric and didn’t portray the digital character’s pixilated appearance well enough, she said. To achieve a more authentic digitized look, Rosales and Rodrigo cut up hundreds of square pieces of sponge-like foam with differing depths, painted them varying shades of red and glued them to two boxes (a head and torso) before sticking The Flash’s signature lightning bolt on the chest. The
final result was impressive enough to attract the attention of the costume contest judges on Sunday.
For Rosales, the two weeks of labor was worth the effort. “Minecraft” means more to her son than just a way to pass the time. Because Rodrigo has a learning disability, Rosales explained in Spanish, he has difficulty reading. Playing the game and following the YouTube celebrities who post video blogs about their experiences provide him a creative outlet.
Though Rodrigo’s textured costume stood out, he was by no means the only purposely pixelated and boxy person at the venue. Dozens of fans shuffled around with painted cardboard boxes covering their heads, chests and — in some cases — arms and legs. Many who weren’t dressed elaborately enough for the costume contest donned T-shirts depicting pixelated patterns.
And it wasn’t only the kids who went all out. Krystal Hess, a 25-year-old from Austin, garnered attention for her home-made costume — a papier-mache, Lego-like dragon head, flapping red wings and a sparkly, red and black tutu. Hess, who has played the game for nearly six years, said that she designed the costume after a character that was hinted at by the game makers, but has yet to come to fruition: the Red Dragon.
“I would love it if the Red Dragon were a girl,” Hess said. In the past, Hess said, the “Minecraft” fandom was mostly dominated by males. That’s why she designed a “girly version” of a strong character — to represent girl power.
The Houston event is one of 28 weekend conferences across the nation this year that co-founders Gabe Young and Chad Collins will be organizing. They also host events that revolve around Legos and act as STEM learning conferences. “Minefaire,” which Young describes as more entertainment-focused, strives to connect gamers and take them to the next level of play — whether that involves battling other gamers in a tournament, getting advice from “Minecraft Mentors,” dabbling in virtual reality or making more tactile creations with robots and Legos.
But the core of the event always comes back to the creative energy it is meant to inspire.
“Some of these kids are going to look back at how (Minefaire) changed their life,” Young said, confident in its power to propel kids into creative career paths.
And that just might be so for 9-year-old Magnus Bosse, who was crafting a Lego creation alongside his dad at one of the event’s activity stations Sunday afternoon.
“It’s really fun,” Bosse said of the game. “You just get to do whatever you want in it. There’s no limit.”