The Spawn Chunks 333: Testing Testing One Two Sheep

Jan 20, 2025 | podcast

Jonny, and Joel talk about bug fixes, and Game Testing in the latest Minecraft snapshot, then answer listener email about fun in-game movement, multi-sided sheep, and a true north, strong, and colourful biome idea.

Support The Spawn Chunks on Patreon

Login

Joel

  • The Citadel | Westhill
    • Continuing to work on the overgrown wheat field at the abandoned farmstead.
      • The overgrown field is finished, along with the textures of the old farm paths.
      • The retaining walls are about half way complete. Built with blocks from the mossy cobble, and tuff family of bricks, with a bit of pale moss for key spots where grass on the wall really looks good!
      • Left to do:
        • The riverbank along the abandoned farmstead property, with a cliffs, and rocks in some places.
        • Landscaping, and texture along the main path, and between the crumbling buildings.
        • The original entrance/wall separating the abandoned farm from neighbours.
      • The Citadel – Abandoned Farmstead – Part 7 (YouTube.com/@JoelDugganVODs)
      • The Citadel – Abandoned Farmstead – Part 8 (YouTube.com/@JoelDugganVODs)

Jonny

  • The Minecraft Survival Guide, Season 3
    • After automating the honey block farm, the honeycomb farm has been moved closer, and both have been incorporated into a beekeeper’s cottage, which is still a work in progress.
    • The next jobs around the starter base are a better pasture/paddock for the Sniffers, and a reason to move the frogs from the single fence post they’re currently leashed to. So, probably a froglight farm in the Nether!

Minecraft News

FROM: RonDe
MEMBER: Landscape Artist Member
SUBJECT: Making Movement Fun

Hey Pix, and Joel,

In the last episode (332) you guys talked about the recent changes to movement, and I would like to offer my own insights as to why I, and why I think other players, do not like the new changes.

While it is nicer to move faster, having interesting forms of movement helps keep the game engaging, and is satisfying to pull off. In almost every game, walking and running simply involve holding a key or two, and pointing the camera where you want to go. This type of movement is not very stimulating. Elytra jumping, crouch sprinting, and some of the other movement tech removed recently provides a small task for players to do when moving around on the ground. It’s almost like a small minigame to do while moving from place to place; perform the correct actions, and you are rewarded with a small speed boost, or fail, and try again.

I think that if Mojang intends to keep these bugs removed, they should add more interesting ways to move around on foot. For example, a way to get a smaller version of the camel’s forward jump, or (the long requested movement item) a grappling hook. 

How do you guys think Mojang could make moving around on the ground more fun?

RonDe starved to death after jumping and running around.

FROM: Martin C.
SUBJECT: More Sheep Variants?

Hello Jonny and Joel, 

In Episode 332 Johnny mentioned that sheep variants would be hard to implement because most of their texture is wool color, and that there aren’t that many sheep variants in the real world anyway. 

While they could be hard to implement, there are sheep variants in the real world which would give the developers a lot to pick from, like with dog breeds. For example, the Tibetan Sheep could spawn in mountainous areas. It would have a similar model, but would have fur dripping down like the cold pig variant now. They also have horns, and could potentially have a goat-like behavior, which would also be educational. The Scottish Blackface sheep is also a potential candidate, with a black head, and black hooves. 

What do you think?

Martin died on a plains biome while herding his sheep.

FROM: Anima
SUBJECT: New Maple Biome

Hello Joel, and Jonny

I was talking with my boyfriend about getting colored leaves in Minecraft, and he helped me solidify it enough to email about it.

My idea is a maple biome that has different trees, and each tree would have a solid leaf color with a different chance of generating. For example red, 30% chance, orange 30%, yellow 30% and brown 10% chance of generating.

This next part doesn’t make sense with reality, but what if this maple biome could finally give us a greenish wood that some people had hoped jungle wood, or azalea wood would be?

What are your thoughts on this “autumn” biome?

Anima walked off into the maple biome admiring the new leaf colors.

Thank you to our Patrons!

Content Engineers

Hunter555

Jumbosale

MindTripMedia

PartyVoyager

Yitz

Ore Producers

ArchaeoPlays

Fire_Dragon_19

Loewe88

Sarunint

Community Miners

Alexander

Banchor

Brad S.

Brock

Cynebeald

Donoraffe

Dosage

ErikTheP

Gingerlily

GrandpaCrafter

GundarHStriker

Ikea Sub

Jeffrothian

KraftDragon

LuckyLittleUnicorn

Nerdpants_McGee

OhDoctor

Protius

RandomGuest

Rocktiki

Saphiraugen

Scotsman

Shakespeargirl

Sharon_thfg

Smurph588

TheVixen38

UNinja12

Xacris

Join us on