By BEN CAMERON
A PASSIONATE Pakenham video gamer might have entered a national competition a month behind his competitors … and spent just six hours building his “limited” entry … all the while juggling his VCE studies, at just 16 years of age.
And local whiz kid Daniel Grubb still managed to finish in the top three in an under-18 national Minecraft competition organised by the Museum of Democracy of Eureka as part of the Eureka Stockade’s 160th anniversary.
Minecraft is essentially a game about breaking and placing blocks, but unlike Tetris, it can quickly descend into dark territory where brave players battle monsters or visit exotic locations.
In this case however the task was to re-create the stockade in a Minecraft world as creatively as possible, while also demonstrating knowledge of the stockade and “maintaining historical accuracy”.
While starting well behind the pack, Daniel had passion for problem solving on his side, video games and always “testing the mind”.
“I do have a passion for video games, but only ones that involve lots of thought, problem solving and creativity,” he said.
“Not violent games that involve endless grinding and minimal strategy.
“Video games are of course only a hobby, and I don’t intend to make a living from them, but they are a great way of testing the mind.”
Daniel eventually placed in the top three from over 200 entries, with his entry printed in 3D.
Months before, Daniel only had a limited knowledge of the Eureka Stockade – apart from a couple of visits to Sovereign Hill – before fate stepped in.
“An ad for the competition caught my eye one day while reading a newsletter, and decided to have a closer look,” he said.
The competition ticked a few boxes of interest, as Daniel had been a keen player of Minecraft since 2010.
“I enjoy Minecraft because of its endless creativity and possibilities in building,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I found out about the competition towards the start of October which was a month after the competition started, and I only had a few weeks to finish.
“I also had to keep in mind that my end of year exams were fast approaching and I was well amidst the final revision weeks.
“So as exams were a definite priority, my time to work on my entry was severely limited, and so the end result wasn’t as good as it could have been.
“However, I spent a lot of time planning for how I would re-create the stockade, and was able to maximize building efficiency.
“In total, my time spent building was less than six hours over the couple of weeks.
“So to do as well as I did was a nice surprise.”
Only 16, Daniel has already finished high school at Swinburne Senior Secondary in Hawthorn and is well into the early stages of university registration for a Bachelor of Science at Monash Clayton.
