Alright, let me tell you about this thing I was messing with recently, this idea I called the “phatty creeper”. It kinda popped into my head while I was just bored, you know, staring at the screen.
Getting the Idea Rolling
So, I was playing some Minecraft, standard stuff. And creepers, man, they’re annoying but kinda iconic. But I thought, what if they were… bigger? Like, really chunky. Not just a texture change, but properly scaled up. A big ol’ walking block of boom. Seemed like a fun little project to tinker with.
First step was figuring out how to even do that. It’s not like there’s a big friendly button for “make creeper fat”. I had to dig around in the game’s guts, basically. Found some tools people use for modding, downloaded a bunch of stuff. Took a while just to get a setup where I could actually try things without breaking my main game install. Always back up your stuff, folks, learned that the hard way ages ago.
The Actual Work… or Struggle
Okay, so getting into the actual creature files. My first thought was, “easy, just find the size value and make it bigger”. Hah. Yeah, right. Turns out, things are way more tangled up than that. Changed one number, and the creeper model just exploded into a mess of pixels when I loaded the test world. Legs sticking out its head, that kind of thing.
Seriously frustrating. I spent hours, maybe days, just trying to get the model to scale properly. It wasn’t just one value, it was a bunch of interconnected bits. And finding documentation? Forget about it. Most of the stuff online is either outdated or assumes you already know everything. Lots of trial and error. Mostly error.
- Tried scaling the whole model file. Nope.
- Tried adjusting bits inside the code that handles rendering. Kinda worked, but then animations were busted.
- Tried tweaking the collision box separately. That was another can of worms.
At one point, I got it bigger, but it moved at lightning speed. Like a giant green blur coming to hug you with TNT. Not quite the “phatty” vibe I was going for, more like a nightmare rocket. Had to dive back in and figure out the movement speed stuff. Slowed it right down. Too much, first. It was moving like it was wading through peanut butter.
Making it Behave (Sort Of)
Then came the explosion. A bigger creeper should make a bigger boom, right? That part was actually a bit easier, thankfully. Just had to find where the explosion power was set. Cranked it up. Maybe a bit too much initially. The first successful “phatty” test blew a crater so big it uncovered a ravine I didn’t know was there. Had to dial that back so it was impressive but not, you know, world-destroying.
Also had to think about health. A bigger target should probably take more hits. Upped its health points. Made it feel a bit more like a mini-boss, this slow, tanky thing creeping towards you.
So, What’s the Verdict?
After a lot of fiddling, crashing, and “why isn’t this working?” moments, I finally got it. A creeper that’s noticeably bigger, slower, tougher, and packs a bigger punch. The Phatty Creeper was born. Looks kinda goofy, waddling around, but it works.
Was it worth all the hassle? Eh. It’s neat, I guess. Fun little distraction. Didn’t exactly change the world, or even the game, in any meaningful way. It’s just… a fatter creeper. Sometimes you just gotta tinker with stuff, you know? See if you can make it work. Now it just exists on my hard drive, probably won’t ever release it or anything. Just another one of those little projects. Onto the next weird idea, I suppose.
