24,823
This interview was our tenth PMC Weekly Interview, featured in Volume 76! In this weekly, we interviewed Boscawinks! Bosca's 1 year anniversary on PMC just passed on January 6th! During his time here, hes made 27 submissions and has been featured in several of our Weekly's. You'll find large statues and plenty of clever redstone projects in his submission gallery; Some of his work exploded on Reddit including Turtle Mob Statue and Ravager Mob Statues. He's active on the PMC SMP Server, where he's known for being generous, giving out free materials to players alike. We've enjoyed getting to know them while on the server and through this interview!
Minecraft/Personalized Questions
How did your Minecraft experience begin? Do you still play?
Back in 2011, a friend played Minecraft for the first time while we were hanging out in a Skype call with a couple of people. I was playing something else but got more and more intrigued just by listening to him describing stuff he encountered. The game was only 10€ back then so my friends and I bought it and jumped on his locally hosted server. I remember this day pretty vividly because I've never been hooked by a game that fast. For a couple of hours we screwed around and figured stuff out with the help of the Wiki. Then we decided to start our first proper world. Fortunately, I had just finished all my exams and was between semesters at university. So I had a lot of free time which I poured almost completely into playing Minecraft for the next couple of weeks. It really was the perfect game at the perfect time. Since then, I always come back to play some Minecraft eventually.
You’re most recognized as being a Redstone device creator. Tell us what made you interested in Redstone and why you started creating Redstone devices!
Hidden doors! Before I knew anything about automatic farms, they were my first contact with Redstone and it is my firm belief that a base isn't a base without at least one secret entrance/room/passage. :P
Here is one of my very first ones (R.I.P. Slime):
While I love to play around with it now, I was actually intimidated by Redstone for a long time because I didn't quite get it. So I used it sparingly even though I knew it was a very unique way to interact with the world and it had a lot of potential. It wasn't until 2 or 3 years ago that I got better at it by watching YouTube tutorials, downloading the devices, and trying to reproduce them block by block.
I'm really glad I did, because it's just so satisfying to set up a Redstone device, push a button, and then it does exactly what it was designed for. Or to make a fully automated farm that works without me having to worry about it.
Are you a programmer? If so, did you/are you going to school for programming or are you self-taught?
I'm not technically a programmer, but my job consists of about 90% programming. Which is great, because I love programming! I'm self-taught which was supported by my dad (who is a professional programmer) when I was a teenager by showing me that a computer can be used for so much more than gaming and by giving me a lot of books on different programming languages.
What, if any, programming languages do you know?
Java, C++, and Python are the programming languages I'm most confident in.
Do you have any redstone devices planned for the future? Can you share or give us a hint as to what you’re working on?
I do! I'm finally back at working on a note block machine. I finished arranging the song in Note Block Studio and now I "just" need to build the actual machine :P
You’re one of the most active members on the PMC Server and have accomplished so much! Some even consider you the richest man on the server. Share with us your favorite memory and your favorite accomplishment so far!
I love everything that makes the community come together. Like when a lot of people put up Christmas decorations all around the spawn area. People were running around, building stuff, and chatting.
I might be biased but I also really liked it when a bunch of people showed up to hear my Jingle Bells music machine for the last time at the end of the Christmas season :)
My favorite accomplishment is probably that I managed to make a successful shop. I have never played with shops before and it was a lot of fun coming up with items to sale, setting and adjusting prices, and advertising the shop.
Prior to being on the PMC Server, were you active on any server or playing Minecraft by yourself?
I have played on a lot of different servers over the years with different groups of friends. Right now, I'm hosting my own SMP server for me and my friends that's been running for about two years (although it's quite dead at the moment).
But prior to PMC SMP I've never played on a server where I didn't know the other players personally or that had that many active players. And I absolutely love the experience!
We see that you’re working on 3D printing your city; what inspired you to start doing this? What other things have you 3D printed and what’s been your favorite 3D printed object you’ve made
For some reason I've always loved maps and satellite imagery (I own several books dedicated to maps of the worlds J.R.R. Tolkien and G.R.R. Martin). At the beginning of 2020 I found out that high resolution 3D scan data of the area I'm living in was available on the internet for free. The idea of taking this data and somehow transferring it into a physical object got stuck in my head and I bought an entry level 3D printer (a Creality Ender 5) after a few days of research. While I ended up using OpenStreetMap data for this particular project (because it gives me cleaner streets and building footprints) I had found a great new hobby along the way.
Since then I have printed all kinds of stuff. I used 3D scan data to make models of the hill I'm living at. And for a friend's birthday I modelled and printed her homeland Slovenia. Of course I also had to make something Minecraft related. So I printed my own player statue as well as my ravager mob statue (If you like, you can have a look a my first amateurish printing timelapse here). I also printed Grian's mega base from Hermitcraft Season 6.
During the first months of the Covid pandemic I also produced and assembled face shields for medical workers.
But my favorite 3D print is this:
(full resolution)
It might not look like much but for me it is very special. It is a model of a tiny "town" (just a road and a couple of houses really) on the Danish coastline. My dad took me and my siblings there on several vacations as did his parents when he was a child. It's a beautiful, isolated place that somehow is made even more beautiful by its windy and rainy climate. So I created and printed this model as a gift and my way of saying "thank you" to my dad. Just looking at the image fills me with so much nostalgia and wanderlust :)
You recently posted a photo of your book collection, which contains mostly novels by Tolkien. Have you really read all of them? Which one is your favorite? Do you have any other favorite authors or books?
Not yet. I'm currently halfway through the 13 volumes of "The History of Middle-earth". They are interesting but can be very dry at points. I'm looking forward to reading all the books eventually. The "big ones" (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion) I have read countless times and The Silmarillion is my absolute favorite of them.
Other favorite authors are G.R.R. Martin, Stephen King, and H.P. Lovecraft.
PMC Questions
How did you choose your PMC Username?
It's an amalgamation of two other player names or nicknames I had in the past: Boscabana and Lemmiwinks. The first one is a (terrible) white rum we had at a LAN party and the other one is based on the South Park character :D Back then I was somewhat the appointed DJ of our Skype calls and the song of Lemmiwinks' adventures was one of my regulars.
When you say " DJ of our Skype calls", do you know how to DJ?
No, I'm not :D I was just the person who usually played music in the Skype calls. Back then it wasn't as easy as it is today with Discord and its bots. I figured out a way to do it, so I was the appointed playlist maker.
What is your PFP inspired by?
It's an image of my player character. I found the skin very early on and (almost) never changed it since then. I immediately liked this friendly looking dwarf and in retrospect it was the perfect choice for my base building style: I always end up making a first night hut/hole/cave and then proceed to burrow down to expand it. So a dwarf skin feels appropriate.
I would love to give credit to the original maker of the skin, but I can't remember where I found it all those years ago. If anyone reading this knows who might have made it, please let me know!
What PMC submission are you most proud of? Why?
I think the "Shake It Off" music machine is my favorite. I chose this song because it is quite catchy and has a lot of repetitions in it. So I could work out interesting ways to reuse certain parts of the machine. At the start I was sure that I could build it in a couple of days tops. But while arranging the music I saw that while there were in fact a lot of parts that could be reused, there were also minor variations in the repetitions. So I made it my goal to include all of those as well while keeping the amount of note blocks as low as possible (for me). That took me way longer than anticipated and at some point this "sketch" of the song made sense to me (but doesn't anymore at all):
(full resolution)
The machine grew into an over-engineered monstrosity. But I mean that in a good way. It looks ridiculous and I love it :D
(full resolution)
What do you enjoy most about Planet Minecraft?
Seeing what others come up with is always fun and inspiring. There are so many ways you can play Minecraft or customise your experience. It's always great to see someone's unique approach at the game and being really good at it.
And of course PMC is also a great way to showcase your own builds and ideas.
Do you have any goals on the site (subscriber goal, perhaps win a contest, host another contest etc)?
My only goal is to reach level 35 and unlock the dwarf class :D
But maybe hosting a redstone centered contest could be fun. We will see.
Is there a specific member that inspires you or you look up to? Who/Why?
As a fellow server admin I really like how Paril is handling the PMC SMP server. He has coded several plug-ins to meet the demand of the players in fun and unique ways. I really like that and it inspires me to look into how to write plug-ins myself.
Fun Questions
What is your favorite food?
I love having raclette with friends and family. It has everything I like: potatoes, cheese, meat/beacon, onions, mushrooms…
But the best thing about it is that it takes a long time and it is more of an event than just dinner. I never had raclette without it being a really fun evening.
Do you have any pets? (perhaps include a picture?!)
Unfortunately not :( I would love to get a dog at some point but right now it just doesn't fit into my life and I'll wait until I am sure that I can provide a good home for it.
But here are two pictures of my childhood dog:
His name was Max and the only thing bigger than his ears was his heart. Miss you, buddy!
Describe yourself in 3 words!
Curious, obsessive, scatterbrained.
Is there anyone IRL that inspires you?
It might be cheesy and I've talked about my dad twice already, but hey: He pretty much embodies my concept of what a good person is. Whenever I find myself in a difficult situation, I imagine how he would handle it. Hasn't led me wrong, yet.
Are there any hobbies outside of Minecraft that you have?
In addition to programming for my job, I also like to program random little things for recreational purposes. And while working on my 3D printer I dipped my toe into 3D modeling.
In pre-Covid times I met up once a week with a couple of friends from university to sing.
I also really love board games (especially Settlers of Catan), puzzles of all kinds, and I started playing D&D last year.
And I really need to get back into running so it can be a hobby again and not a dreaded torture :P
Is there any new skill that you’ve been wanting to try, but haven’t had the chance to yet?
There are two big ones: Painting/drawing and making music. I don't even know how I would approach them or which medium to use for either of them. But those ideas are always somewhere in the back of my mind.
Favorite quote or words of wisdom for the community? OR Do you have any advice for new members of PMC?
People say: "Always try your best!". But I would like to add: "Cut yourself some slack!". It can be difficult to reconcile the two at times and that's why life is hard. My best advice is to find something you are really passionate about and give it your all. For most of the day-to-day, 90% of your best is just fine.
Anything you'd like to add?
First I'd like to say thank you for interviewing me! I had a lot of fun answering your questions. I would also like to thank the whole PMC Site Team for providing this wonderful platform for the Minecraft community.
Last but not least, I want to thank everyone that made playing on the PMC server for the last two months so enjoyable! I'm feeling very lucky to be part of this very supportive and friendly community.
If anyone has further questions, please feel free to ask!
Minecraft/Personalized Questions
How did your Minecraft experience begin? Do you still play?
Back in 2011, a friend played Minecraft for the first time while we were hanging out in a Skype call with a couple of people. I was playing something else but got more and more intrigued just by listening to him describing stuff he encountered. The game was only 10€ back then so my friends and I bought it and jumped on his locally hosted server. I remember this day pretty vividly because I've never been hooked by a game that fast. For a couple of hours we screwed around and figured stuff out with the help of the Wiki. Then we decided to start our first proper world. Fortunately, I had just finished all my exams and was between semesters at university. So I had a lot of free time which I poured almost completely into playing Minecraft for the next couple of weeks. It really was the perfect game at the perfect time. Since then, I always come back to play some Minecraft eventually.
You’re most recognized as being a Redstone device creator. Tell us what made you interested in Redstone and why you started creating Redstone devices!
Hidden doors! Before I knew anything about automatic farms, they were my first contact with Redstone and it is my firm belief that a base isn't a base without at least one secret entrance/room/passage. :P
Here is one of my very first ones (R.I.P. Slime):
While I love to play around with it now, I was actually intimidated by Redstone for a long time because I didn't quite get it. So I used it sparingly even though I knew it was a very unique way to interact with the world and it had a lot of potential. It wasn't until 2 or 3 years ago that I got better at it by watching YouTube tutorials, downloading the devices, and trying to reproduce them block by block.
I'm really glad I did, because it's just so satisfying to set up a Redstone device, push a button, and then it does exactly what it was designed for. Or to make a fully automated farm that works without me having to worry about it.
Are you a programmer? If so, did you/are you going to school for programming or are you self-taught?
I'm not technically a programmer, but my job consists of about 90% programming. Which is great, because I love programming! I'm self-taught which was supported by my dad (who is a professional programmer) when I was a teenager by showing me that a computer can be used for so much more than gaming and by giving me a lot of books on different programming languages.
What, if any, programming languages do you know?
Java, C++, and Python are the programming languages I'm most confident in.
Do you have any redstone devices planned for the future? Can you share or give us a hint as to what you’re working on?
I do! I'm finally back at working on a note block machine. I finished arranging the song in Note Block Studio and now I "just" need to build the actual machine :P
You’re one of the most active members on the PMC Server and have accomplished so much! Some even consider you the richest man on the server. Share with us your favorite memory and your favorite accomplishment so far!
I love everything that makes the community come together. Like when a lot of people put up Christmas decorations all around the spawn area. People were running around, building stuff, and chatting.
I might be biased but I also really liked it when a bunch of people showed up to hear my Jingle Bells music machine for the last time at the end of the Christmas season :)
My favorite accomplishment is probably that I managed to make a successful shop. I have never played with shops before and it was a lot of fun coming up with items to sale, setting and adjusting prices, and advertising the shop.
Prior to being on the PMC Server, were you active on any server or playing Minecraft by yourself?
I have played on a lot of different servers over the years with different groups of friends. Right now, I'm hosting my own SMP server for me and my friends that's been running for about two years (although it's quite dead at the moment).
But prior to PMC SMP I've never played on a server where I didn't know the other players personally or that had that many active players. And I absolutely love the experience!
We see that you’re working on 3D printing your city; what inspired you to start doing this? What other things have you 3D printed and what’s been your favorite 3D printed object you’ve made
For some reason I've always loved maps and satellite imagery (I own several books dedicated to maps of the worlds J.R.R. Tolkien and G.R.R. Martin). At the beginning of 2020 I found out that high resolution 3D scan data of the area I'm living in was available on the internet for free. The idea of taking this data and somehow transferring it into a physical object got stuck in my head and I bought an entry level 3D printer (a Creality Ender 5) after a few days of research. While I ended up using OpenStreetMap data for this particular project (because it gives me cleaner streets and building footprints) I had found a great new hobby along the way.
Since then I have printed all kinds of stuff. I used 3D scan data to make models of the hill I'm living at. And for a friend's birthday I modelled and printed her homeland Slovenia. Of course I also had to make something Minecraft related. So I printed my own player statue as well as my ravager mob statue (If you like, you can have a look a my first amateurish printing timelapse here). I also printed Grian's mega base from Hermitcraft Season 6.
During the first months of the Covid pandemic I also produced and assembled face shields for medical workers.
But my favorite 3D print is this:
(full resolution)
It might not look like much but for me it is very special. It is a model of a tiny "town" (just a road and a couple of houses really) on the Danish coastline. My dad took me and my siblings there on several vacations as did his parents when he was a child. It's a beautiful, isolated place that somehow is made even more beautiful by its windy and rainy climate. So I created and printed this model as a gift and my way of saying "thank you" to my dad. Just looking at the image fills me with so much nostalgia and wanderlust :)
You recently posted a photo of your book collection, which contains mostly novels by Tolkien. Have you really read all of them? Which one is your favorite? Do you have any other favorite authors or books?
Not yet. I'm currently halfway through the 13 volumes of "The History of Middle-earth". They are interesting but can be very dry at points. I'm looking forward to reading all the books eventually. The "big ones" (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion) I have read countless times and The Silmarillion is my absolute favorite of them.
Other favorite authors are G.R.R. Martin, Stephen King, and H.P. Lovecraft.
PMC Questions
How did you choose your PMC Username?
It's an amalgamation of two other player names or nicknames I had in the past: Boscabana and Lemmiwinks. The first one is a (terrible) white rum we had at a LAN party and the other one is based on the South Park character :D Back then I was somewhat the appointed DJ of our Skype calls and the song of Lemmiwinks' adventures was one of my regulars.
When you say " DJ of our Skype calls", do you know how to DJ?
No, I'm not :D I was just the person who usually played music in the Skype calls. Back then it wasn't as easy as it is today with Discord and its bots. I figured out a way to do it, so I was the appointed playlist maker.
What is your PFP inspired by?
It's an image of my player character. I found the skin very early on and (almost) never changed it since then. I immediately liked this friendly looking dwarf and in retrospect it was the perfect choice for my base building style: I always end up making a first night hut/hole/cave and then proceed to burrow down to expand it. So a dwarf skin feels appropriate.
I would love to give credit to the original maker of the skin, but I can't remember where I found it all those years ago. If anyone reading this knows who might have made it, please let me know!
What PMC submission are you most proud of? Why?
I think the "Shake It Off" music machine is my favorite. I chose this song because it is quite catchy and has a lot of repetitions in it. So I could work out interesting ways to reuse certain parts of the machine. At the start I was sure that I could build it in a couple of days tops. But while arranging the music I saw that while there were in fact a lot of parts that could be reused, there were also minor variations in the repetitions. So I made it my goal to include all of those as well while keeping the amount of note blocks as low as possible (for me). That took me way longer than anticipated and at some point this "sketch" of the song made sense to me (but doesn't anymore at all):
(full resolution)
The machine grew into an over-engineered monstrosity. But I mean that in a good way. It looks ridiculous and I love it :D
(full resolution)
What do you enjoy most about Planet Minecraft?
Seeing what others come up with is always fun and inspiring. There are so many ways you can play Minecraft or customise your experience. It's always great to see someone's unique approach at the game and being really good at it.
And of course PMC is also a great way to showcase your own builds and ideas.
Do you have any goals on the site (subscriber goal, perhaps win a contest, host another contest etc)?
My only goal is to reach level 35 and unlock the dwarf class :D
But maybe hosting a redstone centered contest could be fun. We will see.
Is there a specific member that inspires you or you look up to? Who/Why?
As a fellow server admin I really like how Paril is handling the PMC SMP server. He has coded several plug-ins to meet the demand of the players in fun and unique ways. I really like that and it inspires me to look into how to write plug-ins myself.
Fun Questions
What is your favorite food?
I love having raclette with friends and family. It has everything I like: potatoes, cheese, meat/beacon, onions, mushrooms…
But the best thing about it is that it takes a long time and it is more of an event than just dinner. I never had raclette without it being a really fun evening.
Do you have any pets? (perhaps include a picture?!)
Unfortunately not :( I would love to get a dog at some point but right now it just doesn't fit into my life and I'll wait until I am sure that I can provide a good home for it.
But here are two pictures of my childhood dog:
His name was Max and the only thing bigger than his ears was his heart. Miss you, buddy!
Describe yourself in 3 words!
Curious, obsessive, scatterbrained.
Is there anyone IRL that inspires you?
It might be cheesy and I've talked about my dad twice already, but hey: He pretty much embodies my concept of what a good person is. Whenever I find myself in a difficult situation, I imagine how he would handle it. Hasn't led me wrong, yet.
Are there any hobbies outside of Minecraft that you have?
In addition to programming for my job, I also like to program random little things for recreational purposes. And while working on my 3D printer I dipped my toe into 3D modeling.
In pre-Covid times I met up once a week with a couple of friends from university to sing.
I also really love board games (especially Settlers of Catan), puzzles of all kinds, and I started playing D&D last year.
And I really need to get back into running so it can be a hobby again and not a dreaded torture :P
Is there any new skill that you’ve been wanting to try, but haven’t had the chance to yet?
There are two big ones: Painting/drawing and making music. I don't even know how I would approach them or which medium to use for either of them. But those ideas are always somewhere in the back of my mind.
Favorite quote or words of wisdom for the community? OR Do you have any advice for new members of PMC?
People say: "Always try your best!". But I would like to add: "Cut yourself some slack!". It can be difficult to reconcile the two at times and that's why life is hard. My best advice is to find something you are really passionate about and give it your all. For most of the day-to-day, 90% of your best is just fine.
Anything you'd like to add?
First I'd like to say thank you for interviewing me! I had a lot of fun answering your questions. I would also like to thank the whole PMC Site Team for providing this wonderful platform for the Minecraft community.
Last but not least, I want to thank everyone that made playing on the PMC server for the last two months so enjoyable! I'm feeling very lucky to be part of this very supportive and friendly community.
If anyone has further questions, please feel free to ask!
| Credit | Boscawinks |
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P.S. I am not Texan, my cousin is.
And I can happily say that since the interview I did indeed get back into running regularly again :)
if you ever hold a redstone contest, I would happy join!