Minecraft‘s Vibrant 1.12 World of Color Update

As a passionate Minecraft gamer and content creator, I was thrilled to dive into the details of the vibrant World of Color Update, released on June 7, 2017 as version 1.12 for Java Edition. This splash of new colors, textures, mobs and options breathed new life into the blocky worlds we spend so much time crafting and exploring.

Overview: Revamping Minecraft‘s Look and Feel

The main focus of the World of Color update was to inject more visual appeal, decoration and personalization into Minecraft‘s landscapes and buildings. According to the official release notes from Mojang, some of the major additions included:

• 16 Colorful Concrete Blocks: Using new concrete powder that hardens into concrete, players can build with 16 vibrant colors like cyan, purple, magenta and more.

• Glazed Terracotta: These gorgeously-decorated blocks in a few patterns add flair whether used as accent walls or pathways.

• Illlusioners: An unused illager mob was introduced, though still not obtainable in survival mode. It can make copies of itself to confuse enemies.

• Parrots: These colorful birds spawn in jungle biomes, can be tamed and ride on your shoulder. Feeding them cookies causes them harm though!

• Advancements: An in-game system to track your gameplay milestones and achievements while providing some guidance and goals.

Some of the new content added in the 1.12 World of Color Update

(Source: minecraft.gamepedia.com)

These new decoration blocks, mobs, and options enabled players to add so much more color, variety, and visual appeal to the in-game worlds. You could build rainbow roads, vibrant cities, or psychedelic landscapes to your heart‘s content.

According to Google Trends data, Minecraft continues on an impressively long reign of popularity, especially with youth:

We still see over 80% of the highest-ever search interest in 2022 – 5 years after the major 1.12 Update. This shows the impressive lasting power of new content to reengage existing players and draw in new ones.

Now let‘s explore more of what this game-changing update offered for players:

Parrots & Illusioners: Setting the Stage for Future Mobs

Mojang introduced 2 new mobs to Java Edition in this update, though we only have access to one of them in standard survival gameplay.

Parrots

These colorful birds spawn naturally in jungle biomes. You can feed them wheat seeds to tame them, and make them ride on your shoulders. However, feeding them cookies causes them harm – so beware!

Having a parrot perched on your shoulder is really fun and shows off your taming prowess as you explore. People have come up with very creative uses too, like:

• Parrot Dance Parties: Spawn a bunch of different colored parrots in a room with note blocks playing music!

• Parrot sanctuaries: Build aviaries and jungle gyms for your collection of tamed birds to play in. Get a sign that says "NO COOKIES allowed!"

• Pirate cosplay: Add to pirate skin outfits by carrying a parrot around. You can reenact scenes from Pirates of the Carribean.

Illusioners

This angry looking villager variant was added to the game code, but NOT enabled in standard survival/creative. Using commands or mods you can spawn it. Their unique power is summoning fake clones of themselves to confuse you.

Eventually illusioners got implemented fully in Minecraft Dungeons, and as a mob spawn in raid battles in later Minecraft updates. But having them teased and modeled in 1.12 set the stage for mob experimentation.

Since this update Mojang has focused quite a bit more on expanding and enhancing mobs: pandas, foxes, axolotls, goats, frogs, fireflies, etc. The parrots and illusioners paved the way.

Terracotta Patterns, Fireworks & Coral Liven Things Up

This update didn‘t stop with just mobs – it added a slew of new patterns, special blocks like terracotta and coral to incorporate much more color and decoration options:

Glazed Terracotta – with geometric patterns like circles, stripes and stars these bright blocks make for gorgeous accent walls and pathways combined with concrete blocks and wool. Use cyan terracotta and blue wool in waves patterns for a water temple entrance.

Firework Stars – 11 new firework star colors were added like light blue and yellow along with more effects like twinkle and weather to make your celebrations above a castle that much cooler.

Coral – renewed life was breathed into the monotonous warm ocean biomes with 5 vibrant types of coral you can combine into coral fences, fans, and elaborate reef structures as scenery or pet habitats.

Some of the color/decoration additions in the Minecraft 1.12 update.

(Source: minecraft.gamepedia.com)

Building ecosystems with coral reefs opens up aquatic theming. Imagine a restaurant with an undersea viewing area into a coral habitat – diners gazing at tropical fish swimming by while they eat.

Or use terracotta and lots of redstone components to build a scale model of Mars colony with functional spaceship doors. The decorative options blew wide open in this update.

Optimizing Creative Building: Armor Stands, Recipes, Commands

While features enabling more creativity and color were big themes, the 1.12 World of Color Update also included some quality-of-life improvements for creative builders and map makers:

Armor Stand Changes – these handy devices gained the ability to manipulate into different poses like sitting or sneaking. Also made it possible to toggle on miniature arms and small status bar displays above them.

Crafting Recipe Book – the recipe book in the crafting GUI makes easier to find and remember complex recipes. Searchable, and shows items made from what‘s in your inventory.

/function command – this powerful command addition lets you make reusable behaviors, dialogue trees for NPCs, and complex scripted mechanics for adventure maps and minigames.

These features helped map creators bring their ideas to life easier without constantly looking up syntax or materials. Manipulating armor stands made animating scenes and cutscenes much more seamless.

The recipe book also came in handy when color experimenting with all the new concrete powder combinations and firework stars. What used to involve frustrating googling or remembering was now right there in a helpful interface.

Lasting Impact: Paving the Way for Future Updates

The Minecraft World of Color Update made vibrant use of a long development cycle leading up to release. It built on existing world structures dramatically with its color focus.

As a content creator nothing inspires me more than new themed blocks, mobs, and options for advanced decoration and builds. Excitement around additions like axolotls or maple wood in recent updates can likely be traced back to just how successful the 1.12 update was in showing this potential.

Now when updates are in slower periods, I have so much more color variety and options for creating almost anything I can imagine visually while retaining engaging gameplay. Other newer hits like Terraria as an alternative perhaps adapted and evolved based on Minecraft‘s move to expand decor as a core piece of the experience.

And millions of players new and existing continue to reap the benefits over 5 years later. The sparkling World of Color update made Minecraft feel visually new again while honoring its fundamental spirit.