4J Studios, the game development company famous for creating the console versions of Minecraft, recently hosted Minecraft workshops for children at an Over The Wall camp in Scotland.

Staff members at 4J Studios demonstrated the Toy Story Mashup Pack for Minecraft, whilst explaining how they developed skin design, mob design, texturing, user interface design and world design. The campers then took part in a creative workshop in which they got to explore 4J Studio’s work and create some of their own designs within Minecraft.

The Minecraft activity took place across health challenge and sibling camps in Scotland and provided the children with first-hand experience of the process undertaken when developing Minecraft content.

Kevin Mathieson, Chief Executive at Over The Wall said: “At Over The Wall, we aim to remove the limitations serious illness has on play, by creating safe environments where anything is possible. Minecraft fits perfectly with our ethos, as it provides a tool that enables children to explore their own creativity without restriction. I am delighted that we are working together, and that our campers were able to enjoy and express themselves through Minecraft.”

Camper, Joshua Bramman from Aberdeenshire, enjoyed the sessions and commented, “The Minecraft activity was brilliant! It was so different from anything we had done before at camp, something unexpected. I really enjoyed meeting the team and asked them so many questions. It gave me a great opportunity to draw and colour in some of my favourite characters and made me think about creating my own game. I hope something like this happens again!”

Over The Wall has been shortlisted as one of nine charities that could benefit from the funds raised by the UK games industry charity, GamesAid.  If you work in the games industry, you can register for free and vote to help fund Over The Wall camps: www.gamesaid.org