Adventures in Castle Building

When Wizard101 first released Castle Blocks, I was thrilled. The possibilities for new houses suddenly became endless, and I got involved immediately. For the first time, my interest in side features was growing. So much so that I made an extensive guide to advanced castle building, with tips for beginners to pros, all HERE.

When it comes to questing in Wizard, the problem with adventures is that by the same I've got them up and ready to post, everyone has either already experienced them or is currently experiencing them. What's more intriguing to me is something completely new, and that's just what adventures in housing offers. I've long adored sites like The Unicorn Flower's Type (click here) and Paige' Page (click here) simply because their creations and the creations they share are so unique. When it comes to housing, everyone has their own adventure. This is a part of mine.

Sky Walks

Lately, I've been getting a little more creative with my houses. First and foremost, I realized that my tip for laying down a block, placing another on top, and picking up the original might work well for walkways high in the sky. So I experiment with a fairly basic castle that had some walkways at the third and fifth floors in the house. I was quite pleased.

I had a few people interested in looking around, but soon found that I was bored of the castle and ready to move on to something new - and that was (and is) the beauty of Castle Blocks.

Playing with Height

I decided that if I could place and pick up blocks to put walkways in the sky, why couldn't I do it with a whole castle? But I didn't need a simple house floating in the air. It had to be more creative than that. What if it were in a tree? A tree house.

That's exactly what I built. Simple walkways up to the main area, utilizing half staircases by moving stairs up by half floors at a time rather than a full story. That allowed for wonderful views of the tree interior and the ability to move up gradually as you wrapped around the main tree trunk, made of multiple large willow trees and tree stumps.

The main floor had a narrow staircase with supportive columns and a space for minigames. Going up one floor would put you on the balcony, with "walls" made of archways. A teleporter takes you up to the attic, where another teleporter takes you to an observation room, where you can view the top of the huge land mass from which the water falls and the cave opens up. A final teleporter takes you to a closed tower, with a teleporter back to the bottom.

I had some grand plans for an extension of this house, but I simply don't have the glitching skills to make it happen. That's part of the reason I love castle blocks.

Gateways and Courtyards

My latest project is less about floating blocks and more about creating innovative designs. When Evan Silver first toured my progress on this castle and noted that "it's so complex," I knew I was on the right track. This castle is by far my favorite so far.

The entrance is a part that I'm particularly fond of, using five staircases to allow movement between all three levels without ever entering the house. Once inside, you'll have to follow the stairs the level directs you to, and won't be able to switch easily between locations.

The house features a jail (where the unruly party guests may check in) and plenty of open space and archways. The fewer doors, the better. This is my Courtyard Castle, and it's all about outdoor spaces. None of the castle rooms are closed off by doors. The only doors are used to transition from out exterior porch space to an exterior courtyard space. Though the main portion of the castle appears symmetrical, it is not.

The courtyard itself had archway exits on either side and tower corners on all four ends. One courtyard has an open walkway to another, which is part of an extension to the castle. One thing to notice is that each entrance and exit up a staircase in the courtyards utilized balustrade pieces as gates. The gate on my private quarters remains down.

This second section of the castle has left me with few housing spaces left and is still in progress. The number of interesting blocks it requires means I have to do a lot of expensive crafting. Once finished, it will have a closed walkway between the third floors of the two towers.

The Future Lies This Way...

Now that I can do small tree houses and larger castles with creative designs, I want to try and make something innovative with limited castle blocks. Except for the treehouse, all of my castles have been a lot of blocks. I'm ready for something that utilizes less of them and allows more space to decorate. That said, I also want to do a sort of tree house on a more grand scale. But that's a project for another day.

What have you done with castle blocks? Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!