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Development Process

This whole project took almost two years in the making, with many development pauses in the middle of the process, and working with other artists.

Campfire Functionality

This was the first test I made to see if the campfire was able to convert one block into another when a block was nearby:

This approach used to have many issues, the most important being when the player left the world and joined back, the campfire wouldn't transform blocks anymore. This also caused massive lag, because campfires were checking for nearby blocks about six times every second.

After having some free time again to work on Yakisugi, I was able to fix all of those issues and changed where blocks should be placed to work with the campfire:

Charred Wood

Charred logs were supposed to be in Yakisugi, but they are not generally used to make charred wood, so they were eventually removed. Here is the first dummy texture used in early development of this mod. It's just the oak planks texture with a black and white effect and a lot of contrast. A few months later it was replaced by the new charred textures made by Lorenzo.

Old charred planks texture.

A building with charred oak logs, which were only used for testing purposes.

Some items and blocks were discarded in early development stages. Many of them weren't what I was looking for with this mod. At this point, this is what the mod looked like and I had to pause development because I didn't have enough time to work on it.

A quick look into how the creative tab for this mod looked, with some discarded ideas.

A comparison between the color palette of the oak planks and charred wood.

Creating The Textures

Charred Wood

The concept of having a slightly charred variant of wood seemed like a good idea, and it was. But I needed someone to capture the vision that I had for exactly how the texture should look. That's when Lorenzo came in and designed both slightly charred and fully charred wood planks for Yakisugi. I worked on a document explaining exactly how the textures should be made, with many references to Japanese structures.

The before and after of the charred planks block.

Shoji Screens, Paper Lanterns, and Aged Stone Textures

A few other decorations like the paper lanterns, shoji screens, and aged stone blocks were created along with Lorenzo. All of these additions shaped Yakisugi into what I initially wanted it to be.

A few of the textures created by Lorenzo and Axperty.

Trapdoors

I spent a lot of time working on trapdoors. They were the last textures I worked on because for a long time, I couldn't find a way to make them fit into the game the way I wanted. Then I deleted the old texture and made a new one from scratch.

A comparison between two trapdoors for both wood types.

Stone Lanterns, Tsukubai, and Cabinets

I also wanted to make a few extra decorations to place outside. I learned about stone lanterns, also known as tōrō in Japanese. They originated in China a really long time ago, and then they were introduced in Japan. It took some time until I was able to make them work correctly because I had many rendering issues.

Texture made by Lorenzo and model made by Axperty.

I don't really remember where I saw a tsukubai, but I remember I loved how it looked. Creating one for Minecraft was a bit tricky because I wanted them to be as special as they are in real life. I also added water droplets to them.

Texture made by Lorenzo and model made by Axperty.

Cabinets were a must-have with the new wood types if the player has Farmer's Delight by vectorwing installed alongside Yakisugi. I made a few tests to see if they were working but never actually made the textures up to this point. I don't have a screenshot with a slightly charred cabinet because it was one of the last textures I made before release.

Texture made by Axperty.

Katanas, Shurikens, Iron Sand, Tamahagane Chunks, and Polished Aged Stone Textures

The idea of katanas and shurikens was born when brainstorming new features that could be added to the mod. That's when I talked to oRandomy about what I was building, and because he was involved in Minecraft mods already, he understood the vision quickly. Iron sand and tamahagane chunks were included to require a bit more effort when crafting katanas and shurikens.

Item and block textures created by oRandomy.

Straw Armor Textures

This is when the mod felt ready. I still had to design the crafting recipes for all the other items and blocks. But then I thought about adding something for the player to wear. Again, Lorenzo was the best choice because he is really good at making Minecraft models. So I created a third document with a whole guide to better organize my ideas so Lorenzo could understand where I wanted to go.

Textures and models for the straw armor set and wheat straw created by Lorenzo.

When I saw how they looked for the first time, I was blown away. They were even better than what I expected. And finally, the mod felt complete. This doesn't mean there won't be any more new features. I still have a lot of things I haven't added to this mod, which are planned for future updates.