The brief
A seventh birthday at a beach club — clipped lawn, palms, and the ocean about twenty metres past the end of it. The family wanted Minecraft without covering up the view they had booked the venue for, and a party that would work for a seven-year-old and his much smaller sister at the same time.
What we built
One set, placed so the sea sat inside the shot: a pixelated green arch carrying <i>DANYA 7</i> in blocky white letters, a creeper standing at one side and Steve at the other, and a balloon garland running four shades of green into black, stone grey and white — the exact palette of the game, and, as it happens, of the palms behind it. Two white plinths to sit on for photographs.
How the day went
All of it on the grass. Printed Minecraft blocks laid out as stepping stones, which turned into a race, then into a plank-across-the-blocks contest the older boys took very seriously. A long printed game runner unrolled down the lawn, and a chase with a block on a string that the four-year-olds could win — which is what pulled the smaller children in and kept everybody in the same game. The parents watched from the edge with drinks, in the shade, ten metres away.
What the parents got
The family photograph they wanted: all five of them under the arch, ocean behind, nobody organising anything. And an afternoon where the seven-year-olds and the toddlers were entertained by the same host, at the same time.
