After months of observing my two little ones develop an incredible love of Minecraft I finally decided to give it a go myself and have been having an absolute blast.

Not only did we eventually spring for our own hosted server that my children’s friends have also begun to play on, but I’ve personally discovered a previously unknown love of building castles.  I’m particularly drawn to Gothic style castles, though at this point my architectural creations in Minecraft are somewhat limited by my game expertise.

Nonetheless I did manage to build a 6-level castle featuring defensive walls, hardwood floors and tower – all of which, I’m very proud to say, was constructed in Survival mode rather than Creative.

For those unfamiliar with Minecraft, this means I had to mine every single block of stone, chop ever bit of timber, craft ever door – all by hand, all while being attacked by a menagerie of ghouls, beasts and other monsters.

Now if I can only manage to keep the creepers from blowing the place up I’ll let the kids lose on it!