The Scariest Cow Ever Created ┃The Story Of The Warden

The Scariest Cow Ever Created ┃The Story Of The Warden

Today, we’re discussing the horrifying origins of the scariest mob in Minecraft history. I speak, of course, of this. Aaghhh… [SOUND EFFECT] The scariest cow I’ve ever created. Oh, come now, don’t be absurd. This cow is harmless. Right? Right? [DRAMATIC MUSIC]

Adding a nasty new mob to your video game is a very delicate process. And I should know. I’m a very delicate man. When it came to making the warden, the idea was simple. A horror experience. It’s meant to kind of evoke those original memories and feelings of the first night in Minecraft.

My favorite thing about the warden is its mystery. We don’t know much about its history or where it was before or where it’s going. Beautiful, grotesque, and scary. And also a big fan of introducing you to the game over screen. I also kind of want to say misunderstood.

The warden we all know and eh love today is a big, blind, burly beast that is sound and smell sensitive. The idea for this mob, spawned during the development of 2020’s nether update. We were super excited about that particular thing with a mob that can’t see. We really wanted to create an experience

Where the player is surrounded by this presence. A creature that was kind of stalking you in the dark. Doesn’t that sound like fun? Well, no, but the team got to work anyway on a mob tentatively entitled the Stalker. We really wanted to create a creature visually that feels asymmetrical.

It was just going to be a mob that could spawn anywhere deep underground. It will follow you, but if you can be fully quiet, it will not. Great idea. But chase mechanics turned out to be tricky. The stalker was taller than even an enderman. The caves can be a little tight sometimes.

Or maybe the player might mine just a small hallway. The stalker can’t really chase you. So escape was possible? Hooray! What if it could squeeze through those hallways that players mine into and that way you don’t feel safe. Oh goody. Very terrifying. Thankfully, someone cornered Brandon

In a Mojang studio’s hallway and talked him out of it. We kind of need a place for this mob, giving a safe space for players to be able to choose because not everyone is going to enjoy a horror experience. We started to talk about this place we would call the deep dark.

Ah, the deep dark. A moody new biome for this moody new developing mob. Although the warden’s second design turned out a little… [WARDEN SOUND EFFECT] What’s the word? Ah yes. Traumatizing. The hollow is Stalker 2.0 It was very creepy, like this weird teethy looking thing, just looked like human flesh.

One of the things we came to was this idea of trypophobia, which is the fear of holes. Not to be confused with Brand-a-phobia, which is my fear of Brandon ever pitching that idea again. The sounds are very unsettling, even more unsettling than the sounds we currently have for the warden. [SOUND EFFECT]

So we took all the elements we liked from the hollowed and the stalker and got started on the development of the warden. You definitely see things from both of them. The hollowed eventually became the warden with its body shape. We had to create these horns that were inspired

By certain insects that have, like antenna that would catch vibrations. This mob was going to be blind, and it was going to have to use its other senses to be able to track down the player. The warden uses its senses of smell and sound to track intruders,

So no matter how quiet you are, eventually it will sniff you out. An angry neighbor. If you would trespass on the neighbor’s garden without approval. My neighbors usually just complain about my love of late 90s gangster rap. Anyway, the warden has even more ways of discovering you. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]

Explore the deep dark’s ancient cities, which I’m sure are only abandoned because they were too nice to live in, and you’ll find skulk blocks everywhere. We designed the scope to be some kind of warning to players. Strike one, the shriek goes off. That should be the indication for most players

That they can start running now. It was very important to us that it wasn’t just that you made a sound, and the warden immediately emerged. We’re designing the Skulk family and the warden. We took a lot of inspiration from Black Opal, like the gemstone that looked like starlight. Like stars in the night.

I’ll never look at a starry night without weeping again. Anything else to add to the horror? The pulsating darkness that comes in all these blue parts of the warden start to glow, and that is what triggers the fear. Really starting to wish this episode was about the cow. [COW SOUND EFFECT]

This was back when we were prototyping this darkness effect. Literally just the cow walking in caves, making the lights flicker. So the poor cow was just your guinea pig? How dare you. [LAUGH] [SAD MUSIC] When we added this mouth, for me, that was when we found the balance,

It is a bit cute at the same time, right? Right. It is like something between a horror creature, but it also has a sadness. It feels a bit lonely. Also relatable. The sound effects for the warden, skulks and deep dark were all key elements of the lore and feeling of this new experience.

[STRANGE NOISE] Oh… [STRANGE NOISE] And then with the layers of effects, it became [SOUND EFFECT] the warden’s heartbeat that recorded my heartbeat with a contact microphone. [SOUND EFFECT] And that’s the story of the warden, a blind, sad, scary looking mob that lives in the ancient cities of the deep dark

And who you may not want to encounter. A testament to the warden is how quickly it got adopted by the community as a very important mob. Even if everyone seemed to be quite terrified of you. You’re still very appreciated. Awwww…[CHUCKLE] Unless this episode was so terrifying

That Mojang Studios never lets us make an episode again. See you next time. [END MUSIC]

An unstoppable force of nature? A grumpy neighbour who just hates when you play the jukebox block too loudly? Or a misunderstood type of mob who really just wants a hug? In the latest Story episode, we dig deep, all the way to a Deep Dark biome, on a quest to learn all about the majesty of jump scares and ominous moments – The Warden. All with the help of some trusty developers who lived to tell the tale!

Learn more about the warden: https://www.minecraft.net/article/meet-warden
More about Minecraft: https://www.minecraft.net