The longevity of the massively successful sandbox title Minecraft has been once again reaffirmed with the announcement of the 1.20 update. Bringing a fresh batch of brand-new content to the longstanding game, it seems that the title has a near endless amount of additional in-game substance that Mojang will be able to expand upon for the foreseeable future.
While bringing additions to a wide scope of Minecraft's game mechanics, it is no secret that a large portion of the content coming with 1.20 is centered around improving the creativity surrounding decoration. When considering this, it seems remiss that the update currently has no plans to revamp the popular paintings of Minecraft, which have remained untouched for some time now.
What's Coming With Minecraft's 1.20 Update
The 1.20 update for Minecraft, otherwise known as the Jungle Update, is set to officially launch in January 2023. In keeping with the overarching jungle theme, the 1.20 update is set to bring bamboo as a new type of woodblock to the game, being one of the first new wood-types to be added to the title in some time. To further contextualize the added focus on decoration that this update encapsulates, these bamboo woodblocks can be formed into decorative mosaic blocks, a first for any type of wood in Minecraft.
Hanging signs and chiseled bookshelves are also set to come with 1.20, with the latter allowing players to manually store enchanted books within them and now giving actual practical use to what was otherwise a mostly decorative block. Perhaps most interestingly, the 1.20 update is also officially going to bring camels to the game as a large mob type, allowing up to two players to mount and ride them beyond the reach of mobs. With there still being some time before the update officially launches, there are still parts of its content that are yet to be revealed, leading to a predictable amount of speculation still being carried out among fans.
The Potential to Revamp Minecraft's Paintings in the 1.20 Update
Paintings have long been a staple of the decorative side of Minecraft's gameplay, with many feeling that no home is complete without the bare spaces on walls being covered by a variety of the game's 26 differently-sized paintings. Having said this, the state of paintings has remained the same for some time at this point, with a level of over-familiarity and tedium beginning to form around them as a game mechanic.
With this in mind, the more decoratively-minded connotations of the upcoming 1.20 update would be the perfect staging ground for a much-needed revamp of Minecraft's painting system. Aside from the obvious addition of simply adding more paintings to the game's collection, a more direct and interactive implementation would be much more well-received by fans. If the game were to introduce craftable easels, a revamp of Minecraft's painting system could actually allow the players to paint their very own pieces, much in the same kind of pixel art manner that the pre-existing paintings of the game take the form of.
This would speak greatly to the focus on creativity that has seen Minecraft become so popular over the years, while also complimenting the often cited therapeutic nature of the game even further. With how important paintings are within Minecraft at instilling a sense of homeliness and decor, adding such an engaging level of mechanics and personalization to them would surely prove to be a hit with fans. Given the similarities this shares with the upcoming additions of things like hanging signs and customizable bookshelves, the 1.20 update for Minecraft would do well to implement a similar reboot to the game's paintings upon its intended January launch.
Minecraft is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.