Thomas (17) from Volendam is one of the best builders in the online game Minecraft: "A world map can take up to 60 hours".
Thomas is 17 and puts all his spare time into the game Minecraft. He works independently by programming and setting up projects for charities, among other things. How do you earn money with that and is it compatible with his education?
Thomas Bosch (17) can be found two days a week at the H20 Esports Campus in Purmerend. The young Volendammer is considered one of the best builders in the online game Minecraft. A game in which it is possible to build worlds by means of blocks and the player can walk around in the virtual world himself. The game provides resources, opponents, animals and natural phenomena such as tunnel systems for the world. You can build everything around it yourself. When Thomas was eight years old, he started playing. "I first played on my mobile, without a goal. I just liked it. Then I started playing on the PC, so I got better and better at it, put in a lot of free time to learn programming, coding, making new modifications to the game. This gave me the opportunity to work on cool projects within Minecraft. In the past year I've put in a lot of time, you can compare it to top-class sports. You have to keep practising and getting better.
Thomas gained national fame in December 2020 because of the Minecraft Hospital Heroes project. Students and schoolchildren are challenged to recreate the facades of all Dutch hospitals, in order to raise money for care workers and other charities working with children in the Netherlands. "I set up part of that project, which was very cool. In it, we built structures that really exist, such as the Dijklander Hospital. But you can also build a completely self-designed city, it is very diverse what you can make within the game, that is so much fun. I have also been in various construction teams, that you build with groups of players."
Workshops
Thomas is now mainly occupied with setting up the company Cube Fields, the Minecraft branch within H20. "We are busy making teaching materials, for example how to program within Minecraft. You can't just put it in a book, because the next year it might be different. So my guidance is also necessary. It is mainly schools that benefit from it, you don't want a Dutch teacher to teach this, for example. So I also give workshops, which many international parties are also interested in. We can also sell maps (the worlds made within Minecraft, ed.), we do all that under the banner of Cube Fields."
But how do you become one of the best Minecraft builders in the world? "I've worked on worlds in Minecraft that are in the top of the most downloaded maps, and which are also the largest maps in Minecraft. That's how you could measure it," laughs Thomas. He doesn't find it scary, despite his age. "Most other builders are older, but I specialise too - I'm more interested in the technology behind it too. It is very diverse, you learn a lot from it, that variation is very nice. The basis of the game is indeed stacking blocks, but for the really big work, you need complex programming techniques. I'm learning that too."
Earn
Does Thomas earn a nice penny with this? It takes a lot of time. "Yes, there is a premium. For a project like the one in which I am going to rebuild SG De Triade secondary school in Minecraft, there are at least sixty hours of work involved - but it varies per assignment. A municipality may want to know what a new city centre or residential area will look like, which is completely different. We can sell a large and unique map for three to eight euros per download, and you can download something like that an unlimited number of times. Giving a workshop or training is also lucrative. Coding and programming within Minecraft is constantly changing and evolving, there is always new information." Many users on the video platform Youtube play Minecraft, and stream it to their followers. "There are indeed Youtubers who earn a lot of money with that, but that's not for me, shouting at a camera. I do stream occasionally for projects and H20, but personally I have little interest in it. Later on, I can live off my current work and everything I am still going to do, without streaming much."
According to Thomas, Minecraft had 136 million unique users in April, making it one of the most popular online games of our time. He is certainly not a game addict, he notes: "I have been able to turn my hobby into my work, I get very enthusiastic about it. When an architect sketches, he is not a drawing addict. I also play for fun sometimes, not just because it's work. I have it under control," he says with a smile.
School
Thomas still does some schooling, but combining it is often difficult. "Because of the closure of schools, I can organise my time better, I like it not to have to go to school all the time", he admits. He is in his last year of vwo at the Don Bosco College in Volendam. "Sometimes it is hard to combine. During the Christmas holidays I spent dozens of hours on Hospital Heroes, but then I had exams. So I had little time to learn, and I was demolished," says Thomas. He wanted to go to university next year, but nothing is certain. "There is little I can learn in a subsequent study that I will need later on, I have taught myself a lot and because the evolution of this subject is so fast, it makes little sense. Game development is also not really on offer in terms of study programmes. Then you end up in information science, but that is so much theory that is of no use to me.
Thomas' family and friends are proud. "They also think it is special. I'm quite modest about it, I don't want to make a big issue of it. But I am still young, and already quite enterprising." He can't wait until he turns 18 in March. "Sometimes I have to sign things, and then my parents actually have to do it or a judge has to give permission. It's very rare for someone under 18 to be so enterprising."
