👋 Hey there,
Great to see you. Whether you're new here or a returning friend - grab your mug and let's dive into this week's topics.
🔎 Single Bean Spotlight - Helios Divinity
Since I indirectly made it my task to cover as many of the Coalition ModJam entries as I'm able to, this one's a natural continuation. We already talked about Magia Daemonica and Traces of the Fallen before, so it's fitting to bring another submission under the spotlight. Enter Helios Divinity by jboymercs - a small magic and adventure mod focused on the player's descent into madness.
The premise is straightforward but deliciously twisted: exchange all your useless diamonds, emeralds, and iron for this mod's items instead. But here's the catch - to earn them, you must face a trial given by the Apostolus, who acts as the gatekeeper to power. Every piece of gear you unlock comes with insane bonuses that apply only to you, spreading your influence across the lands like a new kind of bloom.
The mod leans heavily into atmospheric stakes. Entities like the Manus Avaritia (an idle hand for trading) and the Apostolus Avaritia (a summoned apostle that debuffs mobs and players alike) give the world a sense of lurking presence. You'll encounter the Nameless Champion in the Champion's Grave - a multi-phase boss designed to be handled either with the mod's own gear or stronger equipment from other mods. Less grinding, more consequence.
A few structural highlights stand out. The Goopy Manus Block spreads itself over time, infecting softer blocks and occasionally growing Manus Sprouts or Growth that you can harvest for resources. The Remnant Cycler heals cult mobs at night when enemies are slain nearby. And if you rack up too much Greed from equipping the mod's gear, the Apostolus will show up personally to collect its due - resetting your progress unless you're ready to fight back.
It's perfect for pack makers hunting that edge-case content nobody else noticed, especially ones chasing the same vanilla-progression-with-a-twist vibe. Almost everything is tweakable via configs, making it easy to slot into existing setups without breaking balance.
Links:
Tl;dr: A niche descent-into-madness mechanic mod with atmospheric bosses and resource economy twists.
📝 Roaster's Notes -
Remember when I mentioned in Issue #012 that I snuck in a few interview questions during my appearance on the Just Enough Opinions Podcast? Well, here's the payoff - the tables flipped mid-session, the interviewee became the interviewer, and I got to grill the crew about their own project.
While they don't cover 1.12 modding specifically, supporting journalistic efforts inside our little ecosystem is something we can all get behind. Media creation for modded Minecraft is rare enough as-is, and cross-pollinating between communities keeps things alive. Some parts of the transcript below are a bit rough around the edges (shout-out to auto-captioning disasters and me trying to make the best of it by re-listening it around 10 times😅), but the conversation is worth reading.
Welcome to the Table
Enderman: A couple weeks back, I had the chance to sit down (virtually) with the crew behind Just Enough Opinions during their podcast recording. Let's start at the beginning - how did you get the idea to start a modded podcast, and what led to it?
G_cat: The original idea for Just Enough Opinions was always on my mind since I started developing stuff for 1.16. I registered a YouTube channel for that organization to post trailers, and at some point I thought, "I should do more media stuff because there's a lot of content for modded Minecraft on YouTube, but most creators just do let's plays."
I discussed it with another member - "what if we do a podcast" - it was mostly a sarcastic joke at first, but I kept it in the back of my mind. Eventually that organization dissolved, but the idea stayed. When I joined the Minecraft Pack Development server, I proposed it to Emma from season one as another sarcastic remark: "Hey, we should do a podcast." Over the course of two hours, it grew from a funny bit into "hey, we should actually do this."
Frog: I was supportive but didn't think I'd be involved. Then G_cat asked, "Does anybody want to be a host?" And I said, "I'll be a host."
G_cat: Episode one was pretty terrible overall - we didn't talk about modded Minecraft much. [...] After it aired, some people enjoyed the concept while others criticized the execution. We revised our approach, and it was basically me and Frog for most of season one.
Season Two Brews Live
Enderman: I looked at the YouTube channel and saw season one and now season two. What are the differences between them?
Siuolplex: Season two was done in front of a live audience, and we're actually consistent about it.
Frog: In season one, we recorded on Discord in our own channel [...] then we'd edit it. We had volunteer editors who we very much appreciate. The editing took months and months, which I wouldn't blame the editors for - they have lives and volunteered their time.
G_cat: Then we went to Blanket Con - a convention for modern Minecraft, Fabric and latest version. [...] During that year, we realized that at Blanket Con, they had people recording us and live streaming for the Blanket Con channel. We should do that for our channel instead, forever. That would be much quicker and eliminate the middleman editing process. That's when season two started.
Behind the Stage
Enderman: You mentioned the Minecraft server idea was yours. Who actually came up with the whole stage setup, the modpack behind it, and all the audio stuff?
G_cat: The server idea was actually Deepacat's - shout-out to them! But the stage I mostly made myself, because I'd had a recording server in mind since the beginning. [...] For the server itself, all the mods are a collection of things I wanted, things other members wanted, things our builders wanted, or random stuff that got in there for some reason.
Frog: Now there's a bunch of things we don't want, because it's kind of laggy or crushing other people. The idea was like a stage with a set inside - like a sitcom house where it's half-cut open so you can see inside. All the junk here - a lot of it we picked up from earlier episodes.
G_cat: I kind of like the idea of having every episode affect the stage somehow. Maybe I'll keep either the cup or the coffee brewer thing as your memory. Maybe both.
Picking the Guests
Enderman: How do you decide who to invite?
G_cat: Usually, the process goes like this: First, we DM Jack Black.1 If he doesn't want to come for this week's episode, we skip him. Then we have a guest queue. I usually invite people based on the projects they make - if I find an interesting project, I'll DM them. [...] Other times, people mention someone, like when we had WD2 who made a cool fishing mod on the server.
Frog: I wanted to invite my mom and dad, but they were too busy. [...] I kind of had to tell them about the podcast anyway, because they're like, "What are you doing from 1:30 on Sundays?"
Siuolplex: You should have them come on. Don't you like silly things?
Frog: I do. It would be silly.
Technical Difficulties, Guaranteed
Enderman: Have you ever encountered technical difficulties before with the podcast, and how do you deal with them? I know this sounds self-explanatory!
[all chuckle]
G_cat: No, if you go to our YouTube channel description, it says "non-professional podcast about modded Minecraft and stuff." The non-professional part is because of this.
Frog: I like to think of it as: I tell my parents and anyone who needs to know that my podcast starts at 1:30, but usually it's 1:30 my time, then 30 to 90 minutes of technical difficulties, and then maybe we start. So far, we've started every time after 30 to 90 minutes of technical difficulties.
G_cat: I see that as the worst. Season one was way better with that because we basically just had everyone launch Audacity, record their own audio, upload to Google Drive, and let the editor decide what to do. Season two is much worse with technical difficulties because we have to set up three different audio setups, have a cameraman, figure out Twitch, figure out YouTube, handle the chat being here, and make sure the server doesn't crash. But I guess that's what we get in exchange for quicker upload times.
Enderman: I guess that's all my questions. Thanks for allowing this part in your podcast about asking you questions about your podcast during your podcast. So for all readers of my newsletter you can find both the full transcript as well as the episode with my appearance down below.
drinking 26.1.2 flavored monster rn join in youtu.be/--SrVHmHxAs
💬 Counter Talk
Cleanroom Hits v0.7
Big news in the ecosystem - Cleanroom 0.7 just dropped its biggest update yet. The windowing and input stack moved to SDL 3, build tooling was rewritten from scratch, and the project is now split into modular components. Current build sits at 0.7.9-alpha.
SirSquidly Takes to BlueSky
Instead of only sharing project updates on the Coalition Discord, has started posting development snippets on BlueSky.app. This means more than just broader visibility for his work - it makes things easier for anyone tracking 1.12 progress across platforms. For newsletter purposes, I can now embed posts directly instead of copy-pasting everything.
More Pale Bloom stuff is coming along, getting a bit creative with it... #Minecraft #McDev #MinecraftMods #Modding #PixelArt
More creators should pick up this habit - decentralized social media makes the community more discoverable and is a small step towards getting off of discord eventually.
Working on a carvable pumpkin mod, mostly as a dynamic texture test. You can right-click per pixel with a Carving Knife, and insert torches to make Jack o' Lanterns. Carving is pretty fun lol. #Minecraft #MinecraftMods #Modding #PixelArt #Halloween #PumpkinCarving
🧽 Cleaning the Tables
Alright folks, that's the brew for this week. Thanks for sipping along. ☕️
Got a mod you think should get the Single Bean spotlight?
Hit reply or DM me on the Atmosphere.
Stay caffeinated,
~ Enderman