I usually just use the home portal in the end to cheese it - I figure I've beaten the guy plenty of times over the years. 😛

To be clear, my builds were nowhere near as impressive as yours - major kudos

I know the feeling. I was unemployed for 5 months after I graduated. The first couple months were a really nice break (aside from my father & father-in-law constantly nagging...), but after that I was absolutely climbing the walls. I built SO MUCH stuff in Minecraft, including a theater lined entirely in obsidian - and this was before efficiency enchantments were a thing

Upon reading the initial announcement, I was cautiously optimistic. After seeing the CES demo, though, I think it will be a load of fun for kids as is.

Ultimately, though, I think how well it will do will be heavily impacted by how hackable it is. It will eventually be hacked, of that I have no doubt - it's just a matter of how easy and how cheap it is to do. If they used common standards for NFC & the data contained onboard the tags, we might see these used pretty regularly in MOCs - imagine a train layout that plays different sounds and displays different lights as a train moves through a town, GBC modules that react to modified balls with tags in them, or MOCs that add simple movement as a means of triggering custom nature sounds.

Currently rereading The Exiled Queen, the second in Cinda Williams Chima's Seven Realms series (one of my favorites). I read the first just before Christmas, then took a detour to read one of my Christmas presents - Symphony of the Sojourn by Rowan Alexandria Bennett, which I positively adored. It's been a really good few weeks of reading, and I'm looking forward to continuing the Seven Realms, and then the follow up series - The Shattered Realms - after that.

My reading goal for the year is to actually track the books I read, so I can look back at the end of the year and actually remember what I read. I've downloaded the StoryGraph app to that end, now I just have to remember to use it...

Swampert - I love my big, mudskippin' boy. Also, mega Swamper just makes him more ridiculous

Pyroar and Noivern, in case you are curious

I've had good luck with Amazing Tales. It's very rules light, but has a lot of good set up for all sorts of different adventures - fantasy, sci-fi, Western, pirate, etc. My 6 year old has loved it. I also really want to try No Thank You, Evil, but haven't picked it up yet.

A bunch of the sets (I think the whole first wave) have been at 30% - 40% off for the last few weeks, and appear to still be available if you're interested.

I also backed it. It seemed like a good system to try with my son.

If you wanted to allow customization but without user accounts, you could just store all that data in a cookie on the user's machine. Just make sure you put clear warnings about how the data is stored and what will be gone if they delete the cookie

This is anything but simple. The LEGO build was very complex (and entertaining), and leaves almost no room for electronics. The person that is doing this had to make an entirely custom circuit board that fits just behind the inserted game, and working buttons will only come with custom printed bricks.

That being said, I'm still really pumped to see this become real. The build has easily become one of my absolute favorites, and being able to actually play it will just make it that much cooler.