As construction on the tower completely covers the facade of the Forty Acres’s most iconic structure, a new iteration of the building is erected — in Minecraft. What started as a fun side project for students in Longhorn Developers last year turned into a server with nearly 1,000 members.
Derek Chen, a computer science senior and UT registration plus technical lead, decided to build the server in January 2025 while working at Longhorn Developers as a way for the team to connect within the new organization. While members build their own ideas in the server, one of the main projects lies in building the Forty Acres.
“Some people were actually really dedicated,” Chen said. “They started inviting their friends to join. … I did a Reddit post that officially announced it. … And it blew (up). A lot of people commented their usernames wanting to join, and we had 20 people joining every other hour.”
Chen said that from prior experience in Minecraft servers, he felt scared that the hype would die out, but nearly a year and a half later, the server continues to thrive. He attributes the continued growth to the challenge of building in “survival mode,” where players must gather resources on their own and fight monsters to stay alive, in comparison to “creative mode” where players can fly and have access to all materials available in the game, as well as the strong technical setup the group has made to prevent hackers and deterrents.
“(A) survival server is more fun because you fight monsters … you craft things,” Chen said. “There’s a sense of accomplishment and progression as you play the game and build more things. … Resource gathering really makes your builds mean more to you. With the tower, we had to create an entire quarry in the desert and in the end dimension for those certain types of colored blocks.”
Caleb Pickens, a computer science sophomore, said he initially joined the club after seeing it advertised through Texas Music Producers, becoming a loyal member of the server.
“I’ve been a Minecraft player for a long time, so when I saw the invite, I really saw the appeal of joining a community of UT students playing and building together, and I’ve stuck with it,” Pickens said. “It’s such a polished experience and such an enjoyable experience. I’ve invited my fair share of people to play alongside me, and it’s just been a great community.”
Pickens said that after building the tower, the members worked to outline the street layout of campus. Pickens said he hopes to see his former dorm, Moore-Hill, and the Gates-Dell Complex built on the server next.
“It’s really cool to be a part of a project this big and seeing your progress represented in such a visual way that’s really rewarding,” Pickens said. “It’s just great to be working with people who are part of the same student body. We all desire to see UT represented in Minecraft.”
Luke Stealey, a sophomore exercise major and member of the server, said he enjoyed being able to see the tower in Minecraft without the scaffolding.
“Someone joked around about putting a bunch of scaffolding in front of the tower, but it’s nice to be able to kind of preserve (the tower) and not have to look at scaffolding everywhere,” Stealey said.
With 19,356,559 blocks placed and 56,235 diamonds mined, the server expands beyond a social outlet for members of Longhorn Developers, with some members attending other UT system schools or even staying on as alumni.
On whether or not the project’s real-world replicas may ever extend beyond UT, Pickens said Sixth Street could be developed in the server.
“I would count on (Sixth Street being built),” Pickens said. “I’m sure that’ll be happening soon.”
