Minecraft is weird. It is one of the most popular video games in the world but it has no story, no instructions, only a vast open world to build in. And yet, that's the secret to its success. The players make it great. They build, share and create communities.

In 2018, Minecraft was being outshined by Fortnite, a game that combines building that Minecraft players love with popular first-person shooter gameplay.

Minecraft needed to do something to keep its players, but unlike other video games, Minecraft doesn’t do sequels. Instead, they release updates that add new experiences to the game. This update, The Update Aquatic, would bring dolphins, sea turtles, coral, fish, and seaweed to its previously empty oceans. A whole new world for players to dive into.

To celebrate in-game oceans filling with new life, we would harness Minecraft’s community to restore life in real oceans. We called the program Coral Crafters.

We asked the community to design in-game sculptures that were then turned into real world coral using a coral regrowth technology called Biorock.

It started with a design challenge, encouraging players to assist Minecraft’s top creators in designing the sculptures. Influencers worked with their fan-bases to concept and vote on sculptures. Six designs were made into sculptures and anchored to the sea floor off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico.

We also challenged the community to place 10 million coral blocks in Minecraft and matched that with donations to The Nature Conservancy to fund coral restoration.

Minecraft launched a Coral Crafter Skin Pack with 100% of the proceeds going to The Nature Conservancy, ensuring new coral would be grown in impacted sites all around the world.