It goes without saying that Minecraft is a completely unique phenomenon in gaming. Fundamentally, it’s a sandbox that allows anyone to enact their vision or express themselves. Akliz works with a lot of talented creators who make mods, modpacks, art, videos, and overall bring life to interesting stories that we all get to experience through their work.

Recently, we posted an article about All The Mods 9: To The Sky. While All The Mods is one of our longest standing partners and a well known creator, we also want to highlight some less popular but still altogether just as worthwhile and important projects. Today, I want to share with you an interview I conducted with Katubug, the creator behind Cottage Witch.

A verdant living world. Your cozy home.

Is there anything you would like to tell readers about yourself?

My name is Katu (she/they), the creator of the Cottage Witch series of modpacks. I did most of the development solo, although recently I've expanded the team to include my sibling Emmu - and of course, I couldn't do any of this without the incredible help I've received from my moderators and the Cottage Witch community! I am forever grateful to everyone who has tried out my packs and enjoyed them! I've received so much feedback (both positive and constructive) from so many people, and that is the best reward a developer can ask for. Thank you all for your kindness!

Some facts about me: I'm a friendly but weird person with ADHD goblin tendencies, a love of cats and tea, and more hobbies than I know what to do with. You can often find me in the Cottage Witch discord, sharing memes or cool rocks I found, and providing support for the modpack, and modpack making in general. When I'm not online (which, let's be honest, is not often), I'm reading, drawing, crafting, or going for coffee. My favorite Minecraft block is sculk, my favorite biome is Lush Caves, and my favorite mob is the Axolotl!

How did you first come to start playing Minecraft? When did you first start playing mods, and what drew you to them?

I first started playing Minecraft around version 1.2-1.3, because I'd watched my younger brother play it, and I was absolutely enraptured by the idea of an infinite world to explore. I didn't start playing modded, though, until the servers I was an admin for started up a Tekkit world. Much like my initial introduction to the game, mods reinvigorated my interest with their seemingly unending new features and possibilities. I was never strong with technical mods and their deep recursive recipes, but I thoroughly enjoyed Forestry's Bee breeding, and I was also thrilled to build a base in one of Twilight Forest's giant trees.

What are your all-time favorite mods to play with?

I really love mods related to agriculture: farming, gardening, livestock, and so on. Until recently, I was a die-hard fan of Pam's Harvestcraft; although nowadays I am addicted to Farmer's Delight and its many add-ons. One mod I really miss is Animania, from 1.12.2. And I'm also a big fan of dimension-adding mods, especially The Betweenlands and Twilight Forest.

You've always showcased a strong love of nature. Do you have any favorite memories you'd like to share about being in nature?

My two favorite nature memories actually both happened in my backyard. The first one was when a baby rabbit was in the bushes by our house, and my cat went to investigate. The baby screamed at her, and she ran off, terrified. The other one involved the crows that frequent my yard - I had tossed some unsalted cashews onto the patio, and one actually took a few while I was watching, and then flew off. They've been by a couple of times since then, and I'm hoping I can win them over with more food.

What made you decide to create a modpack? How difficult was it for you to create something that works well?

To put it simply, I'm kind of a control freak. I started out playing other people's packs, but I would end up wanting to add my own mods, or remove some of theirs. Eventually, I realized it was easier to just fully curate my own modpack experience, and my friends encouraged me to share what I made with others! My avoidance of tech mods in-game is actually in opposition to my real life interest, where I am actually quite into gadgets and technology in general. If I can hack something, I generally will. It's been a challenge to learn modpack making over the years, but it's because there are precious few large repositories of knowledge - it's been mostly doing my own trial-and-error and asking questions that I hope someone else knows the answer to.

Your work became very popular very quickly. Why do you think so many people latched onto Cottage Witch? What were the primary challenges of having so much sudden popularity?

I think it's a combination of a couple of things. Firstly, I think there's a bigger market for cozy things now than there's ever been before. Cozy games especially! The other is that I put a lot of effort into the modpack description text and images, so people really get an idea of what they're going to be stepping into. Hopefully it's also because of the work put in to make the modpack an easy and cohesive experience, but I don't want to toot my own horn too much.

The sudden popularity was, honestly, a bit unexpected, and I was very unprepared! I had to quickly appoint people to help me moderate the discord, provide tech support, and generally keep things running smoothly. I also had to adapt to the fact that I was no longer developing just for myself and a couple friends, but for a whole (delightful and opinionated) community - which has been mostly a blessing, even if I struggled with it at times.

You've already created another modpack after your initial success: Cottage Witch Recast. Are you planning any more future projects that you can tell people about now?

Yes! My co-developer and I are working on a new Cottage Witch type modpack for 1.20.1, called Fabled Wylds! It shares a lot of similarities with Cottage Witch and Recast, but has some key mod differences, such as introducing Eidolon and Forbidden & Arcanus. It also leans into the ancient Archaeology aspect of 1.20.1, and blends the magical and scientific a bit more! To quote one of our alpha testers: "it's not exactly the same, it still is absolutely the same cozy witchy feel and so, so much fun!" We are almost in the beta stage, and I can't wait to release it into the world for folks to enjoy!

What are your thoughts?

What a great interview! I’ve personally known Katubug for many months, but there’s a lot you can still learn about a person just from asking them some questions and letting them tell you their story. I hope you’ve found something interesting in reading this, or better yet, found inspiration to start your own journey to tell your story through Minecraft. Thank you, Katu, for taking the time to speak with me, and thanks to everyone else who read along!

Did you just learn about Cottage Witch through reading along? Or maybe you planned to play and hadn’t had a chance yet? In any case, you should join their Discord server or check the CurseForge description page for more information.