Bubblemall

Bubblemall along the Lake Front during the early days of New Bubbletown

Information

Bubblemall is the main tower complex in New Bubbletown located in the downtown lake-front district of Burghian. Bubblemall consists of 3 nearly identical buildings, all built with snow, glass and wood. Before Map 11 was released, bubbleGuy192 intended for the Bubblemall Complex to have 8 identical towers, but this was narrowed down to 4 and then finally 3 to save resources and maintain motivation.

The complex features its own train station in the basement that has connections to both the Railway Trade Union station, Trans-World Railway station, and other points of the city.

Some features of the towers include:

- The Bubblemall Sky Gardens on the roof of the East Tower

- The Bubblemall Tranquil Gardens which is beside the East Tower

- A Dance Club on the top floor of the Southwest tower for events or parties

The mall used to feature a seasonal shop which was ran by TBoneX07, however it is now closed.

The entire complex took about 80 stacks of snow blocks, 71 stacks of wood planks, and 68 stacks of glass. The tower was designed by bubbleGuy192, and was built by players such as midgetpounder, TheXLMinecrafter, Mixarium, samwoot, luigiriot, TBoneX07, bluecrafter07, salthepal128, PlotyMinecraft, CalmCreeper360 and others.

Purpose and Legacy

Bubblemall was quickly constructed after New Bubbletown was founded, mainly to serve as a center for commerce and shopping, but also to attract builders to the city. Both objectives were met and were very successful during the early days of Map 11 and New Bubbletown. Bubblemall also was the foundation of the "vertical mall" style of architecture.

For some time, the Bubblemall complex (specifically the East Tower) held the record for the highest building on Puucraft, surpassing the build height by 1 block due to a glitch. However, the record was lost after the construction of the Puustaff Tower located in the downtown district of Mesome. The Puustaff Tower holds the record for the same reason, but the glitch was intentional on the Puustaff Tower for the design of the antennas, while the East Tower was accidental during the construction of the Bubblemall Sky Gardens.

Today, Bubblemall is mostly vacant, containing only 2-3 tenants who rarely restock their shop. However, the complex still sees some players shopping, or players arriving from the train station, or coming to explore. Bubblemall, despite losing a majority of its tenants and value, is still an iconic and important piece in New Bubbletown and will remain a staple in the history of New Bubbletown and the impact of trade during Map 11.

Problems

Problems arose almost immediately after construction began. The site needed to be big. Forests and hills were cleared. Outlines and perimeters for each building were marked. However, 4 towers occupied a lot of space and was an inefficient expense of materials and labor. Because of this, 3 towers were built. To go along with this, when the warp at Bubblemall was established, there was a glitch that caused players to start suffocating momentarily upon warping. This was resolved around a month later. Also, there were issues between players and groups such as the Railway Trade Union as well as bubbleGuy192 who at this point, showed pride on the surface but behind the scenes was extremely disappointed with the result of Bubblemall.

While originally built in the center of the town, it is now considered to be located in the heart of the New Bubbletown "slums", a term used by players that describes the very dense, urban district that features a lot of buildings designed for economic purposes, yet remain empty or abandoned. Most of New Bubbletown’s activity has been focused toward the more developed and nicer uptown region, which today receives more player traffic.

Bubblemall had also influenced the creation of other skyscraper malls, also known as "vertical malls" as stated previously. However, most of, if not all of these malls are completely vacant, and one is permanently closed. This issue has affected the shopowners and mall owners, which has led to the vertical mall style of architecture being deemed as obsolete.

History

Bubblemall's Northwest Tower was the first tower to be planned out and constructed in the city and took around 5 hours to build. Shortly after the second tower was constructed, the East tower. Finally, the Southwest tower was the last to be completed, and took the longest to finish. TBoneX07 often refers to the Southwest Tower as the "Forgotten Tower." In around September, Bubblemall was expanded and a basement area was added. This was to make the shopping experience feel more open and hopefully draw in more attention, however this was not the case and the Basement's shops still remain vacant. In mid January, a big upgrade was added and the underground railway station was revamped in order to compensate for the Railway Trade Union line going to Bubblemall, as well as other railways going to Bubblemall, as a part of the city's infrastructure. On the 8th of May, 2022, TBoneX07 sold the Southwest Tower off to Mixarium, resulting in their 25% share of Bubblemall's assets being owned by Mixarium.