After opening an air hockey table for the family to play with, Kevin and Gibson Honeycutt soon found the real toy was the package.

With six pieces of cardboard, the inventive father-and-son duo from Colorado Springs built a hexagonal structure big enough to fit a person inside. From there, they decided to take it further, crafting a DIY planetarium using a fan to inflate a screen ceiling.

“We had the whole living room destroyed,” joked Kevin, father to 9-year-old Gibson. “We were projecting on there, and thinking how that looked like the dome in Las Vegas. And so while I’m doing that, and I’m thinking of donating this to my son’s school so they can use it in the classroom, Gibson goes in there and hooks up his Switch.”

Plugging in his Nintendo Switch gaming system to project on the screen, Gibson began to play one of his favorite games, and voila — the “Minecraftarium” is born.

For Kevin and Gibson, the winter break project quickly became an online sensation. A clip of the two assembling and using the immersive pod went viral across social media platforms, with 12.4 million views on Instagram and 11.2 million views on TikTok.

“Just for grins and giggles, we published that on TikTok and Instagram,” Kevin said. “It just keeps going up. So we get 100,000 views, and then 200,000 views, and then a million views. And so by the time I go to sleep, my phone is just buzzing, buzzing, buzzing.”

The pair made the pod using items around the house. The structure of the Minecraftarium is made out of cardboard, and the projection screen is made from a shower curtain. There’s also a bubble window, which was made using an old plastic bowl.

Within the pod, Gibson is in his own world — literally. In a game where players can gather blocks and use them to build, craft and interact with the surrounding digital world, the hemisphere projection screen just adds to the immersion. Kevin likened it to the iconic Vegas Sphere, just a bit more portable.

Minecraft is the bestselling video game in history, and with a movie on the way, it’s no surprise the Minecraftarium is so popular.

“There’s a lot of things that make it fun,” Gibson said. “Sometimes, you can just feel like you’re in a new world.”

Parents flooded the comments section praising the invention and asking for a tutorial, especially since the design allows kids privacy while parents can still see what is being displayed.

“As a parent, whatever they’re doing in the box, you can see it on the top. So it’s a very sneaky way to give them privacy, but keep an eye on them,” Kevin said.

Kevin plans to release instructions on the DIY Minecraftarium via his website, kevinhoneycutt.org. There, you’ll find that engineering with cardboard is a frequent craft for the team of two, who have also created helicopters and spaceships. As an educator, Kevin teaches other kids how to build these projects in workshops.

Parenting in today’s digital age can be difficult, and balance seems to be key, Kevin said.

“We have this philosophy. We call it ‘tradigital,’ so the cardboard is traditional and the screen is digital, and he’s going to live in both worlds, but we don’t want him to just get lost on a screen,” Kevin said. “So we’re always thinking about what does balance look like today.”

So, while that new air hockey table will surely be played, the father and son will continue testing the limits of their imagination.

“Everything’s a teachable moment,” Kevin said.