[HN Gopher] Minetest: An open source voxel game engine
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       Minetest: An open source voxel game engine
        
       Author : doener
       Score  : 109 points
       Date   : 2023-04-30 20:58 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.minetest.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.minetest.net)
        
       | George83728 wrote:
       | Minetest has a lot of promise, but also has a lot of low-hanging
       | fruit, particularly around the fit and finish of the game. For
       | instance the configuration GUIs for setting up your controls is
       | pretty bad, you still can't reconfigure your mouse keys without
       | editing minetest.conf
       | 
       | Still, it gives me hope that if Microsoft ever ruins Minecraft
       | somehow, minetest should prove to be a good foundation for
       | community-run block game.
        
         | fnordpiglet wrote:
         | The Minecraft IAP and server spam is getting pretty close.
        
           | rmorey wrote:
           | This is the major reason I stay away from bedrock versions,
           | java seems to have way less of this
        
         | bscphil wrote:
         | > if Microsoft ever ruins Minecraft somehow
         | 
         | Honestly I haven't touched Minecraft since Microsoft started
         | enforcing "you have to have a Microsoft account". It's not
         | ruining the game per se, and it's not an overwhelmingly
         | burdensome thing, it has just raised the activation energy of
         | getting back into the game enough that I haven't summoned the
         | will yet.
        
       | gjsman-1000 wrote:
       | Minetest is nowhere near Minecraft... but it's still fun, and I
       | wish the developers the best (especially as Minecraft gets more
       | and more heavy-handed).
       | 
       | I would strongly recommend that anyone playing Minetest get a
       | texture pack, basically any would do, because the stock textures
       | do not leave a good impression.
        
         | comrad wrote:
         | Minetest is really just a base game and an engine. Look into
         | Mineclone2, a minetest-game.
         | 
         | https://content.minetest.net/packages/Wuzzy/mineclone2/
        
           | nathan_compton wrote:
           | I play Minetest 2 with my kids and we have a great time.
        
         | detaro wrote:
         | When you say "Minetest", are you referring to the default
         | "game" that comes with it? The _game engine_ part is important!
        
           | George83728 wrote:
           | It would be nice if the default "Minetest Game" were less
           | bare bones, since that is the experience most people new to
           | minetest will probably encounter first. Some decisions in
           | "Minetest Game", like broken blocks going straight into your
           | inventory instead of falling to the ground, seem like they're
           | different for the sake of being different; I have a gut
           | feeling the Minetest devs are consciously staying off
           | Mojang's turf.
        
       | uvnq wrote:
       | As a fan of older minecraft versions I'm looking forward to
       | messing around with this with friends
        
       | jamilton wrote:
       | A Minetest game I recommend is Nodecore:
       | https://content.minetest.net/packages/Warr1024/nodecore/
       | 
       | Description: "A surreal dream-world where everything is possible
       | but nothing is easy. Peaceful and Zen. Brutally obstinate.
       | Prepare to unlearn everything you thought you knew about voxel
       | sandbox games."
       | 
       | "Brutally obstinate" is right, it's pretty mystifying and I
       | didn't get very far when I played it, but it's definitely
       | interesting. It's like heavily modded Minecraft from another
       | dimension. If you like a game where figuring out how to play is
       | part of the challenge, I think you'd like Nodecore.
        
         | anthk wrote:
         | So this is like Minetest blended with The Powder Toy?
        
       | grapesurgeon wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | xigency wrote:
       | The lineage of voxel miners is quite interesting. MineCraft is
       | obviously trailblazing, but it was preceded by a few others like
       | Infiniminer. I would say I feel bad that early projects like
       | those didn't make billions from success, but there is a lot to be
       | said about the creative gameplay in MineCraft that change it from
       | being a simple sandbox to a really engaging world.
        
       | beardog wrote:
       | It is best to think of Minetest as more of a decentralized open
       | source roblox instead of a minecraft clone as one may initially
       | think since it is more of a game engine than a game.
        
       | mvdl wrote:
       | I like the way the mineyest ecosystem is progressing. I am a huge
       | fan of Minecraft and we turned it into a family thing running our
       | own server. But the take-over by Microsoft feels like a pain and
       | I really dislike that since the move to Microsoft I now have to
       | grant my teen daughters access via a family page.
        
       | bobwaycott wrote:
       | Minetest was the vehicle through which I first introduced my
       | youngest son to programming around 7-8 years ago (iirc). The way
       | his eyes lit up when he wrote some code to change the game and
       | then played it was just magic. He still--as a freshman CS student
       | wrapping up his first year--fondly remembers those magical
       | feelings today.
        
         | darkteflon wrote:
         | Came here to ask about just this! May I ask how old he was at
         | the time? I'm considering trying this with our 6 year-old, who
         | is a huge Minecraft fan. Looks to me as though it would
         | probably be beyond him but, on the other hand, I would at least
         | like to try to re-create that "aha!" moment with VS Code on one
         | half of the screen and this on the other.
        
           | bobwaycott wrote:
           | He was around 11-12 at the time. He and his brother were huge
           | Minecraft fans (they still play all these years later), and
           | he wanted to learn how to change the game like mods did. I
           | worried Java would be a bit much and might get in the way of
           | him just trying some simple things out, and Lua seemed much
           | simpler and approachable for me to help him with. He was also
           | a big superhero fan, so his first 3 modifications were to
           | give himself superpowers. We added the ability to fly like
           | Superman, run fast like the Flash, and jump huge distances
           | like the Hulk. His favorite moment was when he activated the
           | speedforce() and hulk_jump() together and realized he didn't
           | even need to fly because the speed-running and massive jump
           | moved him further across the map at a faster rate of speed
           | than his superman() function did. :)
        
             | darkteflon wrote:
             | Wonderful, love it :) Thanks so much - this'll be our
             | project this weekend. I'll set everything up so he can just
             | change a couple variables and see the effect immediately.
             | We'll see where we get to!
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-30 23:00 UTC)