Open Source Alternatives To Minecraft
There’s no denying that Minecraft is a favorite game for millions. And being written in Java enables it to run on a variety of platforms, including Linux. With a huge modding community, there are countless Minecraft tinkerers out there who would love to be able to get under the hood and play around with the source code themselves. Unfortunately, the source is not available to the general public.
But there’s good news. Minecraft’s popularity has led to many attempts to recreate the game, and others in a similar vein, as open source software. Interested in a free Minecraft alternative? Here’s a quick look at some clones and derivatives out there that you really ought to check out.
These projects are in widely varying levels of completion and serve a number of different goals. Some seek to duplicate the Minecraft experience completely, or to at least provide a very similar experience. Others are taking the voxel-based gaming concept in entirely new directions, and still others are really more of a framework to help you build your own game or creation.
Minecraft Games Free To Play At Keygames
Minecraft games are extremely popular online, where you can find various spin-offs and clones, map-based adventure games, and item-crafting games based on this best-selling title. Minecraft was developed by Markus Persson and combines creativity, adventure, and the freedom to set your own in-game goals. You can spend your time building or replicating complex constructions, but youre also free to set out on an adventure to explore your environment or fight monsters. For our full collection of building games, check out this page.
Only Available For Users In The Us And Canada
Story by
Ivan Mehta
Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.” Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.”
The app is now available for free, but with a few caveats. You must be at least 18 years old and located in the US or Canada. Plus, you need the Oculus Quest 2, as the game wont be supported on the Quest 1 after January 13, 2022.
Last August, Meta launched Horizon Worlds as an invite-only beta to let early adopters experience the virtual space, and even build new things with tools provided by the company. In other words, its like a shittier Minecraft VR.
You can watch a glimpse of what you could do in it through the video below.
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Creator Of Minecraft Admits He Ripped Off Another Game When Creating Minecraft
Minecraft is one of the most popular games on the planet it rose in popularity very quickly and was praised for its unique, creative take on survival/sandbox video games.
Whilst it may be surprising to hear it, Minecraft wasnt an entirely original idea. In fact, like many games in the industry, Minecraft was originally inspired by another game.
The game that Minecraft was inspired by is called Infiniminer. It also received a huge burst of support when it first launched, but it was quickly canceled due to some issues during early development. Minecraft then took Infiniminers steam and rose up to the level of popularity it has today.
But Whats Available Right Now On Horizon Worlds
Well, Meta is debuting a 3v3 laser tag game called Arena Clash you can play with friends. The company also highlighted some existing games and experiences, such as a city explorer called Wand & Broom, an arcade-style battle royale called Pixel Plummet, and a virtual boat ride called Marks Riverboat .
You can read more about Horizon Worlds here
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League Of Legends Is Inspired By Dota
Dota was originally a mod that was developed for Warcraft III during the early 2000s. A number of people worked on the mod together, including the well known IceFrog.
As Dotas popularity increased, Riot Games saw the success of the newly formed Mobile Online Battle Arena genre, and they jumped in with their very own game called League of Legends.
Today, both Dota 2 and League Of Legends are popular across the world, but its perhaps League Of Legends thats the most popular. Once again, both games offer a different experience to players, and both games have fostered some of the largest competitive esports tournaments in the world.
Fortnite Battle Royale Is Inspired By Pubg
The huge success that is Fortnite Battle Royale was all thanks to PUBG. Playerunknown created the Battle Royale game type and popularized it and his work cannot go unnoticed.
The original Battle Royale game mode actually started as a mod for Arma it was then developed as a separate game mode for H1Z1, with support from Playerunknown, and eventually, Bluehole worked closely with Playerunknown to make the most successful paid battle royale game in all of history.
Fortnite saw the success that PUBG had and they took their opportunity to make a rival game. They both offer completely different experiences, and both games bring a healthy level of competition between two publishers.
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Survivalcraft 1 And 2
Price: $3.99
Survivalcraft is one of the closest Minecraft style games you can find. You end up moored on a shore of a block planet. The goal is to build stuff, craft things, make weapons, defend yourself, grow plants, and all of that stuff. This one also goes that special step further where you can build functioning machines that actually do things. In addition, you can play with up to three players in split screen mode if you play on a device that can handle it. Survivalcraft 2 hasnt seen an update since 2017 so were a bit worried that its abandoned, but it plays fine for right now.
How To Avoid Being Ripped Off By Villagers In Minecraft
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NPC villages. Great places for items, furnaces and wheat. But you can also trade! Here’s how to not get ripped off by trading with NPC villagers in Minecraft.
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All Mmos Are Essentially Inspired By Each Other
Isnt odd that you can jump into pretty much any MMO and get to grips with almost everything there is to know about it within an hour or two? Most MMOs share gameplay concepts, and they all use the popularity of other MMOs to determine which gameplay concepts they should use for their own game.
Games like Black Desert Online, World Of Warcraft, and Elder Scrolls Online all share gameplay concepts and grab ideas from each other. All of these games do have their own unique features too, but the number of similarities is far larger than the differences.
Its gotten to the point where playing one MMO is almost like playing them all. The world design is different and so is the lore, but most MMOs are structured so similarly its hard to not notice.
Free Minecraft Games: Six Blocky Alternatives To Try
Here are the best games like Minecraft that you can play without paying a penny
Looking for free Minecraft games? If youve exhausted Minecraft, or youre looking for games similar to Minecraft but dont want to pay the price tag that comes with them, these free Minecraft games will fill that block shaped hole in your life. These games may not feature the same creative and survival modes Minecraft is known for, but they should keep you entertained.
Although these games arent one-to-one replicas of Minecraft, some of them get incredibly close and those looking for free Minecraft games are sure to find something they recognise and love from Mojangs blocky universe in each of these six games such as survival-horror Unturned, or the endless possibilities of Robloxs mad player-created worlds. Or if youre new to Minecraft, these free alternatives provide a little taste of the block-building behemoth.
Whether you enjoy crafting, building, adventuring, surviving, or even just Minecrafts aesthetic these free Minecraft games do veer off the Minecraft formula in a number of ways, but in return they offer something a little bit different. Keep reading for your gateway to more of the same block-building tranquillity that Minecraft serves on tap.
Here are the best free Minecraft games:
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Best Games Like Minecraft On Android
Wed like to give an honorable mention to The Blockheads . It was a popular Minecraft alternative for many years, but Noodlecake had to take the game down due to disputes with Google Play. Its still good, but you have to install the APK yourself now. We have a guide for that here if you need it.
Maximizing Emerald Profits Strategically
This method will not work after 1.7 because villager breeding and trading mechanics will be greatly modified.
Also Check: How To Mod A Minecraft Server
Did Notch Steal Infiniminers Game Code
Whilst its clear that the origins of Minecraft were heavily inspired by Infiniminer, its not fair on Notch to say that he straight up stole Infiniminers game code.
All of Notchs work on Minecraft was done on his own two feet he used Infiniminer as inspiration, but theres no evidence that Notch actually stole any code from Infiniminer.
The other important thing to keep in mind is that whilst during early development, even though Minecraft was an Infiniminer clone, it quickly became something else.
Minecraft evolved very quickly to become its own game with unique gameplay mechanics and all of that was developed by Notch without any help from other developers.
We also have to consider that video game developers take inspiration from other games all of the time. This is the way the industry has always worked, and it will continue to work this way.
If we go back at past video game releases, we can see that some of the best video games in history would never have been released if it werent for developers getting inspiration for their next game by looking at somebody elses work.
Minecraft How To Play The Game
Minecraft is a sandbox game, which refers to the way children play in a sandbox: they can make up their own goals, build whatever they like, and destroy what they have built if they want to use the same space and materials to try something different. There is no single pre-set goal to achieve in Minecraft, and players have a huge amount of freedom to choose how they want to interact with their environment. There are various game modes and difficulty settings that allow you to tailor the gameplay to your wishes.
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What Is Infiniminer
Youre probably wondering what Infiniminer was and how similar it was to Minecraft. A screenshot of Infiniminer has been provided above.
As you can see, things look pretty similar, at least on a graphical level. The same voxel-based world that Minecraft uses can be seen in the Infiniminer image.
This is exactly where Notch drew inspiration for his Minecraft game. The story behind it is quite interesting.
Whilst what we know of Minecraft today doesnt share the same core gameplay as Infiniminer, the original Minecraft game did.
In Infiniminer, players had to carve through the earth to gather minerals and earn points for your team. It was originally designed as a competitive game, but players had more fun using their creativity to create their own structures and buildings.
Later, Infiniminer was discontinued. The game was shut down because a vulnerability in the game source code was found that essentially allowed anybody to create their own version of Infiniminer based upon the existing games code.
A few weeks after Infiniminer was released, Notch released a Youtube video showing the very basics of his cave game.In the video description, Notch wrote: This is a very early test of an Infiniminer clone Im working on. You can see the video below.