Jim Groom has asked me to write a tutorial on getting DS106 students started with Minecraft, so here it goes…

First, you’re probably wondering what Minecraft is.  It is a first-person “miner” game from Mojang Specifications, a Swedish indie game development company.  There is no “goal” to Minecraft other than to survive.  Most often, players will gather on multiplayer servers and  create communities (as on my own private server).  Luckily, DS106 has its own Minecraft SMP (Survivor MultiPlayer) server!

Begin by downloading Minecraft here.  Don’t worry what operating system you have; as long as you can run Java (and 99.99% of you can), you’ll be fine.  That page gives pretty specific instructions on what to download.  Don’t worry about downloading the multiplayer beta server software, that’s not important to playing the game.

Now things get a little tricky.  You need to buy a license to use the game.  Yeah, I know, you spent enough money getting the web space for the class.  And paying an international charge fee won’t help either (since Mojang is in Sweden, your bank or credit union may charge you a fee).  But it works out to around $20, with no subscription fee, so it’s not so bad.

My number one rule before anyone plays on my server (and should be your personal rule before you do anything Minecraft-related) is to READ THE WIKI.  They have a very nice beginner’s guide here.

I really can’t offer much advice beyond what the Wiki has, other than to Google any problems you have, or bring them to me and I’ll Google them for you (if I’m feeling generous).

After you’ve played around in a single-player world for a few in-game days, feel free to take your hand at the SMP server.  When you click on “multiplayer” from the Minecraft main menu, it will ask for a server IP.  Use “minecraft.d106.us” (without quotes).  When you log on, it might be night, so watch out!   If so, log out and log back on in a few minutes to see if it has passed to daytime.  Once you log on during the day, follow the same steps you would for surviving in single player (make torches, build a shelter, etc.), and remember that time does not pause when you pause your screen in SMP!

The number one rule to follow for player interaction is to never EVER destroy something someone else has made.  Basically don’t be a jerk and you’ll be ok.  Leave any questions you have in the comments section below.