How to make a game like Minecraft

Minecraft looks simple, which is why so many people try to copy it. The blocks are easy. The infinite world under them is the hard part. Here is why, and the routes that let one person get a block survival game working.

Roam is our app, and the Roam team wrote this page.

What Minecraft does

Minecraft was made by Mojang, fully released in 2011, and is owned by Microsoft. Its core loop is mine, craft, build, survive the night. Fan games cannot use the Minecraft name or its assets, so your version needs its own name, textures and twist.

Why a voxel engine is hard

Chunks. The world is split into chunks that load and unload as you walk. Getting this smooth is real engineering.
Meshing. Drawing every block separately is too slow. Engines merge visible faces into meshes and rebuild them when a block changes.
Saving the world. Every block a player breaks must be stored and loaded again later.
Lighting. Light spreading through caves and torches is its own system.

The routes that work

Engine plus a voxel plugin. Godot has the free Voxel Tools module, and Unity has voxel assets. They handle chunks and meshing so you can work on gameplay.
Luanti (formerly Minetest). A free, open-source voxel engine. You write games for it in Lua, and many complete games already run on it.
Mods and add-ons. If you want your idea inside Minecraft, Java mods and Bedrock add-ons let you add mobs, items and rules without building an engine.
A ready block world: Roam. Roam is a free iPhone app. Describe a block survival game in a sentence and it comes back playable, so you start on the fun part.

Pick one twist

Do not copy everything. Choose one idea Minecraft does not do: a world that floods every night, a sky island that shrinks, a dungeon under every chest. Build that first. Crafting trees and huge maps can come later, or never.

Play it on Roam

Create your block game with Roam

Describe your block world and the one twist that makes it yours. Play it on your iPhone, solo or with friends. Roam is rated 13+ on the App Store.

Try: "block survival on a sky island that shrinks every night, punch trees, craft a bridge, friends can join"

Create it with Roam Pre-register on Android See Roam

Roam ("Roam - Make Games" on the App Store) is an iPhone app where you play games and make your own by describing them or from a photo. It is free to download and play, and making games works without a subscription; optional Spark and Reality plans and credit packs add more creation. Android: pre-register on Google Play.

Questions people ask

Can one person make a game like Minecraft?

Yes, a small one, especially with a voxel plugin or Luanti. A full Minecraft-sized game took a large team many years.

Can I make a Minecraft game without coding?

Yes. Roam builds a playable block game from a sentence on iPhone. Most other routes need some scripting.

Can I use Minecraft's name or textures in my game?

No. Fan games need their own name and art. Minecraft belongs to Mojang and Microsoft.

Can someone make a Minecraft game for me?

Roam can make a Minecraft-like one. Describe a block game in a sentence on iPhone and it comes back playable. It plays in Roam: it is not a Minecraft map, mod or add-on.

How do I make a Minecraft-like game for free?

Luanti is a free, open-source voxel engine, and Godot with Voxel Tools is free too. Roam is free to download and play, and making games works without a subscription. Optional Spark and Reality plans and credit packs add more creation.

Product names belong to their owners. Roam is not affiliated with them.