How to Play Minecraft
Released in 2009, Mojang’s Minecraft exploded into one of the world’s most recognizable video games. The open-world sandbox, now a multi-billion dollar franchise, continues to appeal to millions of people across every country and continent. It’s become a major driver of streaming, driving the careers of hundreds of content creators, and has been watched over a trillion times on YouTube.
Minecraft’s blocky appearance may make it seem deceptively simple, but the game is far more than what meets the eye. The game offers a massive universe of possibilities for players to explore and create, both alone or with friends in multiplayer. Whether it’s hunting for diamonds or building a home, it’s up to the player to decide what kind of story they want to tell.
When starting up Minecraft, the player must first download and install the launcher. Once this is done, the game will load up and display a News screen with a link to log in. After entering a username and password, the game will open to the main menu.
The Options button displays the game’s settings and allows players to manage sound, graphics, mouse controls, and difficulty levels. This is a good time to discuss the appropriate difficulty level with your child and review game-related parental controls with them as well.
Clicking the SinglePlayer button opens a list of available worlds that the player can choose to start in. Alternatively, players can create their own worlds by clicking the New World button on the main menu.
Creating a world will bring up the New World screen with the name of the world and a Create button in the bottom left corner. Clicking this will prompt a new world to be created with the specified setting and chunk size.
In Creative mode, the player is given unlimited in-game resources and has immortality, the ability to fly, and the ability to break any type of block instantly. This mode is popular among players who enjoy the open-ended creation aspect of the game, rather than the challenge of surviving in the natural world.
Other gameplay modes include Adventure mode and Survival. In Adventure mode, the player must collect materials to craft items and fight a variety of enemies. Survival mode is a more difficult version of the game where the player must collect resources, craft items, fight enemies, and manage their health and hunger. The game also features a competitive mode called Build Battle, where the players are given an arbitrary theme and limited time to build anything they like in that theme. The best builds are ranked by the community. The game also supports thousands of mods, allowing the players to customize their experience and expand upon the core functionality. All of this makes Minecraft a highly adaptable title that can be enjoyed by both casual and hardcore gamers alike.
