There is no denying that Minecraft is a favorite game for millions of people. And is being written in Java which allows it to run on multiple platforms, including Linux. With such a large modding community, there are plenty of Minecraft enthusiasts out there who would love to get under the hood and play around with the source code on their own. Unfortunately, the source is not available to the general public.
But there is good news. The popularity of Minecraft has led to many attempts to reinvent the game and others in a similar vein, as open source software. Interested in a free Minecraft alternative? Here is a quick look at some of the clones and their derivatives that you should check out.
These projects are in various stages of completion and serve a number of different purposes. Some seek to completely duplicate the Minecraft experience, or at least provide a very similar experience. Others take the concept of voxel-based games in a whole new direction, and others are really more of a framework to help you build your own game or creation. Okay, here are the 5 best free Minecraft alternatives:
Minetest
The first game on our list is Minetest. Minetest is perhaps the most complete alternative to Minecraft, which is billed as an “infinite world block sandbox game and game engine.” It supports multiplayer games and sub-games and features a number of different default terrain and biome generators. It also features a very user-friendly API for creating mods in Lua.
Minetest is open source under the LGPL, and is written mainly in C++ so it is quite fast compared to others written in scripting languages. Minetest runs on Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, FreeBSD, and possibly other operating systems as well.
[Download Minetest]
Terasology
Terasology probably won the award for the most beautiful rendering engine in the package; the shadows are ominous and spectacular. What started out as an experiment in procedural creation of terrain has turned into a full featured game, complete with multiplayer and a number of additional modules installed by default to let you try different game mechanics.
Terasology is written in Java and is available under the Apache 2.0 license. Due to its Java based system, Terasology can run on almost any platform with enough power, as long as you have a Java 8 virtual machine installed. [Download Terasology]
Voxel.js
The odd thing about this list is that Voxel.js, unlike the others, is not a game at all and doesn’t claim to be a game. Instead, Voxel.js is a JavaScript library that allows you to create Minecraft-style interactive games, renderings or widgets in JavaScript and HTML, enabling easy embedding of any web page without the need for a special plugin for any WebGL-enabled browser.
Voxel.js is put together as a number of related projects, which means you can use as much or as little code as you want when you create the perfect game. The main library, voxel-engine is a pretty basic engine for rendering grid scenes, but there are over 200 add-ons available. Check out the gallery for some ideas on what other people have made with their machines. The main engine is released under a BSD style license; Other add-ons may be licensed differently, so it’s worth checking before you make any assumptions. [Download Voxel.js]
TrueCraft
TrueCraft is written very close to the original game. It is described as an “implementation” of Minecraft, as opposed to a clone, and is compatible with official Minecraft server releases. TrueCraft’s authors attempted to implement beta 1.7.3 of the original game, a period in Minecraft development that he deemed “nearly perfect.” A snapshot intentionally frozen in time, TrueCraft seeks feature parity with Minecraft.
Because it’s so close to the original, TrueCraft has gone to great lengths to avoid copyright issues by allowing code only from developers who have not yet deciphered or have access to the original game’s source code, although those who have been welcome to contribute in other ways. TrueCraft is written in C# and is open source under the MIT license. [Download TrueCraft]
Craft
Craft is another open source voxel engine in Minecraft style. Its simplicity may appeal to you if you are interested in building games similar to Minecraft but are not sure where to start: the game engine resides in just a few thousand lines of C code and uses OpenGL for rendering.
It uses simple algorithms for terrain creation and other tasks, and everything is stored in a SQLite3 database. There’s also a Python-based multiplayer server that’s worth checking out. Craft is available under the MIT license. [Download Craft]
Conclusion: Those are the 5 best free Minecraft alternatives that you should try. Finally, good luck and if this article is useful, please share it on your social media. Thank you.
