Modding Minecraft: Build Your Own Minecraft Mods!

by Sarah Guthals, Stephen Foster, Lindsey Handley

Overview

My kid can mod Minecraft? Oh my!

There’s no doubt about it: Minecraft has taken the world by storm. If your resident Minecraft fanatic is ready to take their experience to a new level of play, introduce them to modding! Modding allows Minecraft players to modify the game through code—giving them the ability to add a variety of gameplay changes, ranging from new blocks and items to new mechanisms to craft. It’s pretty much a Minecraft enthusiast’s dream brought to life! In Modding Minecraft, your child will be introduced to three fun and easy-to-complete projects that teach them the coding skills to make the most of their love of Minecraft.

Walking young readers through projects that outline how to create games in Minecraft for single or multiple players, this friendly and accessible guide takes the intimidation out of coding and instills confidence in children as young as seven as they complete cool coding projects to mod their favorite game. Full-color, eye-popping graphics and a short page count hold their attention while the goal-based format keeps them focused on the task at hand. Before you know it, your kid will be writing their own mods and having even more fun with Minecraft.

• Kids can complete the projects on their own or alongside an adult
• Introduces getting started with a single-player, single-level game
• Moves readers on to multi-level game playing
• Finishes with a multi-level, multi-player game based on the classic “capture the flag” game

With simple and clear instruction that your child can understand, Modding Minecraft is the perfect place for your kid to dig deep and open up a whole new world in their creative play.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781119177272
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/06/2015
Series:	Wiley's Kids for Dummies Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	378,307
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	7 - 11 Years

About the Author

Sarah Guthals, Stephen Foster, and Lindsey Handley are the co-founders of ThoughtSTEM and the creators of the LearnToMod software. They have dedicated their lives to coding education and are co-authors of Minecraft Modding For Kids.

Table of Contents

Introduction 2

About Minecraft and LearnToMod 2

About This Book 2

About You 3

About the Icons 4

Project 1: Start Modding 5

Know What Minecraft Modding Is 5

Use the LearnToMod Online Software 6

Sign up for LearnToMod 7

Use the LearnToMod badges 8

Connect your mods to Minecraft 8

Connect to the LearnToMod Server 12

Check Out the Coding Environment 13

Test Your Mod 15

Run Your Mod in Minecraft 19

Get Ready to Write Your Own Minecraft Mods 22

Share a Mod with Friends 24

How Your Friend Finds Your Mod 25

Earn Modding Badges 27

Earn Scramble badges 27

Earn the Saying Hello badge: Scramble Edition 29

Communicate with your computer 30

Earn Missing badges 31

Trace code 32

Earn the Saying Hello badge: Missing Edition 33

Project 2: Spleef 36

Introduce the Gameplay Loop 37

Start: Create a basic scene 38

Goal: Add a way to win and lose 38

Challenge: Make it harder to win 39

Reward: Make players want to win 39

Plan and Try Test Cases 40

Debug Your Code 41

Make Spleef: Iteration 1 42

Explore the ArenaBuilder library 42

Start: Import the ArenaBuilder library 44

Goal: Make a way to win and lose 48

Challenge: Make blocks disappear one second after touching them 55

Reward: Give the player points 59

Make Spleef: Iteration 2 62

Start: Add a lava platform 63

Goal: Destroy at least 200 blocks 63

Challenge: Add an enemy 64

Reward: Add fireworks 64

Project 3: Monster Arena 67

Draw the Gameplay Loop 67

Iteration 1: Make Monster Arena 68

Start: Create a basic arena with a fence 70

Refactor: Move the arena code to a new function 76

Goal: Add a melon block to break 76

Test: Make sure your game works 78

Challenge: Add monsters to the arena 78

Reward: Replay the first level 80

Test: Iteration 1 completed 84

Iteration 2: Add Levels 85

Start: Make the arena unique 86

Goal: Wait until a later iteration 87

Challenge: Add monsters 87

Reward: Add a second level 87

Test: Make sure both levels work 90

Iteration 3: Add Levels to Your Levels 90

Challenge: Switch to Survival mode 91

Reward: Add five more levels 93

Make More Iterations: Be Creative and Unique 95

Project 4: Capture the Flag 97

Use the Capture the Flag Library 97

Make a Basic Capture the Flag 99

Test Your Two-Player Capture the Flag 102

Add Wands 104

Attach Magic to Your Wands 106

Make Your Own Wand 111

Give Each Player Two Wands 115