How to get Minecraft Pi up ‘n’ running

In one of my older posts I told you that you could install Minecraft Pi through a web browser. It is a quick and easy way to download Minecraft Pi but there is another way.

By the end of this post you will know how to:

Install Minecraft through apt-get

Use the API to send chat messages to the game

Connect to another player using the same network as you’s game

Please note that Raspbian Jessie has Minecraft pre-installed.

Install Minecraft

open up LXTerminal and type sudo apt-get install minecraft-pi # Install Minecraft

Open Minecraft

Type in minecraft-pi to the terminal. Then click Start Game, followed by Create New and then the game will generate a world

Controls

Move with the WSAD keys and jump with space. Press SHIFT to crouch and left click to mine and right click to place block. Press E for inventory and ESC for the pause menu.

API Chat

All players on your Minecraft World can see this message. To post a message, open IDLE from the Programming category in the Menu and type:

from mcpi.minecraft import Minecraft

mc = Minecraft.create()

mc.postToChat(“Hello World of Minecraft Pi!”)

Replace Hello World of Minecraft Pi! with your message. You could do exactly the same thing with the following code:

from mcpi.minecraft import Minecraft

mc = Minecraft.create()

my_message = “Hello World of Minecraft Pi!”

mc.postToChat(my_message)

Replace Hello World of Minecraft Pi! in my_message with whatever you want. Remember, you must be on a Minecraft World!

Local Network Multiplayer

Did you know that you can play multiplayer with people using the same network as you? To play a multiplayer game, all Pi’s that want to join must be on the same network as the world owner.

Tutorial:

For the owner:

Go onto a World by clicking Start Game and then clicking on the World or Creating a New World.

For the users who want to join:

Click Join Game and then Click on StevePi and click Join Game at the bottom left of the screen.