Introducing Our New Name
“Is this a Minecraft clone? Is it like Minecraft Alpha?” If you’ve been a member of our community for some time, you are probably aware of how often these questions remind us of what people think of when they hear the name “Minetest”: a rip-off of a similar genre-defining game. Truth be told, that was celeron55’s initial plan. But things change, and Minetest evolved. Now, the time has come for Minetest to assume a new identity and prove it has moved beyond its original purpose.
After seeing Minecraft’s alpha debut, celeron55 “took it as a challenge” to explore “the mystery of how a game world like this works under the hood”1. The name wasn’t very important; it was a test after all— an experiment to see what it could do differently. An experiment that began attracting more users and contributors throughout the years until Minetest eventually evolved from a game to what it is today: a game platform.
Through the efforts of the community over the past decade, Minetest has developed a unique identity with an approachable API and easy scripting language, support for community-created games and mods, a central library to easily find community content, and more recently a shift to promoting community creations instead of the original Minetest Game. Despite these advancements, one anachronistic holdover has remained to remind us of the past: an idea that no longer describes the purpose of this project and community— its name.
