Minecraft. At the mention of that word, I’ll guarantee half of you felt at least a minor jolt of excitement, while the other half either shrugged apathetically or scratched their heads in confusion.

For those of you who don’t know, Minecraft is quite possibly one of the most popular indie games around. While still in beta, it gathered over ten million users to its fold. Now that it’s been officially released, that number’s ballooned to over nineteen million. It’s a free roaming “sandbox” adventure game where you gather resources, avoid hostile creatures, and build to your hearts content (creatures optional). I’m completely unashamed to admit that I both play and love the game.

Now, let’s say you want to play Minecraft with your friends.  Trouble is, you don’t know how. Unfortunately, as of the time of writing, there’s no way of directly connecting to another player’s computer. If you want to play with friends, you’ll have to either find a server to play on…or create your own. 

Step One: Download The Client

First thing’s first you’ll have to download the Minecraft server client from here. If you’re feeling adventurous (or running an operating system other than Windows) you can download and run the .jar file at the bottom of this page for a version without a graphical user interface. It allows for a lot more freedom, but it’s also a bit more advanced. This tutorial will assume you’ve downloaded the former, rather than the latter.

Step Two: Make Sure Java Is Up To Date

Download the latest update here.  Minecraft runs off of Java, so if you don’t have the latest update…it might not run.

Step Three: Forward The Necessary Ports On Your Router

Check here for a guide on how to do that. If you don’t forward the ports, people aren’t going to be able to see your server.

Step Four: Make Sure Your Server Software Can Pass Through Your Firewall

Same as step three, people won’t be able to see your server if your firewall blocks it. Make sure Minecraft_server.exe is on the firewall’s ‘allowed programs’ list.

Step Five: Ensure Antivirus Software Isn’t Interfering

….yeah. you know the drill. Same as the other two steps, make sure your antivirus software isn’t borking up your server’s connection.

Step Six: Set Up Your Map

Now, here’s a neat part. Got an awesome map you want to show to the world? There’s a folder called “world” in the folder where your server client is. If you want, you can copy any pre-existing world into that folder (replacing all the files there). You can also have multiple world folders on the same server, by editing options in the server.properties file (we’ll look at next.)

Step Seven: Set Up Your Server’s Properties

In the folder your server’s in, you’ll see a file called server.properties. Open it in notepad. You’ll see something like the list below pop up.

#Minecraft server properties

#Tue Sep 13 14:35:33 MDT 2011
level-name=Test World
allow-nether=true
view-distance=10
spawn-monsters=true
online-mode=true
difficulty=1
gamemode=0
spawn-animals=true
pvp=true
max-players=20
server-ip=
level-seed=
server-port=25565
allow-flight=false
white-list=true
motd=This is my server.

Most of that stuff’s self-explanatory. For the rest of it, a whitelist basically means only players whose usernames you stipulate can connect. If online mode is set to false, it means the server doesn’t check for authentication with Minecraft’s central servers. Changing the level name will let you switch between worlds. Other than that….pretty self-explanatory, no?

Step Eight: Start Up Your Server

Take note of your server’s IP address (or your computer’s) and tell your friends.

Enjoy!

Image Credits: Giantbomb

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