PSA - MineTest on SteamDeck
PSA - MineTest on SteamDeck
In this article, I will explain how to set up Minetest on the deck, and review the controls, performance, and experience.
MineTest on a SteamDeck is so fun, y'all.
(Edit: MineTest is a free and open source game engine that started as a clone of Minecraft, and has grown to be that, and much more.)
I would have tried it sooner, if someone had mentioned it to me, so I'm mentioning it to you.
Edit: Disclaimer, I'm not the author of this blog. It's the walkthrough I followed to start playing.
Minetest is awesome! Feels like real OG Minecraft in all the best and glitchiest ways.
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WTF is Minetest?
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You shouldn't really need a tutorial. Just download in the discover store. Then right click --> add to Steam.
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There's a Decky Plugin for adding art to games. Forget the name of it. But it's just a graphical UI and just click whichever art you want from the menu.
It's an open source minecraft-esque game engine with lots of different games people have made on it. The biggest being the one that replicates the featureset of Minecraft.
Minetest is a game engine & launcher for Minecraft-like games. It and its various games are developed by a lovely open-source community.
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Does this game have a multiplayer component? Would be great to mess around in something like Minecraft again without the need of a subscription.
Does this game have a multiplayer component?
Yes, and it's fantastic.
I found it noticably more stable than Minecraft Java Edition multiplayer, and quite a lot easier to get started hosting.
I just picked my game (Mineclone2 is a good starting point) and picked my mods (I looped back later to get fancy with a MineGame modest), and the I jammed the 'host' button.
On a local network, other players just have to type in the host computer's IP address and hit 'Register' once and then 'Login' after that. 'Register' is once per world - their username and password get added only to that world on the hosting computer.
Thankfully, on my SteamDeck, it remembers my details between plays, so I only had to mess with the virtual keyboard on my first play.
I host it from an old laptop. And I let one of my kids play on that laptop, while I and my other family play on our SteamDeck or PC. My understanding is that an Android phone will work fine, as well.
On my (strained by too many devices) network, someone has serious lag and loses connection about once in a four hour game session. It's still mildly annoying to lose the last 10 blocks placed during the timeout. But reconnecting is dramatically faster than Minecraft Java edition. Typically less than 5 seconds. I get disconnected about that often on other Steam games so it may have nothing to do with MineTest.
Max players I have had at once, so far was 8, and it handled it fine.
To play with remote friends, we do the same port forwarding dance as Minecraft Java edition, except that Mineclone is on port 30000.
Would be great to mess around in something like Minecraft again without the need of a subscription.
It's a joy! I've never begrudged the $25 to Minecraft, but it's fantastic knowing I can keep my server world and mod setup much longer since MineTest is open source. I have a feeling that MineTest is going to join Vi on my 'bury me with it because I'm not letting go' software list.
Minecraft is too beautiful of an idea to entrust in Microsoft’s hands, other games need to take the torch and drive the genre forward and it is really exciting that Minetest, the open source version of this kind of game, is doing that.
Glad we have Vintage Story too, but Minetest has a really long and vibrant future ahead of it I think.