Foster Stephen - Modding Minecraft

MODDING MINECRAFT

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, Dummies.com, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. Minecraft is a registered trademark of Mojang Synergies AB Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015947351

ISBN 978-1-119-17727-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-17728-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-17729-6 (ebk)

This book was produced using the Myriad Pro typeface for the body text and callouts, and Bangers for the chapter titles and subheads.

1. Table of Contents

SO YOU WANT TO MOD MINECRAFT THATS A GREAT IDEA! Youre about to be transformed from a Minecraft player into a Minecraft modder. To get there, you have to code. You can handle it, because youll use skills you already have logic, creativity, math, gaming, and problem solving to design, build, test, and share Minecraft mods. This book tells you everything, from building a large arena to making a multiplayer game that you can play inside Minecraft with your friends.

Minecraft modding used to be only for expert coders. Not anymore. LearnToMod helps students just like you through the challenges of Minecraft modding. It explains coding ideas and shows how much fun it can be to start making mods. LearnToMod has over 200 badges that guide you, but you can make your own mods.

The LearnToMod online software teaches you how to make modifications, or mods, that you can run in the multiplayer version of Minecraft on your very own Minecraft server.

Get LearnToMod at mod.learntomod.com . With this book, you get free access to LearnToMod for 60 days. Go to www.dummies.com/go/moddingminecraft for the trial information.

Modding Minecraft has projects that help you design, build, and test each mod, from start to finish. You can play these minigames inside Minecraft. The earlier mods are simpler, so you might want to try the projects in order.

How are you going to see what code to enter if Im not there with you? Ill show instructions and code examples actual pictures of my screen.

Code is in monofont . If youre reading this as an ebook, you can tap web addresses to visit websites, like this: www.dummies.com .

Some figures will have a magnifying glass, like you see here. The glass is drawing attention to the parts of the screen that you use. The highlighted text draws your attention to the figure.

Working with LearnToMod is super simple: I just give you steps like Drag a function into the programming environment or Click the Minecraft category and then Players. Or I may tell you to click a link or a tab.

Everybody has to start somewhere, right? I had to start writing this book by assuming that youre comfortable doing this stuff:

• Typing on a computer and using a mouse. You may know how to use a Windows system or a Mac; either one will do. All coding takes place in a web browser and on any browser on either platform. This book shows LearnToMod on a Mac using the Chrome browser.
• Getting around on a website. You can click a link or find a website easy peasy.
• Playing Minecraft. You dont need to be a Minecraft expert and you dont have to know how to code. You can play on Windows or a Macintosh, but you have to use the desktop version. The Pocket Edition, which is played on mobile devices, doesnt work with LearnToMod.
• Doing basic math. That includes adding whole numbers (like 2+2), and logical operations (like knowing that 3 is more than 2).

As you read through the projects in this book, youll see a few icons. The icons point out different things:

Watch out! This icon comes with important information that may save you from trouble that modders sometimes have.

The Remember icon comes with ideas that you should keep in mind.

The Tip icon marks advice and shortcuts that can make modding easier.

The Fun with Code icon describes how the modding youre doing relates to the bigger picture of coding.

PROJECT 1