Minetest Game development

This page describes the values of Minetest Game. These may be changed when the majority of MTG developers agree.

Core Gameplay Values

Exploration - interesting mapgen/biomes
Creativity - enough nodes without contradicting semi-minimalism
Immersion - adding feedback such as sounds, mobs, and interactivity to make the world feel alive

Criteria for inclusion

As of May 2022, only bugfixes and basic maintenance stuff (including translations) are accepted. Features are not accepted. Minetest Game is in maintenance mode. See the #Development section.

Old criteria (before maintenance mode)

Balance - Ensure balanced gameplay while still adding new and useful items/nodes/etc
Semi-minimalism - No additions that are decided to be too much (e.g. adding homedecor in its entirety)
Stability - Focus on stability and completeness (no half-finished stuff)
Extendability - Improve/add API to allow mods to extend the base features (e.g. API for new crops for farming)

Basic Concepts

Medieval - Minetest Game is generally agreed to be late-medieval
Alien - Mese is an alien crystal / meteorite

Graphic Style

All nodes should fit the voxel grid or a sub division. Note this is a general rule, there are cases when it's OK such as chests
Entities should be voxel-ish
Textures should be 16x16

Development

As of May 2022, Minetest Game is in "maintenance mode" since July 2020. This means no new features are accepted, only bugfixes and basic maintenance. Translations count as maintenance and are thus accepted. Source: [1]