I'm not ready to do this yet, but just surveying interest. I'm thinking of creating a Minecraft server using Pharo.
My kids are enthusiastic about playing Minecraft and I think its a great platform to grow their creativity and cognitive skills per [1]. Much better than passively watching TV! [1] http://minemum.com/minecraft-educational I'm particularly interested in using Minecraft modding as a platform to teach programming to my kids. I had high hopes for the Scratch-like interface of learntomod.com, but I found it awkward and unsuitable. Other options for writing mods include Java[2], Javascript [3] or Lua[4][5]. For now I'll probably settle on Lua, but I'd prefer to be teaching them with Phratch and later directly with Pharo. [2] https://blogs.oracle.com/arungupta/entry/introducing_kids_to_java_programming [3] http://scriptcraftjs.org/ [4] http://www.computercraft.info/wiki/Main_Page [5] https://book.cuberite.org/ Ignoring client-side modding that IIUC is only applicable to single player mode, mods are implemented on the server. Servers are written in several languages [6] and it would be nice to make one in Pharo, with Woden providing a basic 3D viewer as a management tool. Documentation available here [7] [6] http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Custom_servers [7] http://wiki.vg/How_to_Write_a_Server cheers -ben P.S. Along the way I found several pointers at the following being competent info on optimising voxel engines... http://0fps.net/2015/01/23/collision-detection-part-3-benchmarks/ http://0fps.net/2012/01/14/an-analysis-of-minecraft-like-engines/ http://0fps.net/2012/06/30/meshing-in-a-minecraft-game/ http://0fps.net/2012/07/07/meshing-minecraft-part-2/
