FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

I am trying to start up minetest for my 9yo daughter who is huge fun of CREATIVE not survival minecraft. I've downloaded minitest but it is looking like some bag of files with no one executive file in it. It is written about some "engine" but where it is? Does somebody know where to get all necessary staff to try starting up minetest with reasonable explanations of what is what and step by step instructions on installation?
Thank you and sorry for trespassing if my questions are not appropriate here.
AlexKach

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You're alright. I've asked the moderators to move it to the general discussion section.

You should copy and paste minitest into the .../minetest/games/ directory and then go to the minetest.exe as Esteban said. At the bottom of the minetest screen, there is a set of icons, one is the minetest logo, another is a green box with arrows, which is minimal, and the other should be Minitest. If you click that logo, then you should be at the minitest menu. Then, make a new world, by pressing new, name it (maybe you are able to define a seed) select v6 as your magpen (v7 isn't done yet) and press ok. Then, launch your world by pressing play. You should be in a singleplayer world. (Make sure creative mode is checked and enable damage is not.)

Minitest is a subgame of Minetest, which itself is an engine. Minetest comes with something called minetest_game (on http://www.github.com/minetest/minetest_game or bundled with windows), which is a subgame that is meant for default use. Minitest is another subgame, just like minetest_game, but made by a person called PilzAdam. Minitest has different features than minetest_game, as should all subgames. In fact, I have made my own subgame, called Lux_Solis. To put it in a nutshell, a subgame (like Minitest, minetest_game, Lux_Solis, or Carbone) is a set of mods which are used to define the gameplay. But anyway, I hope my explanation helped.

Welcome.

AlexKach wrote: (clipped) ...I've downloaded minitest but it is looking like some bag of files with no one executive file in it.

In your post you mentioned "executive" so the posts above are assuming you meant Minetest for Windows.

If you are using Linux instead, open the README.txt file and follow the instructions for compiling Minetest for Linux. Download and install all the libraries listed in the "[sudo] apt-get" part first.



Differnet Minetest Downloads
Minetest can be downloaded from several different places, in several different configurations (32bit, 64bit, Windows, Linux, Mac). If you haven't found it already, here is a link to the "official" download page:
http://www.minetest.net/download

Of the Windows builds I recommend these:
sfan5's 32bit:
http://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=1523

Fess's 64bit:
http://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?id=6745



Games
The various games (sub-games) like "Dreambuilder" (highly recommended for players who prefer creative-mode), "Lord of the Test" (Based on "Lord of the Rings"), "Carbone" and "Big Freaking Dig".

Download and copy them into the .../minetest/games/ folder.



Mods
Just to get started, the simplest way to install individual mods is to:

1. start a world, "Alexs_Daughters_World", for example
2. shut down
3. go to .../minetest/worlds/Alexs_Daughters_World and create a sub-folder called "worldmods"
4. download and then copy mods into the .../minetest/worlds/Alexs_Daughters_World/worldmods/ folder
5. Restart Minetest and play "Alexs_Daughters_World"

There are other ways and places to install Minetest individual mods but this is the easiest way,... just to get started. When you are more familiar with how Minetest can be setup, then you can get fancy with the more complex setups.

Better yet, since you are new to Minetest and new to its differences from Minecraft, don't bother with installing individual mods. Download and install VanessaE's "Dreambuilder" sub-game. It is the most mod-rich MInetest sub-game currently available.

There is a "Mods" tab in the main menu of Minetest but that has had mixed results so far. Save yourself some of the "newbie" headaches and start with "Dreambuilder".

Thank you! I've gotten the minetest.exe file in the bin folder and everything has moved on. Thank you for details.