FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

I am trying to do the following:
* Install a minetest server on a LAN computer (done)
* Install a minetest client on my current computer (done)
* Create an ssh tunnel from client computer to server computer (done)
* Use the tunnel to connect to the minetest server (??)

First off, I do not want to open the firewall on the server to connect over the LAN normally. I want to use an ssh tunnel to connect to the server machine and tunnel the game over it.

So far all is working except when trying to connect to 127.0.0.1:30000 it will never connect. Maybe my ssh forward isn't correct? I was able to run minetestserver locally and connect to it locally but seems I can't get it to connect over the ssh tunnel.

The SSH command I'm using is:
ssh -L 30000:127.0.0.1:30000 username@serverip

Any help with this would be great. Thank you.

SSH only forwards TCP, Minetest uses UDP.

If it's a Linux box I use openvpn. Works a treat.