So my young child heard through the grapevine that Minecraft was a thing that existed. Being extremely fascinated by building things (legos, blocks, trains, etc.), this seems like it was inevitable. For $8, I got the iOS version of the game for the family iPad. He’s still a little too young to fully grasp the controls and gameplay - he’s used to more traditional iOS games. So in comes good ole dad.
I’m no stranger to FPS games, which is essentially what this is, from a controls perspective. But playing it on the iPad is fantastically different than on a PC or console. Ok - I can fumble through that. But the Minecraft experience is much different. I understand there are two ways to play - survival, or creative. I think he’s going to be much happier in creative right now, but he wants to see the bad guys. So I fire up a survival game, enable the cheats so that I don’t have to worry about night time for right now, and we’re off running. Man, this is a great game - 12 year old me would be SO jealous!
My question is what’s the best way to play this cooperatively? At some point, he’s going to be able to improve to a beginner’s level (versus mostly just his current role as co-pilot/observer). I’d like to hop onto a different computer/ipad, and play alongside him. Is that a possibility? What are my options there? I looked at getting the PC version, and was surprised to see that it’s no longer a free game. Did Microsoft monetize it when Mojang sold it?
My wife still likes Minecraft on PC, and, with heavy modding, we’ll run a server and let family friends in (especially those who have kids of their own). We go way back on this. I can say that Minecraft has never been a free game. Mojang’s prices for the PC version were on the order of $15 to $20 Canadian if memory serves.
I can’t answer questions about the compatibility of different versions. If the various ports are still in Java, it has a very robust networking solution and you might be fine. If it isn’t, I can’t say.
But if you lick that problem, you can either play as a flunky and support his endeavours, or you can do your thing nearby and let him do his. Broadly speaking, there’s two main activities in Minecraft: building a grand edifice, or exploring the countryside.
If he takes to building, there’s a lot of hewing of stone and chopping of wood and parking torches everywhere to keep the creepers (and other monsters, but creepers most importantly) at bay.
If he takes to exploring, a little exploratory mining and preparation can mean better equipment and better survival rates.
If he just wants to explore on his own, you can always amuse yourself by building an awesome fortress and stock it with arms, armour and various supplies he can use on his own, grand adventures.
Definitely go with survival, not creative. Survival paces you and offers obvious mini-goals (“let’s check out that cave!” or “let’s make a chicken farm!” or “let’s get to the Nether!”) whereas creative is going to need continuous input of, well, creative goals.
You shouldn’t need cheats, per se, since you can set the difficulty level. On “peaceful”, no bad guys (that matter) can spawn, and you can switch the game upward to “easy” when you want so that there are some bad guys but they aren’t too strong. Nighttime isn’t a big deal since you can make it daytime again by sleeping in a bed.
For multiplayer: cross-platform compatibility is pretty good. I have a “realm” set up (monthly fee, but not too high) where I play together with my kids. We cross-play on iOS, Nintendo Switch, and PC, and I’m pretty sure Xbox should work as well since it’s all based around Microsoft account logins.
If you come to a point where you want to move an offline, single-player existing world to the “realms” system for multiplayer (instead of starting a brand new world), note that you can download/upload worlds to/from offline and realms.
I believe the newest version allows cross-platform play. My son runs a server on the X-box, and his brothers and a friend play individually on their switches. I would assume the iOS version may be compatible.
The iOS and Java is not compatible, I went down that cave of exploration a while back and a creeper blew up my ass. So I will save you the trouble. We (my son and I) went with Java, so he moved from the ipad to a laptop, and he will not go back. The game is just so much better with the PC controls (his claim). He also switched from creative to survival at this time.
Hooking up the game over a LAN is fairly straight forward.
I would say enable cheats, but you don’t have to use them. The one I would enable is keep inventory after respawning. It’s frustrating enough for a adult to lose their inventory, but children cry more.
Also while playing you can switch from normal to easy to peaceful, so if things are getting tough or you are in a battle and being overwhelmed, going to peaceful can be a welcome relief. Also helpful exploring the End, if the little one can’t help but look at Endermen all the time.
I don’t think there’s any reason for Munch to look at Minecraft: Java Edition here. Regular Minecraft (no subtitle, but sometimes a.k.a. Bedrock Edition) is the cross-platform version with cross-play available on iOS, PC, Android, Switch, and Xbox. The Java edition is the much older line and is only available on PC, but it’s easier for modders and other hardcore types to mess around with game’s innards in that edition, so it has a following.