Building a safe Minecraft world for free play

Feeling safe lets you dive in

On the supervised server, a game educator is always there, keeping an eye on what’s happening and helping out if there are problems with the rules or someone gets lost along the way. But a sense of safety is built from many different blocks, and we wanted to take that into account by thinking about what different players see when they join the server and how it might feel.

Most of us know the feeling of turning up somewhere for the very first time with no idea where to go or what to do, and feeling a little lost straight away. When players know where to go and who to ask, they feel much more confident about joining in the adventures and getting to know others. That’s why our server is full of guide characters, glowing quest paths and clear signs.

We want the server to encourage free play and to work like a playground: the fences keep the area safe, but in the players’ hands the activities, sticks and pine cones turn into their own adventures and new stories

Quests and events build community

The players themselves will make sure the grass in Pickleshire never grows too long. One of our most important jobs is to build a sense of community among these adventurers, especially as gamers from other countries play on the server too, and new friends can be found on the far side of all sorts of ponds.

We’ve created changing quests on the server, to be completed alone and together. The idea is that, through quests completed as a team, players see the world grow thanks to their own actions. Together we achieve more than we ever could alone.

An open game world is a playground for creativity

Although the server has all kinds of quests and puzzles to get your teeth into, not everything is scripted. Above all, the game world is a playground where you can follow your sense of adventure or your creative ideas wherever they lead. In Minecraft, free play can take many different forms. One player might open a flower shop, another starts a role-play game in a medieval castle, and a third finds a new home for every stray animal they come across.

The team behind the server

Our skilful builders can create stunning landscapes one block at a time. As they build, they also think about how each build guides the player, so that nobody feels stuck in the very first metre. It was important to us that the starting point works as well as possible for someone who has never played Minecraft before.

• Our server administrator: They have been in charge of the technical side and always find a way to make even complicated ideas work. They have also worked as a game educator, so they know the players well.

• The game educator who knows the stories: Our much-loved game educator, who has known the stories of Sogverse for years, has brought the server’s story elements to life, with a few surprises along the way.

• The player path designer: The team’s third builder is an experienced community server creator. They know how to place and present things so that players find their way to where they need to be.

• The storyteller: Yours truly has been busy with pen in hand, writing the lore so that we have a clear idea of what Pickleshire actually is and how it ties in with our other stories and characters.

Building Pickleshire was quite an adventure, and that’s a good sign: it usually means we have something really special on our hands.

So how do you get in?

The supervised Minecraft server is included free with every club and camp subscription, and it’s open every Monday from 16:00 to 18:00 UK time. If you don’t have a club subscription at the moment, you can also buy an access ticket. You’ll need Minecraft Java Edition to play.

See also:
Access ticket to Pickleshire

Written by Sonja Lappalainen