An in-game browser lets users download games and modifications from the ContentDB website.[8] The five most popular games by downloads are VoxeLibre, Minetest Game, NodeCore, Tutorial and Subway Miner.[9]
Over a decade of active development Luanti has garnered critical acclaim and gained in popularity; the games, mods and texturepacks on ContentDB have over 14 million downloads combined,[10] and the Android version of Luanti has over a million downloads on the Google Play store.[11]
In October 2024 the name was changed from Minetest to Luanti. The new name is a word play using the name of the programming languageLua and the Finnish word "luonti" meaning "creation".[12]
Gameplay
Player character near dry plains, green plains, and jungle biomes
The game world of all Luanti games is composed of voxels which are mostly cubes aligned in a 3D grid, but the player and creatures can move around freely. In Luanti voxels are called nodes. Different nodes represent various materials, such as dirt, stone, ores, tree trunks, water, and lava.
VoxeLibre is a full game with animals, monsters, interesting biomes, whereas Minetest Game is a lifeless sandbox with mostly landscape nodes.
While technically playable without, Minetest Game relies on modifications to add creatures, more biomes, gameplay mechanics, armours, weapons, tools, decorative nodes and so on.
The gameplay of VoxeLibre revolves around picking up and placing these nodes, gathering materials, crafting items and nodes by placing them in a crafting grid in the inventory window, smelting ores in the oven, farming crops, animal husbandry, eating food and defeating monsters to survive. Some nodes can only be picked up with certain held tools the player has to craft.
Snowy conifer biome at the edge of ice plains
As players explore the world, new areas are procedurally generated, using a map seed specified by the player. A new game puts the player in the center of a voxel cube 62 thousand nodes across, so the player can travel 31 thousand nodes in any direction (sideways, up, or down)[13] before reaching the invisible wall at the end of the world.
The world is divided into biomes ranging from deserts to jungles to snowfields; the terrain includes plains, mountains, forests, caves, and various lava/water bodies. The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle, and one full cycle lasts 20 real-time minutes.
Luanti provides two play style options across games: Enable Damage and Creative Mode. Disabling damage prevents dying, thus losing items and the possible frustration it might cause and Creative Mode provides players with infinite resources to build whatever they want without having to gather them first.[14]
Multiplayer
Built-in Internet server browser
Luanti offers players to play together over the internet or the local network by joining a server or hosting their own.
Players can either connect by IP or select the server from the built-in server browser if the host chose to publish it there by selecting the checkbox.
Instead of centralized account systems proprietary games use for the whole software, Luanti allows registering and logging into accounts on each individual server.
Customization
Built-in content browser
Luanti provides an interface for games and mods written in Lua. Mods are server-side and work out of the box when playing on servers, with no installation required.
Luanti features a built-in content browser showing packages uploaded to ContentDB, allowing users to install games, mods and texture packs with a single click. Over 2500 packages are available there as of Oct 2024[10] and many more on the forums.
Default texture pack
RPG16 texture pack
Hand Painted high resolution texture pack
Crystal cave biome generated by Underground Realms mod
Mods can be used to add or modify nodes, gameplay mechanics, tools, weapons, armour, monsters, player skins and the user interface.
The full source code of Luanti and most of its games and their artistic assets such as textures and sounds, are distributed under free licenses, making it easier to publish modified versions and derivatives.
Interior design using Home Decor mod
A horse from the Mob Horse mod
Development
Minetest-c55 0.4.dev, April 8, 2012 build
Luanti was originally released in November 2010 under a proprietary license.[6] Shortly afterwards the license was changed to the GPL-2.0-or-later license.[5] By agreement among major contributors, in June 2012 the project license was to be changed to LGPL-2.1-or-later, though at the time small parts still remained under the GPL-2.0-or-later license.[4] In September 2013, the transition was complete.[3] While LGPL-2.1-or-later remains the main license for the Luanti engine, other free and open-source licenses are used for various other parts of the latest release.[2]
Perttu Ahola was the only developer working on the project for about six months, until Ciaran Gultnieks started making code contributions in May 2011.[15] The roster of contributors grew and changed over the years. As of July 2020, there are 9 active core developers and 15 active contributors. Project participants do not have set roles, but rather keep their activity within their respective areas of expertise. Perttu Ahola's role morphed over the years: whereas initially it was engine development, it is now mostly web-hosting and administration, assigning core developer, moderator, and other roles to people, as well as being the final word in cases where other developers are unable to render a decision.[15]
Since version 5.0.0 the in-game browser lets users download games and modifications as well as their dependencies from a website called ContentDB.[8]
As of version 5.8.0 the Luanti Engine no longer ships with a default game.[16]
Usage in education
Luanti has been used in educational environments to teach subjects such as mathematics, programming, and earth sciences. Such examples are:
In 2017 in France, Luanti was used to teach calculus and trigonometry.[17]
In 2018, for Laboratory Education and Apprenticeships (EDA) at the Paris Descartes University, Luanti was used to teach life and earth sciences to year 6 students who could not observe some phenomena in person but could experience them in the Luanti virtual world.[19]
Reception
Opensource.com listed Luanti at #1 in its "Best open source games of 2015",[20] stating that it is maybe "the most complete alternative to Minecraft", and noted its expansibility, saying that it contains a user-friendly API for creating mods in Lua.[21]PC Magazine listed Luanti among "The best Sandbox Creation Games for Minecraft Fans".[22]
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Default texture pack
RPG16 texture pack
Hand Painted high resolution texture pack
