Download an entire modern city made in minecraft! Mineton is an early 20th century contemporary Minecraft city, as impressive in scope as it is in detail. It even comes with its own texture pack, although I have to say it’s not all that different from the original texture packs, save for the GUI.

The city is vast and grand, with buildings of state and capitalism vying for space in the central regions. Especially impressive are the number of Testificates. As you wander the city you’ll heard doors opening and closing as Testificates wander in and out of houses and city buildings. (This may be unique to the Minecraft snapshots, or indeed, to the new release that has yet to come. I played the map on screenshot 12w07, but found that many of the elements were broken, so keep that in mind. I also played it in the original 1.1 release and found it entirely delightful, not to mentiopn much larger as new chunks hadn’t generated in the middle of the builds.) Outside the city, extensive wheat fields spread across the plains outside the suburbs. Windmills, farmsteads and more lie beyond the view distance. When night falls, the city succumbs to a devastating plague, but wily citizens of Mineton will be able to find food and light to fend off the twin terrors of monsters and hunger.

One might wonder what the point of an entire pre-built city is. Well, besides general admiration, one can spend many enjoyable hours knocking it apart, setting things on fire, or indeed building one’s own additions to the map. Those looking to start a multiplayer server might use Mineton as a starting city from which a world can be civilized. If nothing else, it is a testament to what can be done, a minecraft inspiration.

Download and play in Mineton!

This is a challenge based survival map set on a single 50 by 50 cube of varying terrain. It will appeal to people who like to complete challenges rather than attempt to find meaning in the general idea of surviving. Some of the challenges will be fairly difficult, such as creating an underwater house and getting a pet wolf. Others, like collecting twenty pieces of zombie flesh are pretty much just a matter of time.

I especially liked the way this map has an ‘exit strategy’. Most minecraft survival maps are played until the player simply loses the will to live and starts doing something else instead. This one requires you to build yourself a minecart rollercoaster back to the ground.

Although the prospect of spending a game trapped in a 50 by 50 secion of land might seem intensely boring to those who lack imagination, this is a prime opportunity to think inside the box (we’ve all been thinking outside the box for so long we’ve forgotten that good things sometimes come in boxes, like candy.)

If you’re looking for a compact survival map with defined challenges, surprises galore and a defined end point, Survival Cubed ticks all the boxes.

Click here to download the map!

Hatchet is a Minecraft survival map with a bit of a story. Something about being a 13 year old boy and losing your dad somewhere. I forget the specifics. All I really remember is that your name becomes Brian, which is fun if you’re a female, because it opens up a whole new world of gender possibilities.

There are a lot of shouty rules which I pretty much ignored, because some of them are simply invasive and go to play style, which a map maker has no business dictating. If you’re going to tell people how to play your survival map you may as well download yourself and play it for them too.

The game starts with a bang. That’s all I have to say there. Then you’re directed by a sign to a creeper infested hole and the game begins in earnest. Because I played this map on the 12w6 snapshot release, there’s an interesting dynamic in that the beasties coming out of the cave sometimes hide from the sun. I spent an inordinate amount of time being killed by creepers, which wasn’t nearly as much fun as it sounded. My efforts to build a sword were interrupted by being blown to smithereens every few minutes, which I found less than entirely enjoyable.

The storyline stops shy of making this an adventure map, but it’s not so much a survival map beyond any ordinary survival map you generate and load on your own. So, should you download it? Well, it certainly exists, and those who enjoy completing challenges might very well find it amusing. I also found it substantially filled with monsters, even though I only played it on easy mode. So, you know, monsters plus being named Brian, that’s got to count for something.

Download Hatchet Minecraft Survival

This mod allows you to choose from a whole new (and old) range of world types in the ‘World Type’ selection screen. At the time of writing there are only two world types to choose from in the base game, either ‘Super Flat’ or ‘Default’. Super Flat isn’t quite all it’s cracked up to be because it’s only three dirt block thick and contains no biomes (though there are an inordinate number of slimes.)

The mod provides access to world types from past versions of Minecraft, and new world types that have not been conceived of before. It also significantly improves the existing flat land world type by adding bomes and other bits and pieces of interest.

Your world could be:

1.1 Terrain. Kicking it old school.
1.7.3 Terrain (Lots of beaches and whatnottery.)
Skylands! This abandoned realm comes back to life.
Cave World. All is caves.
Strictly Mushrooms. (The whole world is a mushroom biome.)
Ocean Biomes
Melontopia. (Take grass and dirt, remove aforementioned grass and dirt, replace with melons.)
Only Forests. For lovers of forests.
Desert. Self explanatory.
All Mountains. No flat bits!
Plains. No mountainy bits!
Taiga.
Swamplands.
Ice Plains. For people who like to recreate Seasonal Affective Disorder in Minecraft.
Ice Mountains. Same sort of thing.
Super Flat. The flat world how it should have been in the first place, with biomes etc.
Netherlands. All is nether.
Dark Forest. Very tall, very dense forest. Can’t see forest for trees.
Lava Oceans. The oceans are lava and everything is on fire. Carry on.

This mod is compatible with Mod Loader, and General Awesomeness.

Download More World Types!

We’ve seen blocks of dirt in the sky, we’ve seen islands amidst vast oceans and now we’re looking at a few square meters of smoothstone in a lava sea and we’re thinking that we’ve played it all before. But we’re wrong. Very wrong.

Lava block is a unique and challenging minecraft survival map, guaranteed to make even the most experienced survival map players scratch their heads. Minecraft survival purists might not like the fact that there is a starting chest, but this starting chest is unique. Most starting chests come with a few seeds, maybe some armor, and some wood and torches and whatnot. This one starts you off with 128 water blocks. Nothing more and nothing less. That’s water blocks, not water buckets, so be careful about where you put them because you’re not going to be able to pick them up, at least not at first.

There are other chests atop interesting structures in the middle distance, but you’re going to have to find a way across lava to get to them, and once you get there, opening them may not be easy because you have no tools and well, they’re pretty high up. There’s obvious means of turning smoothstone into cobble and though you’ve got plenty of lava and water, you’ve got no way to harvest it.

In addition to mechanical challenges, the map holds some surprises. Though it looks incredibly simple, it’s deceptively complex. Your first tumble into the lava might surprise you. That’s all I’m saying.

Like some of the better minecraft survival maps, it’s very possible to lose this map. A few careless slips and you’re going to be left with no choice but to delete the world and start again. This sort of high stakes survival will probably appeal to a survival community growing dull on cutesy maps.

Download Lava Block Minecraft Survival Map!