The 5 best offbrand Minecraft games to play online

Minecraft is a game enjoyed by millions of players worldwide, catering to adventurers, builders, explorers, and more. Even if you haven’t played Minecraft, you’ve probably heard about it and know what the game is all about. With such notoriety, it follows that there would be similar games out there that cater to players who would like to play something like Minecraft. More than just knock-offs of the original, these games are the five best off-brand open-source alternatives to Minecraft. Alongside them, we list the five best games that Minecraft has heavily inspired.

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The 5 best off-brand games like Minecraft

Craft

Craft is an interesting alternative to Minecraft that you can get on GitHub. While coded fairly simply, it allows for easy modification, with over 200 forks already created, providing numerous versions to test. The game uses OpenGL to render its graphics, and there’s even a Python server for multiplayer. It’s a simple yet effective game that feels like early Minecraft.

Minetest

Minetest is an open-source voxel framework that represents a full-fledged open-world sandbox. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of modern Minecraft, but there are biomes, character inventory, terrain generation, and more. Modding is pretty easy through Lua, and even has a multiplayer component. There are hundreds of mods to help you customize your off-Minecraft experience, making Minetest one of the complete Minecraft clones out there.

Terasology

What started as a Minecraft-inspired tech demo became one of the most beautiful open-source Minecraft clones. Terasology is easily the best-looking game on our list. Based on the Java system, it features several out-of-the-box mods that allow you to shape your gameplay and mechanics to your preference. If you’re looking for a well-polished voxel game like Minecraft, look no further and give Terasology a shot.

TrueCraft

This is an interesting gem in that it serves more as a time capsule than a separate release. TrueCraft represents an open-source version of what the dev believed to be Minecraft’s golden age, somewhere around the 1.7.3 version of Minecraft. As such, it’s feature-rich and always expanding in scope, becoming something of a parallel mirror to the original Minecraft rather than a mere clone.

Voxel.js

This game maybe shouldn’t be considered a game at all. Voxel.js represents more of a framework to build your own Minecraft-like games around. It can be customized with plug-ins and mods, letting you tailor your blocky experience until it’s just the way you like it. Fortunately, a few hundred add-ons are already available in the library, making Voxel.js a worthy title to check out for Minecraft enthusiasts.

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The 5 best games inspired by Minecraft

Colony Survival

Colony Survival is a strategy and colony sim in which the players can build their colonies in preparation for nightly monster attacks. While still in Early Access, the game looks like Minecraft, but the scale is shifted from controlling your own character to managing a whole colony. Still, there is much to enjoy for all Minecraft builders.

Cube World

Cube World is a cute blocky game that is very reminiscent of Minecraft’s RPG cousin, Minecraft Dungeons. The world and the UI have the same DNA as Minecraft and will instantly feel familiar. In Cube World, you can pick a class and set out to explore the world, fighting monsters, gathering loot, crafting gear, and more. And even better, you can play it either solo or in co-op with friends.

Dragon Quest Builders 2

On the surface, you might think that there is only tangential relation between Minecraft and DQ Builders. But when you really look at this cartoony exploration and building game, you will see that it takes more cues from Minecraft than might be seen at first glance. The world, combat, inventory, crafting, and building — all look like they’ve been directly taken from Minecraft and given a fresh coat of paint.

Eco

Eco is an interesting example of taking an idea and expanding upon it. The game even became a teaching tool, simulating a world in which you have to build, research, and develop while being mindful of the ecosystem, all to prevent a meteor from destroying the world. Players have to collaborate and build together, creating and managing whole civilizations on online servers, which is why Eco was also dubbed “Minecraft for adults.”

Trove

Trove is a voxel-based free online MMO game where players can explore different realms. There, they can do quests, fight enemies, and collect gear to customize their characters. The outside world of Trove looks very much like Minecraft, and there’s even an option of building your own worlds, ready to scratch that builder’s itch that all Minecraft players have.