Building in Minecraft powered by Python

Minecraft is one of the most versatile video games of all time: it offers an open environment where the only limit is your imagination (well, plus your hardware and your patience – Ed). It is not, however, open source, so the practical limitations are usually the building blocks and macros available in-game.

That was the case until the Raspberry Pi version of Minecraft was released, which offers a pretty decent API. A few hacks here and there with the help of a couple of projects called Raspberry Jam and Forge, and we’re able to access the Minecraft API on Linux and hook directly into the game with Python code.

For the purposes of this tutorial we’re using a pre-packaged toolset called McPiFoMo, which stands for Minecraft Pi Forge Mods (available at http://rogerthat.co.uk/McPiFoMo.rar).

Getting started

First, download and install the appropriate version of for your distro of choice. Developer Mojang offers pre-packaged solutions for Debian/Ubuntu and Arch (DEB and AUR respectively), and a generic Java version for everyone else, at . Next you’ll want to make sure you’ve got Python installed. sudo