How to Make a Minecraft Minigame Server: a Lobby and Several Games

One server or a network

The huge minigame servers are a network: a proxy (Velocity or BungeeCord) in front and a separate server for each game, sometimes dozens. That makes sense with hundreds of players at once or if each game needs a different Minecraft version.

For a group of friends, a class community or a server that's just starting, the practical way is a single Paper server with one world per minigame. One address, one panel, one plugin list and shared RAM. Minigame plugins lock each match inside its arena and reset it when it ends, so they live together without trouble.

If one day it gets too small, one server per game with a proxy in front is the next step. On NapNodes servers come with Paper and a proxy isn't set up for you: if you get there, ask in «Help».

What you need

A Minecraft Java server running Paper. Minigames are plugins, not mods: on Fabric, Forge or NeoForge they won't load. NapNodes servers come with Paper and on the latest version.

Multiverse-Core, to have the lobby and every game's worlds loaded at the same time, and Multiverse-Inventories, so what you carry in one world doesn't follow you into another. Both are free.

One plugin for each minigame (the ones below) and, if you want to protect the lobby by areas, WorldGuard.

Watch the version: on a single server every plugin has to work on the same Minecraft version. Before picking a game, check its page lists yours. The most common clash is SkyWars: the plugin in our guide runs on 1.8.8, so it doesn't mix with plugins that need the latest version.

RAM: a minigame is lighter than a survival world with the same players, because the arena is small and nobody explores. Count the players who'll be on at the same time and, if in doubt, the RAM calculator gives you a number.

Which plugin for each minigame

BedWars: Screaming BedWars, free and open source. Step by step in how to make a BedWars server.

Hunger Games: HungerGames, free. Arena, chests and a shrinking border in the Hunger Games guide.

SkyWars: SkyWarsReloaded, made for 1.8 (the SkyWars guide). If you want SkyWars next to latest-version games, look for one that says so.

Parkour: the Parkour plugin, with checkpoints and a leaderboard of times (the parkour guide).

TNT Run: TNTRun_reloaded, free, GPLv3-licensed with its code on GitHub. Blocks vanish when you step on them and the last one not to fall wins. Its current version needs 1.21.3 or later and Java 21 or newer (old Minecraft versions have their own). Download it from its SpigotMC page.

Murder Mystery and Build Battle: by Plugily Projects, free and open source. In the first there's a murderer hidden among the players and a detective; in the second, everyone builds on a theme and then votes. They're set up with a menu, no commands to memorise.

And without plugins: hide and seek (in Spanish), UHC, Manhunt and the build contest (in Spanish) are played with built-in commands.

Installing the basics

1. Make a backup

   In the panel, «Backups» → create one. That way you can go back if something doesn't convince you. (The free server has no backups: if the world matters to you, compress it in «Files» and download it first.)

2. Install Multiverse

   In «Mods & plugins», search for and install «Multiverse-Core» and «Multiverse-Inventories». Only the versions that work on your server show up.

3. Install the minigames

   The same way, search for each plugin in «Mods & plugins». If one doesn't show up (TNT Run, for example, is published on SpigotMC), download it from its page and upload it in «Files» to the plugins folder.

4. Restart

   With «Restart». They should appear as loaded in the «Console»; if one doesn't, the error just before it usually says it needs another Minecraft or Java version.

5. Give yourself permissions

   Setting up arenas is an admin job. In the «Console», op YourName (no slash; from the game, with «/»). More in how to op someone.

The lobby

The lobby is the world where everyone spawns when they join: small, nice-looking and safe. The easiest is a flat world so you can build it however you like.

1. Create the world

   /mv create lobby normal --world-type flat --no-structures creates a flat world without villages or structures. Go there with /mv tp lobby and build (or paste a build with WorldEdit).

2. Set where people spawn

   Standing on the spot and facing where you want: /mv setspawn.

3. Put it in adventure mode

   /mv modify lobby set gamemode adventure: whoever joins can't break or place blocks. As an op your own mode may not change (ops have every permission, including the one to bypass it): that's normal.

4. Make everyone join there

   /mv config enable-join-destination true and then /mv config join-destination lobby. From then on, every time someone connects they appear in the lobby.

5. No fighting in the lobby

   With WorldGuard installed, standing in the lobby: /rg flag __global__ pvp deny. More areas and options in the WorldGuard guide.

A world for each game

Each minigame in its own world. If you've downloaded a ready-made map, upload it as a .zip in «Files» to the server's main folder, «Decompress», and load it with /mv import FolderName normal (on Paper 26.1 or later, the server moves it to its place by itself the first time; more in the Multiverse guide). If you're going to build the arena, create a flat world like the lobby, with another name.

Inventories: as soon as Multiverse-Inventories is installed there's a «default» group with the main world, its Nether and its End, which share everything as always; any other world has its own inventory. So if the main world is your survival, what you carry there doesn't show up in the lobby or the arenas. /mvinv info default shows which worlds are in that group.

Its authors warn that changing the groups once players have already joined can overwrite inventories: make the backup first and set it up before opening the server to people.

Example: TNT Run command by command

Build the arena in its world: two or three layers of blocks (sand, gravel or whatever you like) a few blocks apart vertically, with air under the last one. Where it says «tntrun1», use whatever name you want to give it, always the same one.

1. Create the arena

   /trsetup create tntrun1.

2. Mark the bounds

   In one corner, above the top layer: /trsetup setp1. In the opposite corner, below the last layer: /trsetup setp2. Then /trsetup setarena tntrun1. Everything else has to fit inside that box.

3. The lose level

   Go below the last layer, inside the box, and /trsetup setloselevel tntrun1. Whoever falls that far is out.

4. Where it starts

   Standing on the top layer: /trsetup setspawn tntrun1. If you want a spot for those knocked out, /trsetup setspectate tntrun1 wherever you want them to watch from.

5. Save

   /trsetup finish tntrun1. If something's missing it tells you what (bounds, lose level or spawn point); if not, it's saved and open.

6. Play

   Each player joins with /tr join tntrun1 and leaves with /tr leave. When it ends, the arena rebuilds itself for the next one.

Example: Murder Mystery with its menu

Murder Mystery and Build Battle (both by Plugily Projects) are set up the same way, with a menu. In Build Battle the commands are bba and bb instead of mma and mm, and the menu also asks for the plots where each player builds (Game Plot) instead of the spawn points and the gold.

1. Open the arena menu

   In the arena's world: /mma setup create mystery. A menu opens with everything you need to mark.

2. Mark the spots

   In the menu, standing at each spot: the waiting room (Lobby), where the match starts (Starting), where those knocked out go (Spectator) and where they end up (Ending: set it to the lobby). In Murder Mystery, also the players' spawn points and where the gold appears.

3. How many players

   In the same menu, the minimum for the countdown to start and the maximum.

4. Register the arena

   Click «Register Arena - Finish Setup»: it checks nothing is missing and leaves it ready. To change it later, /mma setup edit mystery.

5. Play

   Each player joins with /mm join mystery and leaves with /mm leave. The menu also has «Game Sign» to register a sign that puts you in the match when clicked.

From the lobby to each game

Nobody wants to learn one command per game. The three usual ways: signs (Murder Mystery and Build Battle register them from their menu, and TNT Run has its own too), one NPC per game or a portal.

NPCs make it feel like a big server: a character in front of each door and, on click, into the match. With Citizens, create the NPC and add the command the player runs: /npc command add -p tr join tntrun1. All about NPCs in the Citizens guide.

To come back, make the end of each match (Ending, or each plugin's exit spot) the lobby. And to go from one world to another by hand, /mv tp lobby.

When something doesn't work

A plugin doesn't show as loaded in the «Console»: it's almost always the version. Look at the error just before: it says which Minecraft or Java version it needs. «Mods & plugins» only offers the ones that work; whatever you upload by hand, check it yourself.

I spawn with stuff from another world: Multiverse-Inventories wasn't installed when you joined, or that world is in the «default» group. Check /mvinv info default.

My game mode doesn't change when I enter the lobby: you're an op. Try with another account or without op.

«You don't have permission» when joining: if you use LuckPerms, give the players' rank that plugin's join permission (it's on its page).

It stutters with several matches at once: small arenas help more than any setting. To measure where it comes from, the lag guide.

To play it with your friends

To set it up and test it, NapNodes's free Minecraft server is enough: no card, with «Start» whenever you want to play (it turns itself off after 20 minutes with nobody on and, if everything's taken, you join the queue). If it becomes your every-evening hangout, a plan keeps it always on, with no queues and with backups.

Frequently asked questions