minipeli 0.2.4 by paramat.
A game for Minetest Engine 5.1.0 and later.
See each mod for mod-specific credits and licenses.


Authors of media
----------------
paramat (CC BY-SA 3.0):
  header.png
  icon.png


About Minipeli
--------------
'Peli' is the Finnish word for 'game'.

This game is intended to be an example of minimal requirements for a Minetest Engine game, while still supporting all non-Mapgen V6 mapgens and providing a minimal number of biomes with appropriate vertical variation.
The intention is to help others and myself create completely new games.

This also suggests a good mod structure, as opposed to the problematic structure of the game called 'Minetest Game', which has most content in one large mod called 'default'. It is better to split content into many smaller mods.

Because creating animated meshes is difficult, the player model from Minetest Game is used, it seems suitable for many games.
The player API of Minetest Game is very useful and quite fundamental, so the 'player_api' mod from Minetest Game is included, but with new player textures.

The 'light' mod is only provided to illuminate caves and dungeons during testing.


Why Mapgen V6 is not supported
------------------------------

In the 'game.conf' file, mapgen v6 is set as a disallowed mapgen.
Mapgen V6 is very different to all the other mapgens, it has hardcoded biomes and does not use the Biome API. Due to this it makes game code far more complex and more difficult to maintain, the mapgen also misses many features.
I recommended that games do not support Mapgen V6 for these reasons.
This document is written assuming Mapgen V6 is not supported.


The mods and their functions
----------------------------

'player_api'
A mod from Minetest Game, mostly unmodified, but new player textures are used.
Provides an API to support multiple registered player models and to set the player model, player textures or a particular player animation.
Provides an animated player model and skin texture.
Sets suitable animations according to control inputs and player health.

'gui'
Contains formspec and HUD related stuff:
Formspec background, hotbar background, bubble and heart textures.
Sets the formspec prepend.
Sets custom hotbar textures if code un-commented and textures added.

'hand'
Contains the hand tool related stuff:
The wieldhand texture.
Registers the hand tool.

'media'
Contains textures and sounds that have no suitable location anywhere else:
The node-digging progress texture 'crack_anylength'.
The 'player_damage' sound.

'mapgen'
Contains the mapgen related stuff:
Terrain, water, cave liquid and dungeon nodes, their textures and sounds.
Mapgen aliases to tell the engine mapgens which nodes to use.
Biome registrations for one vertical stack of biomes.

'light'
Only included to provide illumination for testing.
Gives 64 lights to a new player.


Mapgen aliases
--------------

Since MT 5.0.0 dungeon nodes and cave liquids are defined in biome definitions, so now only 3 mapgen aliases need to be registered: stone, water, river water.


Biomes
------

This game registers a single 'biome stack': A set of vertically stacked biomes all with the same heat and humidity points.
A developed game would usually add extra biome stacks at differing heat and humidity points.

The 'grassland' biome stack in this game consists of:

"grassland":
Dry land of dirt with a grass surface layer.
Extends from beach top up to world top.
Any flooded caves contain water.

"grassland_sea":
With the sand of beaches, lakebeds and seabeds.
Extends from beach top down to y = -127 to contain most sea depths.
Sand may occasionally appear in caves due to how mapgen works.
Any flooded caves contain water.

"grassland_under":
Meaning 'underground'.
Stone only, below most sea depths.
Extends from y = -128 down to y = -1023.
Any flooded caves contain water.

"grassland_deep":
Meaning 'deep underground'.
Stone only.
Extends from y = -1024 down to world base.
The depth where magma appears, any flooded caves can contain water or magma.


How this game was created
-------------------------

Minetest Game mods used slightly modified:

'player_api' mod:
Use new player textures, update credits and licence.
Delete unnecessary mod.conf file.


Minetest Game mods used heavily modified:

'default' mod:
The minipeli 'gui', 'hand' and 'media' mods are derived from it.

'gui' mod contains:
Textures:
  gui_formbg
  gui_hb_bg
  bubble
  heart
init.lua:
minetest.register_on_joinplayer to set the formspec prepend. The custom hotbar texture code is commented-out. Also use a temporary fix for minetest.get_player_information occasionally being 'nil'.

'hand' mod contains:
Textures:
  wieldhand.png
init.lua:
minetest.register_item to register the hand tool.

'media' mod contains:
Textures:
  crack_anylength
Sounds:
  player_damage
init.lua:
Required but empty.