Making campaigns

A campaign is a set of scripted missions that players run on their own game, alone or with friends. Anyone can make one, and no Java is needed: campaigns are built from a Minecraft world and Lua scripts.

What’s in a campaign

A campaign is a Minecraft resource pack with a few extra files:

• A world for each mission, which is copied fresh for every playthrough.
• Lua scripts that run the mission: objectives, dialogue, enemies and events.
• Spatial data, the named spots and areas in your world that scripts refer to. You place these in game.
• Assets such as card art and translations.

One pack is one campaign, holding one or more missions in order. Players unlock them one at a time.

How it runs

Missions are hosted on the player’s own integrated server, and friends can join over LAN. Progress is saved at checkpoints on the player’s computer. Nothing is synced online.

Players install a community pack as a resource pack and enable it, and it then shows up under Campaign. Official campaigns can be installed from inside the game.

Where to start

1. Pack format covers the files in a pack.
2. Your first mission gets a pack running on your machine.
3. Spatial data covers placing triggers, markers and actors.
4. Scripting explains how mission scripts work.
5. Debugging helps when something goes wrong.
6. Publishing gets your campaign to players.

The Lua API reference lists every function available, and the Assets section covers maps, game assets and map effects.

Operation Pathfinder, the official example campaign, is the best thing to learn from. Download it and read its scripts.