Multiplayer Luanti Server for offline Gaming

🎮 Bring Minecraft-style adventures home — no internet needed

If your kids love sandbox building games but you'd rather keep playtime inside your home network, Luanti (an open-source Minetest fork) plus this Dockerized home server is a perfect fit.

It ships with two kid-friendly game worlds — Mineclonia and VoxeLibre — including curated mods, texture packs, and a built-in web admin (mtui) so parents can manage everything from a browser.

🔒 No Microsoft/Mojang accounts, no public exposure — just a small PC or NAS on your LAN.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Why it's great for families

• ✅ Runs completely offline on your home LAN — safe from random internet players
• ✅ One admin login for parents; individual accounts for kids
• ✅ Easy web dashboard (mtui) to add users, reset passwords, watch chat, and tweak mods
• ✅ Optional LAN-optimized settings for smoother Wi-Fi gameplay

🚀 Quick start (Docker)

git clone https://github.com/hackboxguy/minetest-home-server.git

cd minetest-home-server

GAME_SEED=44569 ADMIN_PASSWORD=supersecret docker-compose up -d

💡 ADMIN_PASSWORD sets your first admin password — change it to your own secret.

Want a custom admin name? Add ADMIN_USER=yourname

💡 GAME_SEED use any number of your choice to start a new world.

Mineclonia listens on port 30000; VoxeLibre on 30001.
Connect using your server's LAN IP, for example: 192.168.1.2:30000

👤 Create player accounts

Option 1: Web admin (mtui) — Recommended

1. Open http://<server-ip>:8000 (Mineclonia) or :8001 (VoxeLibre)
2. Log in with your admin account
3. Create users and set passwords

Option 2: Command-line helper(following command uses default --user=admin)

./tools/luanti-cli.sh \
  --url=http://192.168.1.2:8000 \
  --password=supersecret \
  --command='/setpassword user1 user1pw'

Repeat for each child, then grant basic permissions via console or mtui:

/grant user1 interact

⚡ LAN-only performance mode

If you're only playing at home, use the LAN-tuned compose file for faster terrain loading:

docker-compose down

docker-compose -f docker-compose.offline.yml up -d

🧩 Puzzle chest adventures (great for learning)

1. As admin, run /chestmode in-game
2. Select a difficulty (general knowledge, science, math, tech, or random)
3. Enable chest mode and place bright pink puzzle chests by left clicking the mouse button
4. Players must answer questions to unlock chests and earn points
5. 🏆 The top three players appear on a scoreboard — great motivation for kids!

🎯 How kids join

Direct connect to your local server (e.g., 192.168.1.2):

Mineclonia	192.168.1.2:30000
VoxeLibre	192.168.1.2:30001

Kids sign in using the usernames and passwords you created.

💡 Parent tips

• 🔧 Use mtui to reset passwords or monitor in-game chat
• 📚 Mix free play with puzzle chests for quick learning moments
• 💻 Install the Luanti client on kids' PCs (Windows or Linux)
• 🔐 Keep your admin password private — kids use their own accounts

🎉 That's it! Spin it up, create a few accounts, and enjoy cozy offline family adventures.

🛠️ For developers & advanced users

📖 View full documentation on GitHub →

Custom configurations, mod development, advanced networking options, and more.