Mineville is an official Microsoft partnered Minecraft server featured in Minecraft Bedrock addition. Along with 4 other official servers, Mineville aims to provide players with unique experiences that are easily accessible to Minecraft players.
When I was brought onto Mineville, my role was to create new custom game modes and add additional mechanics to existing game modes. My primary job involved programming, but since we were a relatively small team, I often did a lot of design work on the projects I worked on as well. My success on Mineville lead to me being given the task of developing a second server for InPvP called Pixel Paradise in the spring of 2021. In September of 2022, I was promoted to Game Designer, overseeing the design and production of all Mineville games.
For the next 3 years, I would design and develop over 50 content updates and game modes for Mineville. In addition to design responsiblities, I was also responsible for managing the release timelines and coordinating with artists and programmers to ensure that end products met my vision.
Some of my more significant projects on Mineville lately are detailed below.
Prison
One of the largest projects I oversaw as a Game Designer on Mineville was the complete remake of our most popular game mode, Prison. Prison is a grindy game mode that is popular among Minecraft Servers. It sees players digging in mines to collect ore that they can sell. Once they have accumulated enough gold, they can move onto the next mine, which has higher value ores. This continues indefinitely, with the goal to accrue as much gold as possible, earing powerful buffs along the way.
As part of this Prison Overhaul, I stripped back many of the redundant features that were added prior to my starting, and rebuilt the game from the ground up, designing new Armor Systems, an Achievement System, Server Wide Boss Raids, and even a System that allowed players to decorate their very own jail cell, allowing them to use their gold to purchase exclusive furniture.
Since the remake, our Prison game mode has seen an explosion in popularity, and now it is one of the most popular of it’s type in all of Minecraft, in terms of player counts and revenue.
In 2024, I added Seasons to Prison, allowing for regularly scheduled content to bring people back to the game. It worked wonderfully, and we hosted 10 different Prison Seasons with theming varying from Outer Space to Dinosaurs.
Prison Mine A, where new players mine blocks to access higher level mines with more valuable blocks
Custom Cell, players can purchase a variety of furniture and decorate their Prison Cell to their liking.
Promotional Material for a Gold Autominer, one of our most profitable offers.
High School
As the premier role play server on Minecraft Bedrock, one of our most popular modes is our High School mode, which essentially is a sandbox-type experience that allow players to freely role play. I frequently am tasked with designing new features for High School that provide our players with new and exciting role play experiences that fit within the theme. We’ve released Prom Events, a School Store, Snowball Fights, and many other popular updates that have cemented High School as our premier role-play game mode.
A VIP lounge that players can relax in
Marketing Material highlighting an offer that allows players to host their own Dance Party in the High School Gym
Our use of Custom UI differentiates us from Vanilla Minecraft, allowing our game modes to have a distinct style.
Skyblock
One of the most popular Minecraft modes is known as Skyblock, which allows players to build their Dream Island in the sky, and we boast having the best version of the mode in Bedrock Edition. As a designer, I have been tasked with creating numerous updates to the mode which have added many purchasable and quality of life updates that make our Skyblock among the most polished and profitable games of it’s type.
Players can purchase furniture and use it to decorate their Island, similar to the furniture in Prison
Marketing art a for another Skyblock offer