Help me play multiplayer Minecraft in the worlds my son has made!
April 11, 2022 9:48 PM Subscribe
My five-year old son has grabbed Minecraft on the Nintendo Switch with both hands (pun intended) and built some awesome worlds in Creative mode. He's also been watching Minecraft videos on Youtube (curated by me!) and has picked up on the fact that multiplayer is a thing, so he really wants me to play with him in the worlds he's built. I'd love to, but how?
Google's results when I try to find some guidance are just a dumpster fire.
Can anyone point me in the right direction? Either with URL(s) of useful guides, or with just a few bullet points for how to approach it.
For the record:
His worlds are all on a Nintendo Switch. He has his own "player" set up on the Switch for playing Minecraft. He doesn't have a Nintendo account or a Microsoft account, although I could create one or both for him if that would help.
I would be playing from a Mac laptop on which I'm happy to install whatever edition of Minecraft would make this work.
I'm tech-savvy enough to be able to set up and run a server on my network if that would help (either on my Mac mini server or a Raspberry Pi) and I'm also not averse to setting up and paying for a Realm, if that makes things easier.
The main areas of confusion for me are Java vs. Bedrock, and their ability to both connect to the same server; and, if using Realms, what account(s) need to be created from the Switch to enable the worlds he's created to be uploaded.
Google's results when I try to find some guidance are just a dumpster fire.
Can anyone point me in the right direction? Either with URL(s) of useful guides, or with just a few bullet points for how to approach it.
For the record:
His worlds are all on a Nintendo Switch. He has his own "player" set up on the Switch for playing Minecraft. He doesn't have a Nintendo account or a Microsoft account, although I could create one or both for him if that would help.
I would be playing from a Mac laptop on which I'm happy to install whatever edition of Minecraft would make this work.
I'm tech-savvy enough to be able to set up and run a server on my network if that would help (either on my Mac mini server or a Raspberry Pi) and I'm also not averse to setting up and paying for a Realm, if that makes things easier.
The main areas of confusion for me are Java vs. Bedrock, and their ability to both connect to the same server; and, if using Realms, what account(s) need to be created from the Switch to enable the worlds he's created to be uploaded.
Do you have a Switch or a Switch Lite? With a Switch you can play split screen just by putting it on the TV and using another controller which is the easiest way to multiplayer on a Switch.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:08 AM on April 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:08 AM on April 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
A bonus of using splitscreen is that you get to sit next to your kid on the couch and have more of a shared experience together than each of you using your own device separately.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:46 AM on April 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:46 AM on April 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I do this with my son on his iPad and it's not that bad, assuming the Switch is pretty similar. The worst part was getting the Microsoft/Xbox accounts set up. At a high level:
- Get Bedrock Minecraft working on your laptop. This will probably be tricky - if it's an M1 you may be able to run the iPad version, if not you're probably looking at a VM or bootcamp.
- Create a Microsoft account for each of you.
- Sign up for Xbox accounts on both Microsoft accounts.
- Make the Xbox accounts friends. You can set up a family with one as a child and the other as a parent and put on whatever parental restrictions you like.
- Get signed into your respective copies of Minecraft with your Microsoft accounts.
- One of you starts playing the game and goes into the Minecraft world as usual - this will be the server. The iPad is able to handle 5 clients, not sure about the switch. The server will determine which world you will be in.
- On the server, go into the pause menu and invite the other Xbox account to the game.
- Once the other user joins, on the server, select that user and give them "operator" access.
You may have to sign up for the Switch online service if that's a prerequisite for using Minecraft multiplayer.
Tips:
- Turn on "Show Coordinates" in the world options. Write down the coordinates for everything. It is very possible to lose track of where something is in the world and never find it again.
- From the chat dialog, you can use slash commands (if you're an operator). They have basic online help. Most useful: /teleport (so you can meet up with each other or get to the coordinates you wrote down), /weather and /time (to make it sunny), /locate (to help find things like portals to get to different sub-worlds)
- If you want to try playing in non-Creative mode, there's a setting called "Keep inventory" that you can turn on so you don't lose all your stuff when you die. Falling in a random pool of lava and losing the diamonds they spent an hour looking for will provoke a meltdown.
- There's a seed viewer site where you can enter the "seed" from the world properties and see the whole map - this is helpful to find different environments.
posted by pocams at 11:04 AM on April 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
- Get Bedrock Minecraft working on your laptop. This will probably be tricky - if it's an M1 you may be able to run the iPad version, if not you're probably looking at a VM or bootcamp.
- Create a Microsoft account for each of you.
- Sign up for Xbox accounts on both Microsoft accounts.
- Make the Xbox accounts friends. You can set up a family with one as a child and the other as a parent and put on whatever parental restrictions you like.
- Get signed into your respective copies of Minecraft with your Microsoft accounts.
- One of you starts playing the game and goes into the Minecraft world as usual - this will be the server. The iPad is able to handle 5 clients, not sure about the switch. The server will determine which world you will be in.
- On the server, go into the pause menu and invite the other Xbox account to the game.
- Once the other user joins, on the server, select that user and give them "operator" access.
You may have to sign up for the Switch online service if that's a prerequisite for using Minecraft multiplayer.
Tips:
- Turn on "Show Coordinates" in the world options. Write down the coordinates for everything. It is very possible to lose track of where something is in the world and never find it again.
- From the chat dialog, you can use slash commands (if you're an operator). They have basic online help. Most useful: /teleport (so you can meet up with each other or get to the coordinates you wrote down), /weather and /time (to make it sunny), /locate (to help find things like portals to get to different sub-worlds)
- If you want to try playing in non-Creative mode, there's a setting called "Keep inventory" that you can turn on so you don't lose all your stuff when you die. Falling in a random pool of lava and losing the diamonds they spent an hour looking for will provoke a meltdown.
- There's a seed viewer site where you can enter the "seed" from the world properties and see the whole map - this is helpful to find different environments.
posted by pocams at 11:04 AM on April 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
In order for my 9 yr old son to play multiplayer with his friends, I had to do the Microsoft and Nintendo accounts. The whole process was muddy, but it finally worked.
Also I swore he played with his friend who plays the Java edition on his Mac.
My son uses an iPad and Switch. We’ve plugged the switch into the tv and done split screen which is fun.
posted by jdl at 8:56 PM on April 12, 2022
Also I swore he played with his friend who plays the Java edition on his Mac.
My son uses an iPad and Switch. We’ve plugged the switch into the tv and done split screen which is fun.
posted by jdl at 8:56 PM on April 12, 2022
There is an unofficial Bedrock launcher for Linux/Mac. Mac binaries are here. It says it uses the Android Play Store version; not sure what that implies about MP. I've never used it.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:48 AM on April 14, 2022
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:48 AM on April 14, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
From there, you'll need to upload your son's Minecraft world to a new Realm; on the Switch it looks like this requires a Nintendo Switch Online account and some Nintendo tokens. This video outlines the process; in the video he chooses "Play Solo" which would require you to use the same account (and would prevent multiplayer play), but "Play With Friends" should allow you to share the world with an account of your own. Here's another video about cross-platform play with the Switch. Please note that I am not personally familiar with Minecraft Bedrock or Realms (I play Java Minecraft when I play), so I'm relying on reputable-looking tutorials, but this looks like that's the general idea.
posted by Aleyn at 10:59 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]