Learn to Program with Minecraft Plugins: Create Flying Creepers and Flaming Cows in Java

by Andy Hunt

Expand your Minecraft experience! You'll learn how to write Java code and build plugins for your own Minecraft servers using the popular Java programming language and the Minecraft Bukkit library.

You'll create plugins that can change blocks from air to stone, or spawn cows and creepers. You'll write plugins that react to game events, and even schedule tasks that will run later in the game. Readers from age 9 to 99 will learn how to use variables and functions to build plugins that fling players into the sky, create flying creepers, and of course, shoot flaming cows.

Along the way you'll learn real programming using Java, from classes, objects, and data structures (including arrays and hashes) to exception handling and threads. You'll even learn how to backup your code (and go back in time!) using Git, and set up and run your own server at home or in the cloud. A running progress bar shows you how far you've come in each chapter, and by the end of the book you'll be able to design and code your own plugins from scratch.

Put your gaming to good use, and learn real programming skills today.

Genres: Technology, Programming

200 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2014

About the author

see also Andrew Hunt

Andy Hunt is a programmer turned consultant, author and publisher.
He co-authored the best-selling book "The Pragmatic Programmer",
was one of the 17 founders of the Agile Alliance, and co-founded
the Pragmatic Bookshelf, publishing award-winning and critically
acclaimed books for software developers.

Andy started writing software professionally in early 80's across
diverse industries such as telecommunications, banking, financial
services, utilities, medical imaging, graphic arts, and of course,
the now-ubiquitous web.

Source: Amazon.com

Reviews

[Jeff Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was well done, but sadly was based on CraftBukkit. With the death (or nearly) of CraftBukkit the use of this tool for pedagogical reasons is still reasonable but a lot less fun as all new features must be abandoned with no hope of ever including them in your own extensions. Without a hope of setting up a server that friends will want to play, interest in building anything but the rudiments is gone. So, if you are trying to interest a child in programming - great. If you hope that your child will then spend their time building minecraft extensions to some greater degree - not so great.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Great way to teach programming using engaging content and best programming practices. Also like the access to the author via the book's home page on pragprog.com with the discussion forum, so if you get stuck, you can ask questions and not simply get stalled. This is helpful to those new to programming. This may be too basic to those who already know how to program, but is a total gem for those who don't and are learning.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good, but sadly dependent on CraftBukkit which has been taken down.