this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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Roblox isn't a game. Minetest is an engine (providing it's own APIs that game developers use to develop games), and a platform to distribute them. In a sense, Minetest is like Unity or Godot. Games built on Minetest include MineClone2/5, Nodecore, Exile etc.
Yeah, but truth is a lot of people do consider it a game.
Only you, it seems. First I have seen this assertion.
I could go into depth on why it's an engine, but you seem to have already made your mind up and are going to stick with it regardless.
Edit: Actually, I'll leave it up to the Minetest project.... "Minetest is an open source voxel game engine with easy modding and game creation" - https://github.com/minetest/minetest
I also think that it and Roblox should be considered game engines, not games, but they are classified as games not platforms by the likes of Apple and random people on Reddit.
Fair point, it didn't feel like you were in agreement.
Apple has to classify their apps. Do they even have a game engine classification? I'm assuming they cannot class it as a productivity suite...
As for random people on Reddit. We've gone and hopefully can move on from the hive mind of regurgitating opinions and use our brains a little more. We're not hunting karma and upvotes here, we're here for better discussion.
Yeah, let me open up Unity for that vanilla gameplay experience, oh wait...
Also, are wc3 and hl also not games because they were used to develop and distribute games that ended up being more popular?
You are expanding the scope of what we're saying. Half Life is not a game engine, GoldenSrc is. Warcraft III doesn't appear to have a public game engine. However, Roblox & Minetest don't really have a bundled game.
Not really, wc3 and hl are definitely more "gamey" than Minetest, but you can still install Minetest to play and mod Minetest.
Minetest is the game that comes bundled with Minetest.
Minetest Game is the game that comes bundled with Minetest, not Minetest. Nobody said WC3 and HL is a game engine.
Horrible naming scheme, and I don't think I've seen the Minetest Game ever mentioned as anything but just Minetest.
It's not a naming scheme, it's just the default and everything makes it clear that Minetest is the engine. It's kinda the example game.
Minetest fulfils the role of platform because of content db, which is a separate thing with it's own name, it wasn't always there, and it's maintained by 1 person. The rest of the developers code the API's which are used for making games. You know what else provides API's for making games? Unity, Unreal and Godot.
You cannot play default minetest without a game. It comes installed with minetest game (which is a crappy game and more of a modding base). Delete it and see if you can play, yeah?
What is wc3 and hl?
Sure, it's a crappy game, but when you install Minetest you can play Minetest, and you install Minetest mods to mod the Minetest game. You can't use Minetest mods on Mineclone. If you install unity you can't play unity, you make a game in unity.
Warcraft and half life
Basically, you're saying because an engine also has a packaging element (contentDB is the packaging and distribution part maintained by 1 developer, it cannot be an engine). It is both.
"Minetest is an open source voxel game engine with easy modding and game creation". https://github.com/minetest/minetest
Historically, when you install windows, it comes with a game. Does that make it not an operating system?
I'm more inclined to believe the team who make it rather than some random internet stranger though.
At what point did I say it's not an engine? I'm just denying your claim that it's not a game...
Edit: I think it's primarily a linguistic issue. HL, TF, and CS weren't made using the half life engine, but source engine. Meanwhile Minetest is made in Minetest and distributed through Minetest.
MTG - Minetest Game is the game. It's in the name. Delete it, and you cannot play Minetest. Minetest is referred to as the engine. They renamed MTG and put it into maintenance mode because of the confusion. It was badly named initially. The team have already made the decision to remove MTG by default so it comes with no games. They are just waiting to redevelop the UI so it isn't so painful when this happens.
Oh ok, now that makes sense. MTG is a horrible acronym, but ok.
I've installed Minetest like a month ago and it came with the Minetest game.