Luanti Survival — Our Family Game Server

I set up a small game server at home so the kids, our cousins, and a few friends can build and play together even when we are not in the same room. This page is the short, honest guide to getting on the server: install the right client on your device, point it at play.dangerouswonder.org, and remember that the people on the other end of the wire are real.

The game running on the server is Luanti (the project formerly known as Minetest) with the Mineclonia game pack, which is the closest free, open-source equivalent to Minecraft that we have found. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Android, and the kids and I have been playing on it for a few months now.

What is Luanti and Mineclonia?

Luanti is an open-source voxel game engine - the same way Minecraft is a game, Luanti is the engine that runs games built out of blocks. Mineclonia is one of those games: it looks and feels very close to vanilla Minecraft, which is exactly what we wanted so our kids and their cousins could play together without one side having to learn a different game. Its so close that most guides for will work in Mineclonia.

The server runs at play.dangerouswonder.org on port 30000 (UDP).

Install Luanti

You need the Luanti client on whatever device you plan to play on. Pick the section below for your platform. (There is no first-party iOS client - the third-party options are not stable enough that I want to hand them to a kid. If you are on iOS, ask me and I will help you find a workaround or use a different device.)

Windows

1. Go to luanti.org/downloads and download the Windows installer (.msi or .exe - either works).
2. Run the installer. The defaults are fine.
3. Launch Luanti from the Start menu. The first launch will show the main menu.
4. Follow instructions in the next section to join our server.

Linux

The cleanest install is via Flatpak, which keeps Luanti and its assets in their own sandbox and updates cleanly. If you would rather not use Flatpak, your distro almost certainly has Luanti in its package manager — apt install luanti, dnf install luanti, pacman -S luanti, etc. — and those work fine too.

Flatpak path:

flatpak install flathub org.luanti.luanti
flatpak run org.luanti.luanti

Once it is running, connect to the server.

Android

1. Open the Play Store and search for “Luanti”.
2. Install and open it.
3. The game should now appear in the main menu.

Connect to our server

Once Luanti is installed joining the server takes about thirty seconds.

1. From the main menu, click “Join Name” (Windows/Linux/Android)
2. Fill in:
   • Address: play.dangerouswonder.org
   • Port: 30000
3. Click Register.
   • Enter your user name and password
4. Save. The server will appear in your list. Click it and hit “Login” after entering your user name and password you registered with.

If the connection sits for a long time and times out, double-check the port is 30000 and the address is spelled exactly as shown above. Some home routers block UDP traffic on unusual ports — if you can browse the web fine but the game will not connect from your house, that is almost always what is happening. Tether to a phone or try a different network as a quick test.

The first time you join, Luanti will download the Mineclonia mod from the server if you do not already have it installed locally. After that, joining is instant.

A few things worth knowing

• The world is persistent. What you build stays built. Please do not grief other people’s projects — see the code of conduct below.
• Backups are mine, not yours. I snapshot the world every so often. If you build something amazing, tell me so I make sure it gets caught in a backup before a server hiccup.
• Performance: Launti is light. A modest laptop or a five-year-old phone can run it. If you are getting frame drops, lower the render distance in Settings → Performance to 50 or 30 blocks.
• Updates: when I update Luanti and the Mineclonia mod on the server, your client may need a matching update. I will post a note in the family chat before any update goes in.

Server code of conduct

This server is a small private community of family and a few close friends. I am not running a public service, and there is no moderation team. The expectations are simple and rooted in the same thing we try to live out at home.

• Be kind. Treat the other players the way you would want your own kid treated in our living room. Words on a screen land on real people.
• Be Christlike, even in game. That means grace first, patience, honesty, and a quick apology when you mess up. It does not mean preaching at people while they are trying to build a house.
• Do not grief other players’ builds. If you accidentally break something, fix it or tell the person whose build it was. If you do it on purpose, you will be removed.
• No hateful language, slurs, or harassment. Not in chat, not on signs, not in usernames. There is no “just joking” exception.
• Parents decide what their kids play. If you are a parent and you would rather your child not be on a particular night, just say so and I will make it happen. No questions asked.
• If something feels off, tell me. I am the admin. I have final say on who stays and who goes, and I would rather hear a small problem early than a big one late.

I have not had to remove anyone yet, and I do not expect to. The kids have been good to each other, and the cousins and friends who have joined so far have been a blessing. This page is here so the rules are written down before they need to be — not because I think we will need them.

If you have a question that does not fit on this page, message me on the family group chat or email me through the form on the main site. I would rather you ask than struggle silently.

Welcome to the server. Build something good.

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