Minetest
Shares rank 11 of 12 sandbox games by recommenders
Free, open-source Minecraft-like sandbox that people use for shared building on private servers and play through many downloadable subgames.
Free, open-source Minecraft-like sandbox that people use for shared building on private servers and play through many downloadable subgames.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Private servers for shared building
“I host a docker container with a minetest instance that we can all build in together.”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: How would you set up a child’s first Linux computer?” “Parents should help to set kids their own private Minetest servers.”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Father warns of extremist network 764 after his daughter was 'groomed' on Roblox” Many free subgames to play
“has tons of games downloadable from a single click ingame”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Minecraft: Java Edition 26.2, the first version with Vulkan 1.2” “Minetest+tons of subgames such as Glitch, Nodecore...”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Battle for Wesnoth: open-source, turn-based strategy game”
Other sandbox games people recommend
The four most recommended other sandbox games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minecraft | 222 | 149 | 60% | 13 | 10 yrs11 owners | — |
| Luanti | 23 | 4 | 85% | 7 | — | Approved |
| No Man's Sky Cosmos | 22 | 31 | 42% | 1 | — | — |
| Voxile | 16 | 1 | 94% | 3 | — | — |
| MinetestThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Minetest is good enough, plus way more performant”
“has tons of games downloadable from a single click ingame”
“Parents should help to set kids their own private Minetest servers.”
“Minetest+tons of subgames such as Glitch, Nodecore...”
“I host a docker container with a minetest instance that we can all build in together.”
“When he was younger he LOVED minetest, which is a hackable version of minecraft.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.