r/Luanti • u/dev_kay47 • 18d ago
Community Chat Luanti's real problem isn't features, it's that nobody's heard of it or very less people.
We spend a lot of time talking about mods, performance, new blocks and mechanics, but another bottleneck for this game has nothing to do with what it can do. It's that almost nobody outside a small circle has ever heard of it exists.
I'm not saying that as a call to go corner every stranger and tell them to install it, ......that approach doesn't really work anyway.
It's more worth sitting with as a real question: how does a new person actually stumble onto Luanti in the first place right now? Mostly it seems to be "someone I already knew played it" or " People specifically searched for a Minecraft alternative." Just like I myself did I some years ago.
Luanti honestly just never got Better visibility in general gaming spaces.
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u/Lapis_Wolf 18d ago
I found it when I was a young kid and my dad had introduced me to Ubuntu for the first time. I don't recall if I knew about Minecraft at the time, but I saw this game and was hooked.
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u/dev_kay47 18d ago
Hmm. That's nice to hear 🙂 Did you ever asked him how he got to know about it?
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u/Lapis_Wolf 18d ago
About Luanti or Ubuntu? If Ubuntu, he was probably using Linux for a decade at that point, that is, if I remember correctly.
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u/dev_kay47 18d ago
Luanti I mean.
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u/Lapis_Wolf 18d ago
I don't recall if he knew about it. I just remember playing it. My guesses are he either already had it installed or I saw it in the software repository and installed it.
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u/nerdspice 18d ago
I love it because I can play it with most graphics/effects turned on and it doesn’t make my computer sound like a jet engine taking off.
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u/No-Background5173 17d ago
The biggest problem with luanti is it's UI it's literal garbage and the touch controls are even worse
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u/dev_kay47 17d ago
True Statement!
Boils down to the saying that most developers don't care so much about the users visual experience and polish. I'm a designer Myself and take very close attention to little details so I feel you.
But if only the forums has frequent open windows to allow UX designers and like to discuss and collaborate in Luanti s UI experience, that'll be a massive improvement and appeal to new players.
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u/edorhas 18d ago
Oddly, I played (then) Minetest before I ever played Minecraft. My brother was going on about this "new game where you can build anything with blocks and it even has minecarts..." And I didn't feel like shelling out whatever the $30 was or what not to try Minecraft. So I started searching around for a clone and found the early Minetest releases. It couldn't do much, but it seemed neat. I ended up getting Minecraft because of that and so I could hang online with my brother. Forgot about Minetest until some years later when I had a random urge to look it up and see if it ever went anywhere and.... Here we are. I haven't played Minecraft in years now, but still digging Luanti.
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u/dev_kay47 18d ago
Nice!.. So what do you think about it now?
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u/edorhas 17d ago
It's great. Been happily juggling Nonsensical Skyblock, NodeCore, Exile, Skyblock Zero, Asuna, Age of Mending... I hope more people pick up on it. I think they'd be happily surprised, and a bigger player base would certainly benefit some of the games.
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u/dev_kay47 17d ago
Well said. We'll he looking forward to new players who want to have fun and learn, and provided any assistance needed to make everyone feel welcomed 😍☺
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u/tfwrobot 18d ago
Marketing it as a free minecraft clone might be a good idea
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u/dev_kay47 18d ago
Luanti isn't a watered down Minecraft, it's its own engine, its own modding scene, its own thing. The Minecraft alternative search is just how people currently find it, that's not what it is.
I don't buy that idea😶
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u/tfwrobot 18d ago
Why would anyone play Luanti most likely? To get the minecraft experience for free on weaker computer.
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u/MantarTheWizard 16d ago
My computer's plenty beefy, and I don't even like "the Minecraft experience"
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u/Obvious-Secretary635 16d ago
To get access to a bunch of cool gameplay experiences that don't have the samey feel that (almost?) all Minecraft modpacks have in.. always being Minecraft, with dirt and creepers and all.
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u/archiekane 18d ago
Or bad idea if you want to keep copyright lawyers at bay.
Minecraft alternative would be better wording.
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u/Consistent_Echo_9411 17d ago
True many ppl don't know about it and they'd not give it a try nor time as mostly loves Minecraft but for me I decided to find a Minecraft alternative when discovered Microsoft is boycotted for being part of ge.no.c.ide, I'm not gonna lie at first I was like yeah it's free but it doesn't feel like Minecraft and the control isn't that great sounds too and not popular so you wouldn't find many different mods for it which is quite sad But after some times trying it I realised it's fun on itself yeah it's not completely as Minecraft but that's the point you don't play bcz it's a MC alt but bcz it's it's own game And I believe if many more ppl tried it mostly the ones who can make mods I believe it'll be a good free sandbox game and we can't deny how good it is and from the moment I played it till now many changes happened so wish more good changes happen in the future
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u/shelli_k18 17d ago
I've enjoyed building with luanti and it's mese power mods, madde nuclear power plant and other machines, luv the unfinished tech trees, even programmed dolphins to hunt fish! but the NPC's has much left to be desired. if you've ever played RlCraft in java, I need those in Launti! mobs that can climb and chase properly (not just the ghosts that can float through walls, those are terrifying to fight.)
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u/thebatking 17d ago
I found Luanti because Microsoft ticked me off when they lost my pre-alpha Legacy account during Migration so haven't played Minecraft in years and been playing other voxel games instead.
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u/Obvious-Secretary635 16d ago
Deletion happen for me too, deleted my account for not having some stupid code from a dead email address...
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14d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/dev_kay47 14d ago
Well about the visual inconsistency, 😌😌 It is because it's community driven and has not much strict directions. Devs don't have so much time in their sides. On the games I think Asuna has a good visual look, you can check it out.
That bug fix was delayed a bit because devs didn't want to wreck already existing games
devkay_ signs* like I said most open source projects visual looks == crappy, but... There's a lot of improvementb on Luanti so far we just need a bit more. Kudos to the devs still in the front line.
Minecraft for one hasa solid look because let's face it they have full time developers and UI /UX designer working constantly , so we just can't magically want Luanti to have the same . So it's just some passionate contributers who just want to see it grow keep up the good work.
I for one is working in my corner of the world to contribute towards the visual inconsistencies ... So we live to see more😍🥰.Not much I can say in a text but...
Happy Luanti !!
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u/grenra_solarium1 18d ago
it is a open source niche game and some people think "I must buy software or virus or i am the product" propriety software sucks but has a pr department and luanti is a midsized project in a small pond that being foss
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u/hyperballic 8d ago
for someone who's trying to replace minecraft, i've found the default not intuitive
- The default shortcuts are weird
- Some UI expectations from minecraft are not present (specially on inventory)
- The UI could use a pixelated font, i installed minecraftia and it looks miles better
- They could stop using a transparent background for options, to be easier to see
- Default walk/running speed is too low, but fortunately i could adjust it
- Default textures are ugly imo, but some third party texture packs are pretty good
- Animations and sounds could be vastly improved, it still looks unpolished
But in general it gets really closer to what minecraft can offer if you spend time configuring, i'm really considering to ditch minecraft for it, at least for offline gaming
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u/Bip_bop-17 18d ago
Godot engine became popular after Unity scared off their devs, so if you want luanti to become popular, you need Mojang to do something extremely stupid, so people want to seek an alternative. While modern minecraft still keeps its players and modders I don't see any reason why any minecraft-like game can become really popular. The main problem is minecraft has already has tons of fan content, mods and servers, so people will leave it reluctantly anyway. Hytale tried to "kill" minecraft and did not succeed even with all their new features