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How To Make A Minecraft Survival Map

Updated on September 14, 2012

Hope Alexander

Need some ideas for minecraft maps?

Fresh Tips For New Minecraft Survival Maps

A fresh premise can be discovered by creating new limitations. SkyBlock gave us nothing, Survival Island bathed us in more water than we can handle - what will your map do? Will it be a wool and lava symphony of fire? Will coal be super scarce? Will your player start the game with nothing but three miles of solid stone between them and the nearest sheep?
Scope for creation is important for survival maps, so try to avoid the urge to build too much. The aim of the game is to create a blank and pretty dire canvas that the player will be proud to build into something worth looking at. Fields of fire turned into green pastures, empty snow wastes tamed with pig farms and dirt houses, that sort of thing.

Handy platitudes:

Less is always more. More is always less.

The greater the risk, the greater the sense of reward.

Minecraft survival maps are among the most most downloaded types of minecraft maps. Put simply, a minecraft survival map is a map in which the player must overcome unique types of challenge to survive. It differs from a naturally generated minecraft map in that resources may be limited, terrain may be limited, or additional dangers may be present in the environment (as in the case of Vechs' famous super hostile minecraft survival maps.)

With the development of creative mode, and free tools like MC Edit, and World Painter, the technical process of creating a minecraft survival map has become quite streamlined. This article will therefore be discussing various types of minecraft survival maps and hopefully will inspire you to create your own unique survival map!

Minecraft Survival Island Maps

The most popular type of minecraft survival map is without a doubt, the minecraft survival island map. Survival island maps rely on limited resources and geographic isolation to create a challenge for the player. Unless you have a completely unique twist on the island concept, this is probably one to be left alone. The minecraft survival island experience has been recreated more times than I've had cereal for dinner - and that's somewhere in the thousands.

Minecraft Sky Block Survival Map

The only minecraft survival map possibly more copied than survival island to limited effect is the sky block survival map. Every possible iteration of skyblock has now been tried, so unless you have something really crazy to bring to the table, best to leave this alone if you don't want your map ignored en masse.

Minecraft Super Hostile / Trap Survival Maps

Now this is a genre of minecraft survival map that could be worked with to greater advantage. The concept of a super hostile map is simple, instead of simply providing basic challenges like limited space (which can always be expanded with a cobblestone generator) or giving the player access to only one piece of dirt, super hostile maps are difficult to survive because the creator has gone out of his or her way to try to hurt the player's chances of making it out alive. The minecraft wiki has an extensive section on minecraft traps, with dozens upon dozens of ways to squish, drown, explode and otherwise annoy the unsuspecting player into loving your map.

Minecraft Parkour Survival Maps

Parkour! Making people leap about the place is an acceptable practice in minecraft. It's often used in dedicated minecraft parkour maps and occasionally in adventure maps, but there's no reason why it can't be built into a survival experience.

Minecraft Ant Farm / Cage Survival Maps

The Ant Farm style / trapped in a box minecraft survival map has also been done in several iterations, but people can't get enough of feeling like a tiny creature trapped in a limited and oversized world. So that's one place where a savvy minecraft survival map maker might be able to make their mark on the minecraft world.

Click here for more minecraft survival map downloads and ideas!