This tutorial assumes you have basic knowledge of Java, if you don't know Java, we recommend you learn it first. You can find a good tutorial Online, In IDE, Or here if you are looking for a quick overview by example.

Setting up your project

First, we will require a powerful IDE. For this guide, we will use IntelliJ IDEA.

You can use another IDE but IntelliJ is by far the best, especially for mixins.
Tip: You can get Ultimate edition for free with the student pack.

After it has been downloaded onto your computer, open up the application, and click on the "Plugins" on the bar on the left side of your screen.

Search for "Minecraft Development", and click install on the plugin.

We also need to setup time tracking for your project. Search "Wakatime" and click install. After that, click Restart IDE.

After that, connect to your hackatime and setup Hackatime following the instructions on the website if you haven't already.

Wakatime is the plugin you should install. Hackatime is our custom server that recieves the data it sends. If you get asked for an API key use that of hackatime, you never need to create a wakatime account.

To developing Minecraft mods, we are going to use the Fabric mod loader and its API. If there's something you're confused about, go check their docs!

Fabric is a lightweight modular and modern modding toolchain that does almost nothing on its own, instead it relies more on vanillas infrastructure and a separate API mod to fill in the gaps. If you are coming from Forge, you will notice that Fabric is a lot simpler and flexible making the switch very easy.

Finally, it's time to create a new project!

Mod id:
Examples: com.yourwebsite, io.github.username, me.name
Version: 26.1.2

Extract your zip file, open the folder with Intellij and take a look at your beautiful mod.

Now, lets launch the game for the first time! You can find the launch profiles in the top-right corner of the window. Click the dropdown menu to see the available launch profiles.

There should be a client and server profile, click on the green play button next to the label that reads "Minecraft Client".

Run Minecraft

Your game should now launch! Remember that everytime you make changes in your code and want to test it, you must relaunch Minecraft.

What do I do next?

Follow the Fabric tutorial for modding! It's excellent: if you want to add your first item, we highly suggest you follow the guide here!

Want to change some existing Minecraft behaviour? Try using Mixin!

Want to create your own textures and models? Use BlockBench (good style guide)

Go for the Fabric documentation or Fabric wiki (less good and up to date, more complete) for anything else!

How do I submit my finished project?

Join our slack channel (#mc-modding) on Hack Club's Slack, then follow the instructions to join.

Only after joining Hack Club's Slack you may submit.

Submitting