#minecraft ds

One of the biggest problems with homebrew projects for the DS or any problems, especially those run by a single person, is they're too often put aside as the developer moves on to other interests or obligations.

That's what happened to the unauthorized Minecraft DS game we've been covering, as coder Smealum has announced that he needs a break from the project:

"I just wanted to let you all know that from now on the project is officially 'on hold'. The reason for this is that I've lost all motivation to push it any further for the time being.

And this isn't really about me having school again; I've done this with pretty much all of my projects: I work hard on it for a while, and then it just kind of sits there for a few months... until I get back to it and finish it. So, don't expect any updates for a few months (at least weeks) as I won't be working on this (I haven't touched the code since version 310811).

And before anyone says I should release the source code, I want you all to know that I have considered it and decided against it for the time being. As I have said already, I do plan on releasing the source code eventually, just not before I feel I'm done with the project.

This is merely a break (hopefully) and at any rate the code is in no state to be published at this point in time. ... I hope you all understand, I'm very sorry about this."

:o( You can still download and play Minecraft DS for free here -- someone's even created a little adventure map for the game, if you want to try that out.

At least there's still Lumikha/Luacraft! Oh wait, that hasn't been updated since July 25...

Buy: Nintendo 3DS (Flame Red, Black, & Blue)

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Minecraft DS by Smelaum, another homebrew project seeking to adapt Mojang's indie PC game for a handheld.

While this 3D demo is impressive, it only has a few basic features: terrain generation, adding/removing blocks, and map streaming from the game file. Smealum says he is working on an actual level generator (what you see here is generated with test code) and support for saving.

As for LuaCraft, that 2D Minecraft-inspired homebrew we featured a while ago, it looks like that's still under development but now under the name Lumikha. It's a shame that there isn't any 3DS homebrew, as both of these projects could benefit from that system's extra power.

Find: Nintendo DS/3DS release dates, discounts, & more

See also: More Nintendo DS homebrew