Hi everyone! We are happy to invite you to the AES map building contest 2026.

In short:
🫂 1-3 players per team (unlimited applications)
📅 02-12 January
📍 mg-studio.splvs.net : 30000
💬 Event chat
ℹ️ Some of the maps will get featured on Luanti AES minigame server afterwards

What?

During two weeks, you’ll be able to build and test your map in small teams (1 - 3 players) on a dedicated “Minigame Studio” server. You can build maps with fewer players, but it will be much less fun and please remember that it is a challenging project. We prefer applications in teams.

We will try to assist you with feedback and suggestions (also see the “Map building tips and hints” section below), and we’re available for your questions.

In the end, some maps will be featured on the AES minigame server. Every team member with an accepted map will gain the “Map builder” prefix on AES for 6 months. There are no single winners nor leaderboards.

We are looking forward to your creativity.
~ Zughy, Giov4, _Zaizen_ – AES administrators
~ Enlive, fnetX, awertc – Studio assistants

How does it work?

On a dedicated server, we grant every team a building area of 150x150x150 nodes and set up the required tools for your build (e.g. WorldEdit). You then proceed to develop your map in this area. There are several public feedback sessions that you can use to get feedback on your drafts. It allows you to test your map with more players and get feedback from other teams.

Accepted maps

We currently only accept map submissions for the following minigames:

• Sumo
• TNT Run
• TNT Tag
• Fantasy Brawl
• Block League
• Murder
• Skywars

Unfortunately, we don’t currently accept submissions for

• Colour Jump
• Quikbuild
• Baloon Bop

Public testing sessions

If you want to test your map with other players, you can do it at any time. Additionally, we offer several testing sessions where you are invited to test your map and those of others and share feedback.

Even if you are not participating in the contest, we kindly invite you to test the maps of others.

If you cannot participate in the testing sessions, this is not a big deal. You might miss an opportunity to obtain feedback on your map, and we encourage you to invite friends to test the map at other times.

Testing sessions occur on the following dates:

• Jan 04, 15.00 UTC: First optional map testing session and feedback.
• Jan 09, 19.00 UTC: Second map testing session. We recommend that your map is somewhat ready to play and you only need to fine-tune the gameplay after this session.

How to apply?

Deadline: January 02, 2026, 20.00 UTC

One member of the team needs to send the application ingame to the “mg-studio” account to AES.

1. Join the AES minigame server
2. Go to the mailman NPC and interact with it
3. In the menu that is opened, select writing a new message
4. Enter “mg-studio” as the recipient and write your application
5. Provide the following details:
   • Give your team a name.
   • List the names of the other players.
   • Tell us, for which minigame you want to build a map (see list of allowed games above)
6. All team members need to register a new account on the “Minigame Studio” server (your credentials from AES are not accepted at this server):
   • Address: mg-studio.splvs.net
   • Port: 30000

Schedule

Find the important dates and deadlines below. Generally, all work can happen asynchonously. You are not required to participate at specific times, but we highly encourage you to join the testing sessions.

• Dec 22: Applications open.
• Dec 29: We start setting up teams that applied on the Studio server. Once your arena has been set up, you can start building.
• Jan 02, 20.00 UTC: Applications close. Building officially starts.
  • Teams that have technical difficulties or haven’t yet received their plot are invited to discuss the details with us.
• Jan 07: AES staff members provide feedback for your maps.
• Jan 12, 21.00 UTC: Building ends and your maps are submitted to BlockExchange.
  • You don’t need to be online. We’ll upload whatever is in your area at the given time.
• Jan 14: AES staff evaluates the maps and announce the results.

Stay in touch

We invite you to stay in touch with us and other teams for feedback and fun. You have several options:

• Join the Studio server and chat with us and others.
• Send further emails to “mg-studio” on AES (see apllication on how to do this)
• Join our Matrix room for sharing screenshots and asking for feedback.

Rules and conditions

• The server rules from AES apply to the minigame studio as well. Please be nice to each other.
• Destroying the work of others is strictly prohibited. We won’t tolerate any offenses and suspend members who are discovered griefing from the contest.
• Be respectful with the work of others. If you don’t like something, try to give valuable feedback over insulting language.
• Your maps are submitted under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. With your participation, you agree to license your work under the terms of this license.
  • This is important to allow your map to be used on AES and potentially other servers. It grants everyone the rights to copy your map, use it and improve it, as long as they quote you.

Evaluation and Criteria

We are looking forward to your submissions and enabling some of them on AES in the long term. Please see below for the criteria that we use to judge your map:

Gameplay: Most importantly, your map should be fun to play. We use the observation from the testing sessions and our own to assess if the map works well. Maps that are too large or not easy to understand are less unlikely to work well.

Innovation: We value if you try innovative ideas in gameplay that differ from those of existing maps, but it is not a strict requirement. Please try to balance with gameplay: If it is too complicated to understand, it is unlikely to be fun. You can also use the first days to experiment with your idea.

Design: The maps should look somewhat nice. You don’t need to make them an artwork, but please ensure you decorate it accordingly and consistently (e.g. avoid part of a map nicely decorated and the rest of it being only a flat area).

Please don’t be disappointed if your map is not accepted in the end. We’re doing the contest for fun and we know that not all the maps fit the AES server. But we hope you enjoy building and playing the map with others. You can download the map from BlockExchange in the end and play them with your friends forever!

Map building tips and tricks

In the following sections, we’ll share some tips ands tricks on how to build good minigame maps based on our experience. Most importantly, you’ll learn something for yourself. Even if your map is not chosen to be made available on AES, we hope that you have a fun time and learned something for your next map idea.

Choosing the correct size: It might be tempting to build large maps. However, please keep in mind that gameplay is not fun if you walk alone and can’t find the other players. Especially TNT Tag, Sumo etc don’t make sense with large maps, as you are effectively unable to reach the other players. If in doubt, start small.

Balance innovation with proven gameplay: We encourage you to be creative and experiment with gameplay ideas that are not yet present on AES. However, it is well possible that your idea doesn’t work out. Please don’t be disappointed if this is the case, we still value your experiments. Alternatively, you can try to build a map similar to existing ones and only change decoration.

Keep it simple: Minigame maps are not artwork. You are free to express yourself, but try to start simple and add things over time. If you start with a too complex idea from the start, chances you cannot finish them in time are high.

Manage your time: The building contest is limited in time. Try to keep an eye out. We recommend you to create a working draft of your basic concept as soon as possible and test it in the testing sessions early. It allows you to enhance your concept over time. Try to avoid getting stuck with the details, you can do this towards the end.

Ask for and respect feedback: Observing how other players interact with the map is important. They might have different skillset than you or use different devices (e.g. smartphone vs gaming PC). It allows you to adjust your map if you learn that the average player differs from what you have in your team.

Sumo

• You’ll need a “jail”, the area where players are temporarily limited to after dying (e.g. in “Burning Bridge” is inside one bridge tower, in “Circle” is in the circle itself).
• Avoid people camping too much. Make sure that there are no unreachable spots (e.g. a player being thrown in the air should not be able to stay on a pillar or island that no other player can reach afterwards). You can use barriers or player killer air to prevent this…
• …But it is better to avoid it as much as possible. It is quite confusing if you are thrown in the air and there is suddenly a barrier, or if you think you can land in a safe spot (e.g. island), but you die instead.
• You can make people die using “Player killer air” or “Player killer water”. Use what fits best to your map.

Skywars

• We’ll provide you with more details on how to set up the cages during spawn.

Fantasy Brawl

• Please use a flat ground as the base for your map.