About
Minecraft is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios, first released as an early-access alpha in 2009 and formally in November 2011, later ported to numerous platforms. TrueCraft is a clean-room implementation of Minecraft beta 1.7.3 (circa September 2011) — the README stresses it is an implementation, not a decompiled clone, and that no decompiled Minecraft code was used in its development. It's compatible with actual Minecraft beta 1.7.3 clients and servers, built in C# (compiled via Mono/xbuild), and the project is now archived and inactive.
How it differs from the original
The project deliberately stops at Minecraft's beta 1.7.3 feature set, explicitly avoiding everything added since — such as the End dimension, all-in-one redstone devices, and villager trading — because the author wanted to preserve what they saw as a simpler, more complete version of the game. It ships a default texture pack (Pixeludi Pack) rather than requiring original Mojang assets, though the launcher can optionally install the real Mojang assets and beta-compatible texture packs.
Getting started
Clone the repository recursively, restore its NuGet packages (via an IDE or the NuGet tool directly), then build with xbuild; running the resulting client launches a launcher that can connect to servers or start a singleplayer game, while a separate server executable can host multiplayer.
History
The project describes a strict "clean room" split between contributors who have and haven't read Minecraft's original source code — those who have are barred from directly contributing to the codebase to avoid legal contamination, and can instead work on related tools, documentation, or reverse-engineering guidelines for others.
Additional notes
- Legal
- The README states TrueCraft is not associated with Mojang or Minecraft in any official capacity.