What are Minecraft Mods, packs or addons?

The question about the use of addons, mods or packs comes up frequently for Minecraft Education. If you have students and use Minecraft, I expect you've heard the terms frequently and about amazing things they can do. What exactly are they, what do they do and can you use them yourself? Let's dive in!

What are mods, pack or addons? 

Mods, packs or addons (addons are what we refer to them in Minecraft Education developer circles), are unique bundles of additional custom assets, elements, or changes to the appearance or behaviour of Minecraft that can be added or imported into the game. 

Addons (which are typically made up a resource pack and a behaviour pack) are what developers such as myself use to create and add unique elements to the game to enrich Minecraft experiences for students. For example, I've worked on a number of indigenous experiences for various communities in Canada through Logics Academy. It would be difficult to effectively convey the daily life and culture of indigenous groups in the past without creating unique custom elements that are important to that experience, such as canoes, wigwams or different animal life. Vanilla Minecraft (as we refer to Minecraft without addons) is incredibly flexible, but for specific education experiences may need a boost... and the ability for developers to create these addons is another layer in the real power and relevance of Minecraft in the classroom. 

If you've used any worlds from the Minecraft Education Library, you will likely have encountered an experience with an addon. So, addons certainly have their place!

That said, I'm of course developing addons strictly for Minecraft Education, as were the developers that have created addons for worlds in the Lesson Library. The "mods" you may have heard students refer to have been created for the consumer Bedrock and Java editions of Minecraft, some from official developer studios, others by enthusiasts. 

3rd Party Addons... Caution Advised

As just mentioned, most "mods" that your students are talking about have been developed for outside the Minecraft Education experience, and have been developed by various 3rd parties for Java Edition or Bedrock Edition. The safer, more legitimate ones can be purchased via the Minecraft Marketplace. These however, CANNOT be used with Minecraft Education as they are locked to the edition of Minecraft that you purchased them for.  

Other mods can be obtained from various websites and be imported into Minecraft Education. However (and this is really important) not all mods or addons are compatible and many are designed for other versions of Minecraft. Additionally, mods and addons are not officially supported by Minecraft Education... this is very much "use at your own risk".

Risk? 

There's lots of risks associate with attempting to use and import mods or addons you've found on random sites around the internet:

1. Incompatible mods may cause world corruptions rendering the world unusable.
   
   
2. Mods can corrupt game installations and render the entire application unusable.
   
   
3. 3rd Party sites can be very dodgy from a security perspective and may contain malware, viruses or other dangers. We can't vouch for their safety and what might be piggy-backing on a download. Compromised packages can ruin your day... and your IT departments. 

What can you do? 

That said, you may have found an addon that has a legitimate education use, and you really want to try to load it into your experience. Here's some suggestions that you should follow as a best practice:

1. Scan the mod package you've downloaded with an anti-virus scanner that is up to date with it's definitions. This doesn't necessarily mean it's not infected, but it does improve your chances. If you were unable to download it in the first place due to firewall blocks at your education institution, the mod website sent you bouncing to several other websites, or your computer flashes several warning when downloading it, I would abort your attempt. 
   
   
2. Backup your world files before you test the addon or mod by exporting them to cloud, or offline storage. In the event the mod damages the world, you have something to go back to. Do not rely on the automated OneDrive backup in Minecraft Education in this regard. If your world becomes corrupt, OneDrive will automatically backup and overwrite the previous file with the new corrupt version. Make sure you do a manual export. Here are links to how to export on some of the Minecraft Education platforms if you're not familiar with the process: 
   
   Windows PC
   Chrome OS
   iOS
   
   
3. Test the mod or addon on a test device first. In the event the mod is infected, or corrupts your installation of Minecraft, it's a lot easier to wipe and reset a test device than it is your main system.
   
   
4. As a general rule, I rarely use 3rd party mods in Minecraft Education and don't recommend it. I can count on one hand how many times I've made an exception. I prefer to make my own, even when it's just something fun I want to do.   
   
   Again, there is no official support in Minecraft Education for mods, packs or addons, so if something goes horribly wrong, typically there's no much to be done except recover from backup. 

Can you make your own addon? 

Yes, you certainly can! Making your own addons for Minecraft is a very rewarding experience! Here's a short list of just a small sampling of what you can do: 

• Make custom items
• Create custom blocks
• Create unique animals
• Design ridable entities, animals or vehicles. 
• Make your own furniture
• Change the Minecraft sky, sun or moon
• Insert NPC dialogue
• Make custom loot drops
• Create custom skins
• ...and a great deal more!

I will warn you that it is a long journey, and will require a large investment in time. If you've never done anything like this before, it may be better to dip your toes in first to get an idea of all the different skill sets, knowledge and best practices that are involved. 

To start, I recommend trying to make your own skin pack. All you need is a free application called Blockbench (available both in web, and downloadable versions), and my skin pack tutorial video on YouTube. 

The amazing Colton Phillips from the Minecraft Education team has also recorded a number of Cole's Corner videos on addon pack creation which are worth watching. 

Happy Crafting!