Hello everyone and welcome to a lookback at the history of Minescape! This short article is meant to help players learn about the timeline of Minescape - one of our most important and longest running projects: Runescape remake in Minecraft that has been in active development since 2011.

The beginning - Minescape V1.0

Runescape in Minecraft as an idea has definately crossed a lot of people's minds over the years since Minecraft came out, but whilst most gave up after searching for the idea and finding nothing online, GamesLabs did not.

In the mid-late 2011, a young developer, scipio3000 has already made himself known in the Minecraft community and set himself a goal - to create a multiplayer game unlike any other at that time: Minescape - a recreation of the MMORPG game inside still growing Minecraft.

The game obviously did not start how it is today - at first we only had bare functionalities, only a couple of skills and it was on an "earth" shaped map, but the core of the game was there.

Minescape V1.1 - new map

The 1.1 release of the game was a minor one, the map was changed from the earth map to a WoW map ported in Minecraft (project Azeroth), however that's when the GamesLabs network started to gain popularity had the map did not work with the true fans of Minescape, so knowing that the project had to grow, a new version was being worked on.

Minescape V1.2 - Podcrash

The network was aware of another Minecraft in Runescape project (a downloadable map and some resources) called RuneCraft.

After talking with Podcrash, it was decided to that the network would use the Podcrash RuneCraft map on the network.

Minescape V2 - Map purchased, project grows

After working with Podcrash for a while, it was decided that it is best for the network if it owns the resources used in the project and with the official partnership with Podcrash continuing, the map and other resources were purchased and now owned by GamesLabs. Not too long after, the first official trailer for the game dropped, however the game was already quite popular back then.

Minescape trailer video published once the project grew
A preview of Minescape back in the day

Minescape v3

The next version of the game started with a full re-code of the project, introduction of bigger map, more skills and a lot more features. This was a huge step for the game, since the network itself was very popular at that time, with some of the most famous Youtubers at that time playing on the network.

Although Minescape was one of the main projects, during V2 and V3 eras, the GamesLabs network started working on some other games / minigames:

  • Super Minekart
  • Call Of Duty: Zombies remake in Minecraft
  • Mix Up
  • Bit Trip
  • Ghost Run
  • Jukecraft
  • Soccercraft
  • What a note
  • PVP Arena
  • Factions
  • Plotcraft
  • Stamp out!
  • Quiddcraft
  • Arcade

And so many more... All of the above games have allowed the network to continue growing in popularity fast with attention by Youtubers given to not only Minescape, but those games aswell:

And many many more!

The server & the network grew by the minute, and towards the end of the v3 era, Minecraft has released some major changes to the server infrastructure with resourcepack support etc., so it was decided to do yet another major update to Minescape with the release of Beta

Minescape Beta

During the Beta era of Minescape, sometime during 2018, a copycat project has started getting attention from players: players started getting confused and join the wrong server, only later to re-join the GamesLabs network and request stat / item transfer.

This has caused a lot of extra work for the Minescape network, and eventually we've decided to look at the project, only to notice that the project is using the stolen map that the GamesLabs network owns, stolen resource pack assets that GamesLabs network purchased & owns, copied name that they claim to have used first: this was clearly the source of confusion for players.

With the copy project appearing in 2018, over 7 years after the first & only official Minescape server / network has started, it was time for us to take action and bring back the glory of Minescape. To help players not be confused, and prevent these issues and false claims damaging the network, it was decided that the Minescape server would be moved to it's own network - the Minescape network, still operated by GamesLabs.

The server has been once again re-written and updated to be ahead of latest Minecraft server standards, players kept playing, however towards the end the project still felt like it was not as close to Runescape as it should be, players were still joining the wrong server and complaining and therefore the server has declined in popularity. The GamesLabs network has decided that it's time to start fresh.

Minescape release (current version)

Whilst the Minescape network was still active, staff members have moved on to work on the new, latest release of the game - Minescape release. This version of the game would be the final one that would not have any future resets, only updates.

After a full re-write of the game, re-introduction of the GamesLabs network old classic games on June of 2019 the network has announced to the public the new Minescape server merged back to the GamesLabs network.

The new, final version of the game has immediately gained a lot of attention from the public, as it came with modern bossing, quests, new skills, areas and at the start kept receiving frequent updates.

Unlike previous times, this time the attention to the network first came from Runescape and not Minecraft youtubers:

and many, many more!

The network kept growing, updates kept coming out with things like The Grand Exchange, Barrows, Corporeal beast, new skills etc.

Eventually, cross-platform play (Bedrock support) was added to the network, however due to difficulties in maintaining it, it was put on hold.

The future of Minescape

Minescape has existed since 2011 and has no plans to stop existing: whilst there are other projects claiming to be real Minescape, the history listed out in this article should help players see the reality and the timeline of the project, the commitment from both the community and the developers to maintain the project.

As this article comes towards the end, the GamesLabs network are working on another content update for the Minescape server - an update to the min client version to 26.1.2, bug fixes and more.

Clarifications / TL;DR:

The .com server or even the idea did not exist in 2011 despite them claiming it.

Minescape.net is the only official Minescape website.

Minescape.net / GamesLabs network is the only continuious, unbroken Runescape in Minecraft project being developed since 2011 with some of the original works still remaining in the modern network.

Whilst some projects use our name, we do have a registered trademark in France, have been operational since 2011 and have first-use rights in any country supporting those rights. Anyone can buy a domain, no one cam buy true history of the project.

Minescape & GamesLabs network have no plans on stopping the project in the future.

GamesLabs network is operated on volunteer basis, no one in the team currently profits from the project.

The end of Minescape Timeline

If you are new and interested in joining Minescape, you can join it via play.gameslabs.net

If you want to hear more, feel free to join our discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/dWMcJ7w