OPENWORLD
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Getting started

How to start your first game

Install the launcher, create an account, make a solo world: a few minutes later you stand on dry land at sunrise, empty-handed, with a whole day ahead of you.

In short

  • Everything starts in the launcher: log in (or create an account), create your player, then press Play.
  • In the game, Solo holds your own worlds. You pick a name, a mode (Survival or Creative), a terrain and a seed (any text you like).
  • The difficulty is not asked at creation: a new world starts on Normal, and you change it later from the pause menu.
  • A new world begins in the early morning, on dry land, with empty hands. A full day lasts 25 minutes.
On this page
  1. What do I need to install and set up?
  2. How do I create a solo world?
  3. What happens when I press Play?
  4. How do I save and quit?
  5. Questions

What do I need to install and set up?

  1. 1

    Get the launcher

    You play through the launcher: a small program that logs you in, keeps the game up to date and starts it. Get it on the download page. There is a build for Mac, Windows and Linux (see the guides for Mac, Windows and Linux).

  2. 2

    Create your account

    Choose Create an account and fill in your details (name, date of birth, email, password, country, address). The launcher sends you an email: click the link in it (look in your spam folder too), then press I've confirmed. You log in with your email, never with a username. Several accounts can stay logged in on the same computer.

  3. 3

    Create your player

    The account is you; the player is who you are in the game, and one account can hold several. Choose a username (3 to 16 characters: letters, numbers or _). It is reserved for you for 10 minutes, the time to enter your license code, which looks like OWL-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX. The same screen tells you how to get a code.

  4. 4

    Press Play

    When the launcher says Ready to play as and your name, press Play. The first time, it downloads and checks the game, then starts it and steps aside until you quit.

How do I create a solo world?

  1. 1

    Open Solo

    The main menu has Solo (your own worlds, kept on your computer), Multiplayer (servers and your friends' worlds, see Play with friends), My skin, Options and Quit. Choose Solo: your worlds appear as cards with a picture, the mode and the date of your last game. Press Create a world.

  2. 2

    Name it

    The name is only for you. A folder with that name is created in your saves/ folder.

  3. 3

    Pick the game mode

    Survival: gather, build, survive; hunger, health and falls matter. Creative: every block you want, flying, no danger.

  4. 4

    Pick the terrain

    Scattered biomes: every kind of land close together, with small seas between them. Giant continents: a few huge continents between oceans, so you travel to find every resource.

  5. 5

    Choose a seed

    The seed can be any text (letters, digits, symbols), or press the dice for a random one. The same seed always gives the same world, so you can hand it to a friend.

  6. 6

    Create, then play

    Press Create, select the new card and press Play (or double-click it).

  • Scattered biomes

    Every kind of land close together, small seas between them. · 0–120 km

    Landmasses of about 120 km with the biomes close together: every kind of land is a short trip away.

  • Giant continents

    A few huge continents between oceans: travel to find every resource. · 1000–3000 km

    A few giant continents of 1,000 to 3,000 km between true oceans: long journeys, climates far apart.

Survival

  • You start empty-handed, with no catalogue and no shortcuts.
  • Everything you place or eat leaves your stack; breaking a block gives it back.
  • Health (100 points), food and air matter.

Creative

  • A catalogue of every block and item, taken with a click.
  • You fly: double-tap Space to take off, Space goes up, Shift goes down.
  • Nothing is spent, breaking is instant and a fall costs nothing.

What happens when I press Play?

The game starts your world on your computer and shows a loading screen while it builds the ground around you. You never fall through the world: nothing moves until the ground under your feet is loaded. A new world starts in the early morning, shortly after sunrise. You appear on dry land (never in water, never under the crown of a tree), on a gentle slope, with full health and a full food gauge, and nothing in your hands. Each seed picks a different country: a meadow, a savanna, a desert, a taiga, a jungle…

  • 25 minone full day
  • 100health points at the start
  • 12slots in your item bar

How do I save and quit?

  • Press Esc for the pause menu, then Save & leave: the game saves your world, takes a picture for its card and returns to the menu.
  • In a solo world the pause menu really stops the world: no hunger, no creature moves, the weather and the water freeze. If you opened the world to friends, time keeps running instead.
  • On the Solo screen, Export packs a world into a .owworld file you can send, Import adds one, and Folder opens your saves/ folder.
  • A world last played with a newer version of the game shows a warning: run that version from the launcher instead. For an older one, the game offers a backup copy before it upgrades the world.

Questions

Can I play without an Internet connection?

A solo world does not talk to the Internet. What the game needs is a signed license proof: the launcher gets one each time you start the game, and the game keeps it for 14 days. Without a valid proof, the game does not start any world.

Can I change the game mode later?

Yes. In your own world press F5 to switch between Survival and Creative, or type /gamemode creative in the chat. Each player keeps their own mode; the mode chosen at creation only applies to players who arrive for the first time.

Where are my worlds stored?

In the saves/ folder of the game folder, one folder per world. The Folder button of the Solo screen opens it.

Updated

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