BedWars and SkyWars are favourites among groups of friends because matches are short and endlessly replayable. In BedWars each team protects its own bed while trying to break the others'; once your bed is gone, you can no longer respawn. In SkyWars every player starts on a small floating island, loots chests and tries to be the last one standing. Running either on your own server calls for a different workflow from a survival server: the world is not permanent, and the map has to start fresh after every match.

1. Server software and core plugins

Almost every minigame plugin targets plugin-based server software, so start with Paper or Purpur. We compare the options in our Paper, Purpur or Spigot: which software? guide. Alongside the game plugin itself, a few helpers are useful in nearly every setup:

  • Multiverse-Core lets you manage the lobby and each arena as a separate world.
  • WorldEdit, or its faster fork FastAsyncWorldEdit, for copying map sections, duplicating islands and fixing mistakes.
  • LuckPerms to give players only the game commands and staff the setup commands. See our LuckPerms ranks and permissions guide for details.

You can install plugins from the panel and edit their configuration files in the file manager.

2. Preparing the maps

Half of a good match is the map. Build one yourself or use a map released under an open licence; if you use someone else's work, read the licence and the author's terms first.

Open an empty building world

Build maps in a separate workshop world, not in the world players will join. Multiverse can create an empty flat world for you:

/mv create map_build normal -t FLAT

If you already have a map folder, upload it to the server directory with the file manager and register it with /mv import FolderName normal.

Design principles

  • Symmetry: every team's island, resources and distance to the centre must be identical. Players quickly abandon a map where one side starts ahead.
  • Scale: keep the map small for its player count. In BedWars, bridging between islands should take a couple of minutes at most; in SkyWars, islands should be within sight of each other.
  • Boundaries: keep the surroundings empty and do not generate terrain you will never use. Set the world border slightly beyond the map so nobody wanders off.
  • Chests and resource spots: plan SkyWars chest locations and BedWars generator spots (iron, gold, diamond, emerald) in advance, because you will register them with the plugin by position.

In WorldEdit, //wand gives you the selection tool, //pos1 and //pos2 mark a region, and //copy with //paste moves an island to the other corners. //rotate 90 is the easiest way to keep things symmetrical.

3. The lobby

The lobby is where players arrive and where they return between matches. Keep it simple and readable: a spacious square with a sign or clickable character for each game mode works better than a giant building. Most game plugins support join signs that show the arena state (waiting, starting, in game) and current player count.

Disable damage, hunger and block breaking in the lobby world, and make sure inventories are cleared when players enter. Most game plugins handle this themselves; if yours does not, Multiverse world settings plus a simple region protection plugin will do.

For a small community, one server holding both the lobby and the arenas is enough. As you grow, you can split the lobby and the games across separate servers joined by a proxy; our Building a network with BungeeCord and Velocity guide explains how.

4. What to look for in a game plugin

There are many plugins for both games. Open source examples include BedWars1058 and ScreamingBedWars for BedWars and SkyWarsReloaded for SkyWars. Before you commit to one, check these points:

CriterionWhy it mattersVersion supportThe plugin should explicitly support your Minecraft version and have a recent update.Map reset methodHow it restores the map after a match has a direct effect on performance.Ease of setupPlugins with an in-game setup wizard cause far fewer mistakes than typing coordinates by hand.Language filesYou should be able to translate every message into your players' language.Docs and communityAn up-to-date wiki and an active support channel save hours when something breaks.DependenciesSome plugins need extra libraries; read the list before installing.

Never run two plugins for the same game at once. Commands and signs collide, and it becomes unclear which plugin owns which arena.

5. Teams and arena setup

Setup steps differ between plugins, but the logic is the same. Go to the world that will become the arena and mark it as one with the plugin's setup command. Then define, in order:

  1. Waiting spot: where players wait before the match starts, usually a small platform above the map.
  2. Teams: how many, their colours and how many players per team. Common BedWars formats are solo, doubles, trios and squads of four.
  3. Spawns and beds: where each team spawns and, in BedWars, where its bed sits.
  4. Generators and shop: iron and gold generators on each island, diamond and emerald generators in the middle, the item shop and the team upgrades character.
  5. Chests: island and centre chest contents in SkyWars; most plugins manage these with separate loot tables.
  6. Minimum and maximum players: how many players a match needs to start and how long the countdown lasts.

Save the arena and play a real match with a few friends. A spawn point that is one block off or a generator in the wrong place only shows up in actual play. Start with one or two arenas; too many empty ones split players up.

6. Performance

A minigame server loads the machine differently from survival. The world is small, but short bursts of explosions, projectiles and dropped items are common, and the map reloads at the end of every match.

  • View and simulation distance: because maps are small, low view-distance and simulation-distance values in server.properties do not hurt gameplay and noticeably reduce load.
  • Map resets: the plugin reloads the map from a saved copy. Keeping unnecessary terrain out of the map makes this faster, so do not surround arenas with large pre-generated landscapes.
  • Dropped items and entities: in Paper's world settings, a larger item merge radius and a shorter despawn time reduce the buildup during long matches.
  • Unneeded plugins: a minigame server does not need survival plugins such as economy, land claims or home points. Every extra plugin adds startup time and memory use.

Watch server health using the methods in our Server performance and TPS guide. If TPS drops during matches, look first at how many arenas are running at once and how many entities are piling up on the ground.

Before you open the doors

  • Test every arena at least once with a full player count.
  • Translate the language file and check the messages in game.
  • Give setup permissions to admins only; players should only be able to join and leave.
  • Make your rules and your stance on cheating visible in the lobby. A fair match environment is what brings players back.

That gives you a small but reliable minigame server you can expand as your community grows.