What running a Minecraft server taught me about software development—and survival
Minecraft taught me infra before i knew what ‘infra’ was
Before I was an actual software developer, while I was in college, I ran multiple Minecraft servers from 2012-2016. I went from running servers on shared Minecraft hosting to running a Bungeecord network on dedicated, bare-metal hardware and everything in between. Running servers on bare metal Linux infrastructure was challenging, but it ended up paying off and turning me into a well-rounded software engineer before I even knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life.
Background Tasks
One of the tasks that is common with running a Minecraft server network is monitoring multiple Minecraft server processes simultaneously. There are several ways to do this on Unix-based systems, such as tmux and screen sessions, but I typically would use the built-in screen command. When I need to check the logs on a specific Minecraft server, I would just attach to named screen session that corresponded to the server I wanted to check on and boom, I could view the logs and execute Minecraft commands, detach, and be on my way.
Configuration Files
Before I even heard of Kubernetes, erm Docker, I was editing good ol’ YAML files to configure plugins on my various Minecraft servers. I even would install FTP clients on my old iPhones to edit them on-the-go. It was so convenient. YAML syntax errors, i.e. accidentally putting a tab in the file, was the bane of my existence.
Soft Skills
Like software engineer, not all of the tasks of running a Minecraft servers were purely technical and often involved chatting with players of all ages and attending to their issues. Someone might need help with using the WorldGuard plugin to protect their build from “griefing”, e.g. other players destroying it, while others might have an issue with purchasing an in-game rank with real world money. Thanks BuyCraft! These types of tasks taught my how to communicate effectively and in return I developed valuable soft skills that would help me to communicate with my team about website issues and explaining commits.
Looking back, I honestly didn’t realize that hosting those janky Minecraft servers was lowkey a crash course in full-stack development, devops, and support. I wasn’t trying to become a software engineer—I just wanted to keep the lag down and the trolls out. Somewhere between restarting Java processes and arguing with 14-year-olds about donation perks, I picked up the habits, mindset, and muscle memory that I still use every day. The servers are long gone, but the experience stuck. And weirdly, it made the rest of this indie hacker journey feel a little less chaotic—just another sandbox to survive in.