Spleef

Spleef is one game in a number of minigames within Minecraft in which the goal is to be the last player standing. The name is a play on the word grief as the game involves destroying blocks. The game can be played entirely in vanilla. Though the peak of its popularity was in Minecraft Classic, it has since made a comeback in Beta and the full release.

Objective
Typically, Spleef games take place in a stadium, or elevated surface which consists of a generally large platform of blocks, known as the Spleef block. The platform is usually surrounded by a building for people to spectate.

The goal is to destroy blocks on the platform near or under the opponent to cause them to fall, while avoiding suffering that fate yourself. Those who fall from the platform lose the round, and can fall into a pit, lava, or many other cruel fates designed by the stadium constructors. Creating blocks during the playing of Spleef is not usually allowed, except in variations. The time Spleef matches take depends on the size of the stadium.

In Beta, since blocks aren't instantly destroyed when clicked on, the Spleef block is typically an easy to destroy material. For example, some common Spleef blocks are netherrack, snow blocks, wool and dirt. More often than not, players are given tools to help destroy the blocks quicker. However, since the Creative mode in Beta 1.8 which allows instant block destruction, this isn't necessary unless the focus of the server is survival. In addition, several Spleef server owners intentionally have it set to survival mode to prevent people from cheating by using fly mode in order to discreetly hover over the stadium without falling.

Spleef can be played individually or in teams.

How it started
Spleef was started back on a server in 2009, in the pre-alpha period. It first garnered popularity after Notch blogged about this article on his Tumblr. Soon after, a plethora of spleef servers and variations sprung up.

Rules
Spleef has a few basic rules to ensure a fair experience without being too restrictive, but as with many sports, rules vary greatly from one server to another.
 * Creating blocks between the game's start and end is forbidden.


 * Creating or destroying blocks after you have lost the round is not allowed.


 * The losers must replace the blocks that were deleted during the game after the round is over. (Optional, occasionally a script is used instead)


 * If people are separate on "islands" then the person with the most space wins.

Making a Spleef Arena




Depending on the type of server you're running, and what version of Minecraft you're using (Classic, Beta) can give many possibilities and allow for different construction methods.

Designing a Minecraft Beta Spleef Arena
If you're using the Minecraft Vanilla server software, then designing and maintaining a stadium as a server operator can be fairly easy, and you have a variety of building options. For the actual arena surface, most basic arenas will use dirt, as it is easy to repair and can be destroyed almost instantly by shovels, making it a decent spleefing surface. Sometimes, stadium constructors will opt for another block, such as snow, glass, clay blocks, and sometimes even TNT, as it can be destroyed instantly by your hand and doesn't ignite when destroyed with most tools or your hand.

Walls surrounding the arena are usually made to prevent players from falling off the block, or evading gameplay. The walls can be made with hard to mine materials, such as cobblestone, brick, or even obsidian. The arena building, or stadium could be made with a roof of glass depending on the biome the structure is located in, to prevent snow or rain from interfering with gameplay. Most of the time, arenas are surrounded with towers or buildings, or other elevated ground for spectators to watch the game.

The pit is usually just a stone pit below the arena, with a tunnel or stairway out for losers to ascend to the spectating level to watch the rest of the game. Alternatively, as another passive option for losers, a water pit can be added. Many stadium builders use a lava pit instead as a more intimidating consequence for losing, and to make playing the game a lot more fun. Chests are usually placed around the stadium and filled with shovels, and are also to let participants store their valuables so they don't lose them if they lose.

Designing a Minecraft Classic Spleef Arena
Ideally, the arena (or stadium) can be very large, more than 32 x 32 blocks in size. Walls made of any block can surround the arena, and usually some elevated ground around the arena is designed for spectators. The spleef block, or surface in which the game takes place on, is usually made with wool, but it can be made with any block. Stadium constructors typically use wool so they can incorporate colored wool and make a pattern or design for the surface. However, an elaborate design is not advisable, because after a game of spleef, the players will usually patch the surface with random blocks instead of maintaining the intended design.

It is important that the pit is constructed directly below the spleef surface, and the stairs or a tunnel is included to allow losers out. Although this is optional, most Spleef stadiums are designed with a glass roof to allow for Spectators, or losers that have climbed from the pit below, to view the game.

Spleef Videos
Several videos of Spleef matches can be seen here;


 * Minecraft - 15 Layer Spleef


 * Seananners and Deadmau5 play a round of Spleef


 * A video displaying a typical Spleef arena, in addition to a match being played.


 * A video of Spleef showing the gameplay. (Classic)


 * A video of a Minecraft Classic 1-layer Spleef game.

Spleef Variations
There are a few variations on the rules of Spleef, to add variety and new challenges.

A few of the below stated variations can be seen, as well as some added extras.



Multilayer Spleef
Multilayer Spleef is played like any typical Spleef game, except below the first platform there is one or more other platforms that the player can fall onto. Players that fall through a layer can still destroy blocks on the layer above them to try and get players still on that layer to fall through. Players who fall through the very bottom layer lose.



No-Jumping Spleef
No Jumping Spleef is Spleef with a small twist: there is a ceiling over the Spleef arena, so participating players cannot jump. This can alter gameplay by making it easier for players to eliminate other players, by removing the advantage of jumping from gameplay. A further twist in No-Jumping Spleef is to design the playing area with 2 adjacent layers so players can't jump on the first layer, but they can jump again once they reach the second layer.



Maze Spleef
Maze Spleef is different in that mazes are placed on the spleefing area. Usually made on large Spleef arenas, this creates many new interesting gameplay aspects, such as pathfinding skills becoming a major factor. Most Spleef mazes are made with loops or more than one way to get to a point to help keep the game going. Maze pathways can also be either 2 blocks wide instead of 1 block, depending on the size of the arena, for faster-paced gameplay.

Reverse Spleef
This game mode only requires a large standard Spleef arena. The players stand inside the Spleef arena, however the only person who removes blocks is below, in the pit. This means that the floor is removed below the players feet. The winner is the last person standing, and is next to be in the pit. If you have a very large arena then you can alter the rules to allow anyone who falls in to the pit can also delete blocks.

TNT Spleef
In this version of Spleef, the player gets armor, and a flint and steel. the Spleef arena has TNT flooring, and has a pit underneath. Though it uses most of the regular Spleef rules, the winner is the last person alive or standing. This is slightly outdated due to not being able to ignite TNT as fast, but for survival servers, an exception occurs as a bug with Flint and Steel causes a hand-ignited TNT block (as in left clicking TNT). Also, as a variation, the losers must stay in the pit and avoid the TNT. If they die, they really lose and have to repair the stadium.

Dark Spleef
In this version of spleef, The arena has no light source at all, and the arena is made out of Black wool. Players will have to destroy the flooring and try to avoid unseen pitfalls made by other players to avoid a horrible death.

Switch Spleef
In this version of Spleef, there are 3 floors. One floor is wood or planks,the next floor is snow or dirt, and the last floor is stone or cobblestone. The players get three tools: A pick, an axe, and a shovel. They are forced to change tools in order to destroy the floor quickly.

Drowning Spleef
In this version of Spleef, the arena is entirely underwater. Signs or ladders are placed around the arena to give the players oxygen. They try to break the floor with Diamond/Gold tools, while trying not to drown.

Arrow Spleef
In this version of Spleef, the walls will be made out Dispensers with 9 stacks of 64 arrows in each. The objective of the game is to try to break the floor whilst being shot back and forth with arrows. It can be also played using Snowballs or eggs.

Silverfish Spleef
In this version of Spleef, the arena would have Block 97 and Regular Stone. The Players will get Picks, in which they can be fooled that a Silverfish Block is actually a Stone one. The pit below may include water to cushion both the Silverfish and the Player's fall, thus allowing Silverfish to eat the losing player. This can be negated by using a texture pack so make sure all the players are using the default texture pack.

Nether Spleef
Participants are pitted in an arena filled with netherrack (some of it lit), soul sand, and lava. It adds a large twist to spleef, as players have to avoid the burning netherrack, lava falling from the ceiling, and soul sand, as they might burn to death, forced into the pit below by the flowing lava, or become vunerable to other players due to the soul sand's slowing properties.

"Don't look!" Spleef
Players who participate are pitted against a couple of Endermen. Since they can move blocks and attack the player once sighted, this makes spleefing quite a task. Of course, the OPs may supply players with a Pumpkin, so that they could only keep the block moving aspect, so make sure that you make the Endermen fall. Make sure that you don't hit a Enderman.

Chicken Spleef
There is only one player and one layer, and the arena is much smaller. Each player must dig the snow and make the chickens fall into the lava or kill the chickens to win. But if the player falls into the lava, they lose.

Defensive Spleef
This version of spleef gives the 2 players the roles of Offense and Defense. The Offensive player attempts to break the blocks from beneath the defensive player, while the defensive player attempts to run to one side of the arena and back within a certain amount of time, activating a button on one end while running back while the door is temporarily open on the other end.

End Spleef
Participants are pitted in an arena filled with end stone. As players, you must to break the end stones with a iron/diamond/gold pickaxe and they have to watch out of the Endermen or the Enderdragon; otherwise they lose.

Fire Spleef
The arena is made to burn. It is made of wood or wool, depending on how fast the creator wants the fire to spread. There is a pit of water underneath, and a platform for admins to burn the arena from the center. Since it`s very funny see players burn, this spleef is very expensive, and it`s imperative to protect the arena from rain. There will be also blocks that won`t burn, and players who stand on those will be disqualified.

Siege Spleef
TNT Cannons are put all around the arena, and during the match, they bombard the arena, so players have to look down and to the flying TNT.

Mob Spleef
There are only 12 players and one layer and the arena is much bigger. All the players must to dig snow, find passive mobs and NPCs and watch out of all the hostile mobs otherwise they lose.

Ghast Spleef
In this variation of Spleef, the players are given a limited amount of snow blocks, a diamond shovel, a bow, and a limited amount of arrows. The players then build a snow fort on the snow ground of the arena. After a certain amount of time, an OP of the server will spawn a certain number of Ghasts on the arena who will then fire at the players. The players then protect their forts so that they can fight the Ghasts. The game ends when either there is only one person left in the arena, or when all the Ghasts have been killed (in the second variation, the person who kills the most Ghasts wins). Depending on the rules, the OP will probably want to spawn more Ghasts if they are playing the version where the last person standing wins. Another variation has the players on a flat arena and they are not allowed to build forts, although one alternate way to play allows you to place blocks while the Ghasts are attacking. (An optional rule is whether or not players are allowed to place more snow blocks after the Ghasts start spawning.)

Zombie Spleef
There is more than one player and 5 layers. All the players must to dig the coloured wools and watch out for the zombies, or get to the bottom layer, otherwise they lose.