Ever wish Minecraft had turn-based combat? Or that you could play chess in Minecraft? Or that I would stop opening these articles with rhetorical questions and just get to the point for once? All these things are possible, and so much more, now that scripting API is available in the Minecraft public beta!

But what is scripting API (Application Programming Interface)? Essentially, it's the art of tweaking a game’s insides – writing new commands into Minecraft's texty innards to modify the game. The Minecraft Script Engine uses the JavaScript language. Scripts can be written and bundled with Behaviour Packs to listen and respond to game events, get (and modify) data in components that entities have, and affect different parts of the game.

Let's look at some of the cool stuff players have already done with it!