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Creating Your First Soccer Arena

This comprehensive guide will walk you through setting up a BlockBall soccer arena from start to finish. By the end, you'll have a fully functional game ready for players to enjoy!

🎯 Overview

Creating a BlockBall arena involves:

  1. Basic Setup: Create the game and define play areas
  2. Team Configuration: Set goals and spawn points
  3. Game Activation: Enable and test your arena
  4. Optional Enhancements: Add advanced features

⚡ Quick Setup (Minimum Requirements)

Step 1: Create Your Game

First, create a new arena configuration file:

/blockball create game1 My first game

Pro Tip

You can copy settings from an existing arena instead: 

/blockball copy existing_game new_game My new game

Step 2: Verify Creation

Check that your game was created successfully:

/blockball list

Expected Output: 

game1 [My first game] [disabled]

✅ Success! Your arena exists but is disabled (normal for new arenas).

Step 3: Get Setup Tools

Obtain the selection tool for marking areas:

/blockball axe

Enable visual highlighting to see areas while editing:

/blockball highlight game1

Visual Aid

Highlighting makes boundaries visible with particles/blocks, making setup much easier!

🏟️ Define Your Playing Areas

Step 4: Mark the Playing Field

The playing field is where all soccer action happens.

  1. Select Corner A: Left-click with the axe
  2. Select Corner B: Right-click with the axe
  3. Apply Selection: Run the command
/blockball select game1 field

Playing Field Selection

Important

Make sure your field is large enough for players to move around comfortably!

Step 5: Set Team Goals

Each team needs a goal area where points are scored.

Red Team Goal

  1. Select the goal area with your axe (left-click + right-click)
  2. Apply the selection:
/blockball select game1 red_goal

Blue Team Goal

  1. Select the opposite goal area
  2. Apply the selection:
/blockball select game1 blue_goal

Goal Selection Example

Step 6: Set Ball Spawn Point

Position yourself where you want the ball to appear when the game starts:

/blockball location game1 ball

Best Practice

Place the ball spawn at the center of your field for fair play.

🎮 Activate Your Game

Step 7: Enable the Arena

Once all areas are defined, activate your game:

/blockball toggle game1

Step 8: Verify Success

Confirm your arena is now active:

/blockball list

Expected Output: 

game1 [My first game] [enabled]

🎉 Congratulations! Your basic arena is ready!

Step 9: Test Your Arena

Players can now join in two ways:

  • Walk into the field: Automatic join
  • Use command: /blockball join game1

🔧 Enhanced Setup (Optional)

Improve Player Experience

Set Leave Spawn Point

Prevent players from being teleported to random locations:

/blockball location game1 leave_spawnpoint

Configure Team Spawn Points

Give teams dedicated starting positions:

/blockball toggle game1

/blockball location game1 red_spawnpoint

/blockball location game1 blue_spawnpoint

/blockball toggle game1

🏆 Create a Minigame Mode

Transform your arena into a structured minigame with lobbies and time limits.

Step 10: Convert to Minigame

/blockball gamerule gameType game1 minigame

Error Messages

If you see errors, don't worry! We'll fix them in the next steps.

Step 11: Set Lobby Spawn Points

Players need somewhere to wait before games start:

/blockball location game1 red_lobby

/blockball location game1 blue_lobby

Step 12: Final Activation

Enable your completed minigame:

/blockball toggle game1

🎖️ Advanced Features

Time Periods & Overtime

Configure half-times, breaks, and overtime rules by editing your game1.yml file in /plugins/BlockBall/arena/. See the Customization Guide for details.

Referee Mode (Patreon Feature)

Set up tournament-style games with full referee control. See our Referee Guide for complete setup instructions.

🆘 Troubleshooting

Problem Solution
Game won't enable Ensure all required areas are set (field, goals, ball spawn)
Players can't join Check that game is enabled and players have blockball.command blockball.join.* permission
Ball doesn't appear Verify ball spawn point is set within the playing field
Areas not visible Use /blockball highlight game1 to see boundaries

✅ Next Steps