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Creating Your First Basketball Arena

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

🎯 Overview

Creating a MCBasketball 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:

/mcbasketball create game1 My first game

Pro Tip

You can copy settings from an existing arena instead: 

/mcbasketball copy existing_game new_game My new game

Step 2: Verify Creation

Check that your game was created successfully:

/mcbasketball 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:

/mcbasketball axe

Enable visual highlighting to see areas while editing:

/mcbasketball 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 basketball 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
/mcbasketball 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:
/mcbasketball select game1 red_goal

Blue Team Goal

  1. Select the opposite goal area
  2. Apply the selection:
/mcbasketball 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:

/mcbasketball 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:

/mcbasketball toggle game1

Step 8: Verify Success

Confirm your arena is now active:

/mcbasketball 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: /mcbasketball join game1

Step 10: Ball Gameplay

Playing Field Selection

After grabbing the ball with a left-click, left-click again to shoot it. Selecting hotbar slots 1–3 produces a short shot, slots 4–6 a medium shot, and slots 7–9 a wide shot

🔧 Enhanced Setup (Optional)

Improve Player Experience

Set Leave Spawn Point

Prevent players from being teleported to random locations:

/mcbasketball location game1 leave_spawnpoint

Configure Team Spawn Points

Give teams dedicated starting positions:

/mcbasketball toggle game1

/mcbasketball location game1 red_spawnpoint

/mcbasketball location game1 blue_spawnpoint

/mcbasketball toggle game1

🏆 Create a Minigame Mode

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

Step 10: Convert to Minigame

/mcbasketball 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:

/mcbasketball location game1 red_lobby

/mcbasketball location game1 blue_lobby

Step 12: Final Activation

Enable your completed minigame:

/mcbasketball toggle game1

🎖️ Advanced Features

Throw-Ins, Goal Kicks & Corner Kicks

When the ball leaves the playing field, MCBasketball can automatically trigger a throw-in, corner kick, or goal kick instead of simply bouncing the ball back. Three setup steps are required to enable this.

Step 1: Set the Outer Field, Red Out and Blue Out areas

The outer field defines the extended area players are allowed to move into when performing a throw-in, corner kick, or goal kick. It must be larger than the standard playing field so that players can reach the sideline and corner positions.

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

The red out and blue out areas define the zones where the ball must exit to trigger a corner kick or goal kick for each team. These should be set to cover the area behind each goal line and include the outer field.

/mcbasketball select game1 red_out

/mcbasketball select game1 blue_out

Goal Selection Example

Sizing Recommendation

Extend the outer field by at least 3–5 blocks beyond each sideline and goal line so players have enough room to take their positions.

Step 2: Set Keeper Spawn Points

The keeper spawn point of each team is used as the goal kick position — the location the designated player is teleported to when their team is awarded a goal kick.

Stand at the desired point front of each goal (it has to be in FRONT OF the goal), then run:

/mcbasketball location game1 red_keeper

/mcbasketball location game1 blue_keeper

Step 3: Enable Throw-Ins in the Arena Configuration

By default the ball bounces back when it goes out of bounds. Open your arena file at
plugins/MCBasketball/arena/game1.yml and set forceField to false under ballOutOfBounds:

ballOutOfBounds:
  # If set to true, the ball simply bounces back when it goes out of bounds.
  # If set to false, a throw-in, corner kick or goal kick is triggered instead.
  forceField: false
  # Seconds until the selected player is teleported to the throw-in / corner kick / goal kick position.
  timeToTeleportSec: 3
  # Seconds the player has to prepare before they gain exclusive control of the ball.
  timeToStartSec: 5
  # Seconds of exclusive ball control before other players can interact.
  timeOutStartSec: 5

Save the file and reload the arena:

/mcbasketball reload game1

How It Works

Once all three steps are complete, the following rules apply automatically whenever the ball leaves the playing field:

Situation Result
Ball exits over a sideline Throw-in — nearest opponent of the last touching player performs it from the boundary
Ball exits over a goal line, last touched by the defending team Corner kick — nearest attacker is teleported to the nearest corner of the field
Ball exits over a goal line, last touched by the attacking team Goal kick — nearest defender is teleported to the keeper spawn point

A temporary force field is placed around the throw-in / corner kick / goal kick position to prevent other players from interfering until the designated player has taken their kick.

Time Periods & Overtime

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

Referee Mode (Patreon Feature)

Set up real basketball 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 mcbasketball.command mcbasketball.join.* permission
Ball doesn't appear Verify ball spawn point is set within the playing field
Areas not visible Use /mcbasketball highlight game1 to see boundaries

✅ Next Steps