📍WEEKLY NEWSLETTER (Dec 01): Catching up on Creative Servers!

“December – Mariah Carey is approaching” – You better watch out, you better not cry.

What’s this?

Comparing creative servers in detail? Yes! Welcome back to the newsletter. This might be the final such blog post for 2025 (more info soon).

While I admit that I stick to my own little creative echo-chamber (AKA the Builders Refuge server), there’s much to explore beyond that! Even if I am biased. Let’s explore some “creative/city/plot” servers together:

THE WORLD OF KERALIS & YOUTUBE TUTORIALS

The Hermitcraft wiki summarizes the man well: “Keralis [Born in Poland, raised in Sweden] is a member of the Hermitcraft server and a popular Minecraft YouTuber. He is known for his building skills, his tutorials, his pranks, and his base in Season 7.”

One of my first baby steps in creative building, many years ago, was through watching Keralis tutorials. I copied his builds diligently. This helped refine my early skillset across servers such as the former Infinite Architects Society / Architects MC. Keralis is best known for his city themed build tutorials which peaked in popularity around 2013 and beyond. He had since joined Hermitcraft and moved to variety content.

WOK SERVER:

Server IP: hub.worldofkeralis.com / play.keralis.net (1.7 – 1.21)

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/wok (7.5K+ members)

Who it’s for: Anyone looking for a nostalgic creative experience.

The server was established as early as 2012 with basic features including plotworlds, towns and beyond. I don’t know the specifics, but their great talent and friendly community shows! They have since expanded to survival – Perfect for when you need a break from creative building to build in survival instead (pain!)

“World of Keralis Creative is a Minecraft server dedicated to creative building, where players can showcase their architectural skills, join a vibrant community, and participate in collaborative projects.”

SHOULD YOU BAKE A BUILD AT “THE BAKERY”?

Server IP: play.bakery.builders / Bedrock Port: 19132 () (1.7 – 1.21)

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/bakerybuilders (30K+ members)

Who it’s for: Newbies and professionals looking to brush up their skills.

The Bakery is a community of expert Minecraft builders/content creators who’ve built a place for anyone to improve their abilities! They promote themselves heavily and boast a massive community. Their server supports cross-play and they even have their own cute cat merch. And of course all the major and latest creative building plugins and tips. They also promote CONTESTS, and have paid ranks for certain features.

“We bring creators and communities together to inspire growth, creativity, and collaboration. With our Discord hub and a creative Minecraft server featuring tools like WorldEdit, Arceon, Axiom and more. You can connect, learn and bring your building ideas to life, solo or with others.”

BUILDERS REFUGE: UPGRADES PEOPLE, UPGRADES

Server IP: my.buildersrefuge.com (1.8 – 1.21)

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/steak (16.5K+ members)

Who it’s for: Those needing a professional space for commissions (or fun!)

The server is headed by founder MikeDmd and developer Scarsz, and started out as a space for a few friends to build – Soon, the scope expanded but the server stayed free and open to all throughout. There are many plot sizes, and applying with a portfolio grants Member-only private worlds!

Cultural phenomena of note: Builders Refuge has a steak obsession. They trialed a batch of dirt hut merch. A shrimp cult is loose on the server’s Discord. THERE ARE MANY COMMUNITY EVENTS SUCH AS: Kibo organics competiton (Co-hosted by Builders Refuge), community build collab events, contests run and funded by server members, and a separate player-managed SMP! View a map of plotworlds here.

“Simply put, we provide the building community with build space to express their creativity and use to popular in-game building tools.”

KIBO ORGANICS COMPETITION (SOON!):

THOUSANDS $ in prizes each year: Possibly the single biggest recurring contest in Minecraft’s history, catering to organic builders (e.g. characters and nature scenes). Each December a new theme is revealed, with high-ranking judges, multiple judging criteria and impressive prizes in many categories incl. ROOKIE.

EXTRA BUILDERS REFUGE TOOLS I USE:

• my.buildersrefuge.com (Custom-made manager for your account and linked worlds)
• map.buildersrefuge.com (Dynmap, incl. for private worlds if logged in at previous link)
• heightmap.buildersrefuge.com (Repository of multi-purpose heightmaps for ingame use)
• schem.buildersrefuge.com (Schematic center, to Download or upload schematic files)
• img.buildersrefuge.com (Upload an image to import ingame as blocks using //img)

HUGE COMMUNITY SPACESHIP TURNS 1:

The spaceship pictured above is a community collaboration started by YoavMal. You can see the current list of people trusted to build on the plot – no matter how small their contribution has been. The ground under this monolithic and technically impressive ship is packed with tiny but detailed ships and assets.

1 YEAR ON FRIDAY 28TH NOVEMBER. You can go ingame and do /501, then /plot visit YoavMal!

CUBED CREATIVE FINALLY UPDATING & ALPINE1

Alpine1 (Matt Holmes) has been a major force in the Cubed Community, boasting a Timbit & Moose cult centered on himself, plus many popular tutorials and content for the server. He graduated in architectural engineering – Of course, he has been using his new-found knowledge to create even more accurate (and educational) Minecraft architecture builds. Truly a dream come true for some! Check out his vlogs.

CUBED SERVER;

IP: play.cubed.community (https://cubed.community/) (currently 1.14.4)

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/apB4yuy (13.5K members)

Who it’s for: Architecture & urban planning nerds who enjoy texture packs.

Cubed Community features one of the craziest realism/architecture/creative texture packs in the building space (without any extra mods or models). Yet, they still manage to maintain a large community across multiple projects. EVEN THOUGH, ONE SMALL PROBLEM: THEY ARE FOREVER STUCK ON 1.14.4!

After 1.14.4, Minecraft biome calculations change. (From the MC Wiki on 1.15: “Biome information now is stored in sixty-four 4×4 arrays; previously, biome values corresponded to only the X and Z coordinates.”

But the Cubed pack depends on biomes to accurately set blocks to render a certain way (based on the blockstate + biome, allowing e.g. a redstone comparator to look like 20 different blocks). This prevented the server from updating for years, as the entire texture pack would need re-making. BUT FINALLY: After years, slow but steady development has built up, and the Cubed Texture Pack is becoming a Modpack.

Their Discord showcases detailed update logs and block previews, showing even more insanely creative solutions and additions. They make use of the newly accessible features due to the new approach.

CREATOR HIGHLIGHT:

The names mentioned are members of the Bakery, suggested by last month’s Pollenhyd on Discord!

Mega: “Is there anyone in the community you would like to recommend for the next highlight? A skilled or inspirational or helpful builder […]”

Pollenhyd: “Zeke’s build would prob be very impressive to highlight. Besides that Bismuth and Wtfdym have very unique build styles worth highlighting if ever :)”

“Bismuth has been a giant help to me though, gave me so much advice with my coloring and layering. def one of the most influential builders imo, since i know he also inspired many builders in the bakery, Nuclearairfryer and Benji as well […]”

OLD BUT GOLD: SotM

The (completely unknown, embarassingly short, and not at all) infamous Server of the Month series!

https://premiumminecraft.com/?s=server+of+the+month

RELATED: Architecture build Inspiration 300+ links

DEDICATED TO THE COMMUNITIES AND PEOPLE MENTIONED!