Quick Build Contest
To play this game, you can use large boxes that have been wrapped or decorated in a pixelated print as your Minecraft blocks. Divide guests into two teams and give them each an equal amount of building blocks. Set a timer for five minutes and challenge them to a quick build contest. Have an adult or older child judge the buildings when the time is up.
Farm Animal Scavenger Hunt
Send party guests on a hunt for the farm animals they usually search for and gather in the game of Minecraft. Hide plush or paper-printed versions of pigs cows, sheep, and chicken around the party area. The number of animals you hide will depend on the number of players. You can divide kids into teams and challenge them to find set amounts of each animal, or send them on individual quests for one of each. Another idea is to give a point value to each animal, let them collect as many as they can in a certain amount of time, and then add up the scores to determine a final winner.
Musical TNT
This game is played very much like the classic game of musical chairs. However, instead of starting the game with one less chair than you have players, you begin with an equal amount of chairs, but label one of them with a TNT symbol. Kids circle the row of chairs as music plays, and when it stops, they all take a seat. Then the TNT chair “explodes” and the player seated in it is out of the game. After each round, one chair is taken away so that there is always only one chair per player, but the TNT chair always remains in play. A fun option for this game is to hide the TNT label on the underside of the chair and switch up its location after each round, so the kids never know which one is the exploding seat.
Wolf Tag
To play this game, you will need several players and a large open area in which to play. Mark off the area with a line on each side of the space. One player is chosen to be Steve, and the rest of the players are wolves. Steve has a bone with which to tame the wolves, but he can’t get them all by himself. Have Steve stand in the middle of the play area while the Wolves line up behind the line on one side. When you say, “go!” the wolves have to run from one line to the other, passing Steve in the process. Steve must try to tame the wolves as they pass by tagging them with a bone. When Steve tags a player with the bone, that player becomes one of Steve’s loyal companions. The “tamed wolf” must join hands with Steve and help him tag other wolves as they run back and forth between the lines. Every time a wild wolf is tagged by one of Steve’s wolves, that player must also join hands with the tame wolves and assist in tagging. Eventually, the chain formed will become large enough to capture and tame all of the wolves.
DIY Creeper Heads and Minecraft Swords
Give kids boxes and a variety of supplies (paint, cube patterned wrapping paper, etc.), so they can make their creeper heads. You can cut eye holes out of the heads ahead of time or have someone on hand to assist with the projects. Another DIY craft idea is to make Minecraft diamond swords and pickaxes.
Digging for Diamonds
For this party game, you will need to freeze diamonds (use fake jewels from the craft or dollar store) in blocks of ice. Depending on the size of the ice blocks, you can either have kids work as teams or individually. Give each player a spoon and have them chip away until they free the jewels from the ice.
Pumpkin Gathering Game
In Minecraft, players must find two pumpkins to make a pumpkin pie. Hide two small pumpkins per player around the party space. A few minutes before serving the birthday cake, tell guests they must each find two pumpkins and bring them to the table to exchange for their slice of cake.
Mine Cart Relay Race
Decorate two boxes to look like minecarts from the game. Use tape to form two parallel sets of tracks on the floor or ground. At one end of the tracks, place a pile of coal. Divide kids into teams and have them line up at the other end of the tracks. Have players race, relay-style, using the cart to transfer the coal from one end of the tracks to the other.
Lava Bucket Brigade
Have all of your party guests form a line. Place a large bucket of “lava” (strips of orange streamers work well) at one end of the line and a Minecraft furnace (a box will work) at the other end. Give each player a bucket(smaller than the lava-filled one). The first player next to the lava has to transfer the lava from the main bucket to his; then pour it from his bucket to the bucket of the next player, until the final player dumps it into the furnace. Since some of the lava will spill along the way, so this bucket brigade keeps going until the furnace is full.
Creeper Bowling
Use strips of black duct tape to turn an ordinary, green, bouncy ball into a creeper. Stack some boxes that have been decorated with pixel and cube-like patterns and let the kids use the creeper ball to knock down the boxes.
