Inventions · Safety, for parents
New things, inside firm limits.
Inventions let a child make something that has never existed in Minecraft. That only works if what comes out is right for children and cannot spoil anybody’s world. This page sets out what is checked, what can never be invented, what is shared, and what you control.
- Checked twice, tested once A judge before it is made, a test on a real server, and a judge after.
- Hard limits A fixed list of what inventions can do: no commands, no placing TNT, no boss mobs.
- Credited to a country Not to your child, unless you choose to show their Minecraft name.
- Your switch Share with everyone, keep it private, or turn inventing off.
Words and ideas
What goes in, and what is checked
- Only the ingredients go in Ideas are written from the items on the table. No player name, no chat and nothing from the world is sent to make one.
- A judge before it is made Three ideas are scored, and only one with full marks for being right for kids goes on. The rules: kind and friendly, no real weapons, no links or usernames, nothing from anybody else’s game or film.
- A word check that is not AI Every name and description passes a fixed list: other companies’ characters and brands, and words a children’s game does not print. Lookalike letters, used to sneak a word past a filter, are refused outright.
- A judge after the test It is asked, among other things, whether the invention is safe, and checks its description against what really happened in the test. A second safety failure and it fizzles.
Each layer helps. None of them means AI gets every case right, which is why there is a way to reach us, below.
In the world
What an invention can never do
An invention is not a program. It is a description built from a fixed list of actions, none of which runs a command. Then there are things no invention may use at all, whatever it is:
- No placing TNT
- No command blocks
- No portals
- No spawners
- No boss mobs The ender dragon, the wither, the warden.
- No scary sounds Screams, the warden, cave noises.
- No commands Not one action an invention can take runs a command.
Explosions are allowed, and measured. The first tier cannot explode at all, and only a Legend hits as hard as TNT. What a blast breaks counts against the invention’s block limit, goes through the same land-claim protection as a player, and never starts a fire. So a cannon that fires exploding shots can be invented. What cannot is one that places real TNT, which anyone could then light, chain or wire to redstone, outside every one of those limits.
Each tier also limits how much an invention can hurt a mob and how many blocks it can change. Weapons are for mobs, and hit players only on worlds with PvP on. Your world keeps its own limits as well, and rests any invention that keeps slowing it down.
Sharing
What is public, and what never is
Public, for a shared invention: its name, patent number, tier and what it does; its recipe; its test flight; and a credit line, which is a country, “Invented in New Zealand”.
Only if you turn it on, per player: credit by Minecraft name. Their inventions from then on say “by” that name; turn it off and the next one is credited to the country again.
Never public: your child’s account ID, your email, your world’s address, or anything said in chat. The invention certificate and the email telling you about a new invention are for your family only, and the email stops with one click.
Public
Never public
- Your child’s account ID
- Your email address
- Your world’s address
- Anything said in chat
- The family certificate and email
Only if you turn it on
- A player’s Minecraft name, as the credit
Your controls
Three settings, in your dashboard
- Global Inventions join the Patent Office for everyone to make. The default.
- Private workshop Made and kept in your world. Switching back to Global later never publishes them.
- Off Nothing new is invented, and inventions do nothing in this world until you turn it back on.
- A daily limit How many inventions your world may make in a day.
Not there yet: switching off one particular invention from your dashboard, and a Report button on each invention’s page. Until then, Support in your dashboard reaches us, and we can retire an invention in every world at once.
Money and fair play
Nothing to buy
Each world gets some new inventions every month with its plan, and a fizzle does not count. More after that use AI credits from the same allowance as Cog. Making an invention that already exists is always free. There is nothing to buy in the game, and a rare invention cannot be bought, only invented.
Inventing new things is for survival worlds. Creative mode or give commands make a world a Sandbox, which can still make every invention that exists but not invent new ones, so a patent always means a player earned it.
Questions
Straight answers
Could my child invent something violent or inappropriate?
Every idea is written from the ingredients alone and judged before it goes on, and every word passes a fixed check for brands, characters and words a children’s game should not print. Weapons exist, for fighting mobs; they hit players only on worlds where the owner has turned PvP on. No check is perfect: if anything surprises you, tell us from Support in your dashboard and we can retire an invention everywhere.
Can an invention wreck our world?
It cannot run commands, place TNT blocks or portals, or summon the dragon, the wither or the warden. Explosions are allowed but capped by tier, and what they break counts against the invention’s limit. Every invention has a limit on how many blocks it may change, and your world has its own limits on top. Breaking blocks goes through the same protection as a player, and mining inventions leave chests alone. A daily backup is there as well.
Is my child’s name or Minecraft username made public?
No, unless you choose to. Public pages credit an invention to a country. You can turn on credit by Minecraft name for a particular player, and only their inventions from then on carry it. Their account ID never appears anywhere public.
Can I stop inventions being shared, or switch them off?
Yes. In your world’s Inventions settings, choose Global (shared with the Patent Office), Private workshop (made and kept in your world, never shared), or Off (nothing new is invented, and inventions do nothing until you turn it back on). You can also set how many inventions the world may make each day.
Can I turn off one particular invention?
Not from the dashboard yet. Tell us from Support and we will look at it; if it should not exist, we retire it everywhere.
Does inventing cost money?
Each world gets some new inventions every month with its plan, and one that fizzles does not count. More after that use AI credits from the same allowance as Cog, on the plan the account holder pays for. There is nothing to buy inside the game, and rare inventions cannot be bought, only invented.
Safety for the rest of Cubelings: who can join your world, and what Cog won’t do →