Creating a Miniature Arena to Test Mini Pathfinding

While minis do not have complex interactions and simply wander around mindlessly, their tiny scale makes them entertaining contestants for miniature arenas, mazes, and obstacle courses. You can pit different player minis against each other to see which one stumbles onto a goal first or avoids hazards the longest.

Designing a Mini-Scale Arena

1. Clear a small flat floor—a 7x7 or 9x9 area gives plenty of room for entities that are 10 times smaller than normal players.

2. Surround the arena with glass blocks or solid walls so you can spectate without any contestants wandering away.

3. Add vanilla obstacles or goals inside the floor. A weighted pressure plate wired to a redstone lamp makes a clear finish line for a maze, while water streams, soul sand patches, or open trapdoors over a drop pit can eliminate wandering minis one by one.

Spawning the Contestants

Build a small starting pen at one end of the arena held shut by fence gates or sticky pistons. Stand inside the pen and summon each participant by username:

/summon minis:mini ~ ~ ~ {Owner:ChosenArchitect}

Repeat the command with different player names inside {Owner:...} until all of your contestants are inside the starting box. Step out of the arena, flip a lever to open the gates or retract the pistons, and watch which mini reaches the goal plate or outlasts the obstacles.