How to play & controls MiniWorld
MiniWorld is a life sim on a scaled-down copy of the real Earth. The planet is 100 km around, 1/400 of the real size, with real continents and coastlines, cut into 317,400 square cells about 195 m across. Each cell is one village site, and each account can claim one. Slopes are folded into 10 m terraces, so houses and benches stand level.
Time and weather are formulas, not a clock kept per village. A village's hour follows its longitude, seasons are reversed south of the equator, and everyone in the same place sees the same shower and the same rainbow. Fish and bugs follow those rules — eels bite at night, the coelacanth only in the rain — and the server checks each catch with the same functions the screen uses.
Features open over four life stages. After that, three daily chores, a streak bonus and a weekly goal shared by all players give each visit something to finish.
Goal
A life sim on a tiny Earth 100 km around: build your village, walk, gather and decorate, and live alongside other players. There is no win or lose.
How it works
- Log in with your GameNow account. On your first visit, drag the globe, scroll closer, click empty green land and press 'Build my village here'.
- You fly down to your village. Press Space or E to land right away.
- Walk with W/A/S/D or click the ground where you want to go. Drag to look around; scroll to zoom all the way out to orbit.
- Stand at a fruit tree and press E to shake it and pick up fruit. The 'E …' prompt in the middle of the screen shows what you can do right now.
- Open your bag with Tab, the shop with B, and pick a destination with M. H shows the full list of controls.
Modes
Look around without signing in
No account needed. You land in a neighbouring village and can walk, shake fruit, pick flowers, catch bugs, fish with a lent rod and sell; it all goes into a trial bag that vanishes when you close the tab. Buying, decorating, photos and racing stay locked.
Sign in with GameNow
Spin the globe, pick empty green land and build your village: one per account, one owner per cell. Money (Ⱥ), items, stages and friendships are saved on the server.
Racing Circuits
Opens after the last stage, Going Further. Ten kart circuits each hold a daily race at their own UTC hour: three laps, Ⱥ2,000 entry, eight seats plus two reserves, Ⱥ12,000 for first. Solo runs cost Ⱥ300 and keep your best lap.
Five in a row, Othello, Chess, Air hockey
Place a board or table in your yard and sit with E. If no player joins within 10–30 seconds, a villager walks over to play, and which villager comes sets the strength. Air hockey ends at seven goals or three minutes.
Controls
| Action | Mouse & keyboard | Touch | Gamepad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move | WASD or arrow keys; click the ground | Left stick; push to the edge to run | Left stick |
| Look around / zoom | Drag the mouse / wheel, out to orbit | Drag the screen / pinch | Right stick (no zoom) |
| Run / jump | Shift / Space | Stick to the edge / Jump button | L3 or R2 / A |
| Act: shake, talk, sit, fish, tap a rock | E, or click the prompt | E Act button, or tap the prompt | X |
| Chop / dig / pick up / rotate placed item | F (axe) / G (shovel) / R / T | Keyboard only | Keyboard only |
| Bag / shop / Life Notebook | Tab or I / B / , (comma) | ☰ Menu, then the icons | — |
| Choose where to go | M | ☰ Menu → 🗺️ | Select (Back) |
| Take a photo | X (P hides the interface) | ☰ Menu → 📷 | — |
Tips
- Esc closes every open window. To leave, use the Exit game button on the right (Shift+Esc).
- The buttons at the bottom and the prompts in the middle work like pressing that key.
- Press Enter to talk — only people nearby can hear you.
- After connecting a gamepad, press any button once so the browser detects it.
Strategy tips
Sell into the price board
Each UTC day one board applies worldwide: two collectibles sell at ×2 and ×1.5, one at ×0.6. Only fruit, fish and bugs qualify, never golden bugs, and the Life Notebook lists today's picks. Hold a ×0.6 item for a day rather than sell it.
Spread your selling
Your own recent sales of an item lower its price: the first 12 sell at full price, then each one 2% less, down to 40%. The count halves daily and clears after three days, and one big sale pays exactly what many small ones would. It covers everything the shop doesn't stock — fruit, fish, bugs, dishes, branches and buried finds.
Find the money rock
One large rock in each village hides money every day. With a shovel or axe in hand, press E on it up to three times for about Ⱥ320, 200 and 120 (±30% each). Nothing marks it, and players tap separately, so neighbours' money rocks pay you too. E prefers trees, so stand clear of them.
Dig the X marks
Each village gets two X marks a day. Stand on one with a shovel and press G; finds differ per player: clay 30%, stone 25%, stone arrowhead 15% (Ⱥ320), old coin 12% (Ⱥ450), ammonite 9% (Ⱥ800), trilobite 6% (Ⱥ1,300), geode 3% (Ⱥ2,200) — about Ⱥ340 a mark. Other villages and wild land have marks too.
Learn the favourite fruit
Talking adds 4 friendship (every 15 minutes) and a fruit gift 14 (every 20 hours); the favourite fruit gives 28, the disliked one costs 8, and friendship fades 5 a day. From Acquaintance (15) the talk line names their favourite, so one gift and one chat reveal it. On The Big Feast, dishes count as gifts and gains double.
Keep requested items
About one villager in three asks for something each day, most often fruit. A delivery pays 1.6× the shop price plus Ⱥ60, so check Neighbour requests in the Life Notebook before selling.
Fish and bugs keep hours
By local time, eels bite 19:00–05:00, catfish 17:00–07:00 and golden trout 04:00–09:00; the coelacanth (Ⱥ8,000) and snails appear only in rain, when butterflies and bees hide. With seasons flipped, summer-only stag beetles are out in the south during a northern winter.
Keep the streak
Chores open after First Day and pay Ⱥ120–320 each. Doing all three adds Ⱥ300, plus Ⱥ100 per consecutive day up to Ⱥ700; one missed day resets it. For the weekly world goal, chip in a third of the per-player share (5 fish, 5 bugs, 10 shakes, 7 flowers, 2 dishes or 2 gifts) to qualify for Ⱥ1,000.
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