I'm retiring

[dktapps]

It’s been a long time coming.

In the coming months, I'll be stepping down from my role in PocketMine-MP, and moving on from Minecraft.

I’ve been working on Minecraft-related projects in one form or another for almost 10 years now. I spent the last 8 of those years working on servers. However, I lost my passion for Minecraft many years ago. I haven’t actually played the game in years (these days I only launch it to test PocketMine changes). I’ve been here so long because of my personal circumstances and mental health issues, not because of interest or enjoyment in Minecraft.

However, my situation has significantly changed in recent years. This is primarily because of my job with Lifeboat Survival Games, which has empowered me to grow significantly. I cannot overstate how tremendously valuable the support of LBSG has been to me in the last few years. Nonetheless, I feel that it's time for me to move on.

My history with PocketMine-MP

I first got into PocketMine in 2016, at a time when I should have been focusing on studying, applying for university, etc. I was pouring effort into PocketMine to distract myself from the extreme pressure I was under, and from mental health issues. I’m ashamed to admit that I folded under the pressure, and found myself jobless and with nowhere to go in September 2016.

In the following 3 and a half years, I got stuck in a rut, because of crippling social anxiety and lack of money, amongst other things. I kept myself afloat financially by working for various server businesses. For the majority of this time, I struggled to make ends meet, but I felt unable to get into better work because of mental health issues. This went on until April 2020, when my money problems boiled over, and I was finally forced to make some major life changes.

I was hired by Lifeboat in April 2020 to help them migrate to PM4, implement support for new versions, and to do work on PocketMine-MP that they needed. This job has hugely benefited me, empowering me to work on improving my mental health and circumstances, while also providing me with low-stress work that I was already familiar with – PocketMine.

However, I've reached a point where I feel that working in the Minecraft space is no longer serving my best interests, and I'm ready to put it behind me.

What I've learned

I’ve learned valuable life skills, made some good friends, and learned a lot about community management – a role that I was spectacularly unfit for at the beginning – and I’d like to believe that I’m leaving this community better off than I found it.

I've also learned that coding isn't my passion. I had the most fun collaborating with friends in taking Minecraft apart to discover how it worked, and solving hard problems, not from coding PocketMine itself. I've enjoyed learning how things work my whole life, ever since I was a little kid taking clicky pens apart in school and putting them back together.

I used to idolize Mojang. However, I now know that Minecraft is developed by people that make mistakes like everyone else. I've learned not to judge people so harshly, and not to idealize people.

I know there are people in the community who idolize me, or look up to me as a role model. As I hope this wall of text makes clear, I'm just another guy that makes dumb mistakes like everyone else.

Future for PocketMine-MP

I'm not stepping down immediately. Nonetheless, the future of the project is uncertain.

I've invested a tremendous amount of effort into this project, at great personal cost. It's become the foundation stone upon which thousands of Minecraft servers have come to depend and trust. When I step down, I want to be sure that I'm leaving the project in good hands with people who respect the values that it's come to embody.

Maintaining and developing PocketMine-MP requires a significant level of commitment, responsibility and expertise. This is especially true considering that maintaining PocketMine-MP is a thankless task which doesn't pay the bills, unless you're fortunate enough to be sponsored by a business using it.
Because of this, I don't foresee anyone coming in to replace me in my role of benevolent dictator. If PocketMine-MP survives my departure, it will be because of a team effort.

@IvanCraft623, @ShockedPlot7560, @TobiasGrether, @dries-c and @TwistedAsylumMC have been granted access to various parts of the code in order to perform future maintenance for game updates. However, they are not being paid to do so, and the decision of how much effort to invest is entirely theirs.

Sadly, it's easy for me to foresee a future in which all the large servers maintain their own forks, and the smaller servers die off. I hope that this doesn't happen, but it won't be my problem to solve anymore.

Future of the black cat

I'm still figuring that part out right now.

I didn't choose Minecraft. I just stumbled into it because my life came apart at the seams, and I discovered that I could make a little money from doing stuff for Minecraft servers. For various reasons, this is the first time in my life that I've had a good opportunity to decide what I actually want to do, instead of being pulled along by the flow.

The only thing I know for sure is that I don't want to do gamedev or anything to do with Minecraft. Perhaps not even software development, although it's difficult to just throw away over a decade of experience (as well as becoming one of OpenUK's top 100 OSS influencers in the UK). I want to do something impactful in the real world.

Yes, I'm 26, and I still don't have a good idea what I want to do. If you're out there reading this and don't know what you want to do either, maybe this makes you feel better :)

Thank You

There are many people I owe my gratitude to, too many to count.

• @shoghicp - for creating the project that got me through the worst years of my life, and also providing PMMP with servers to host our infrastructure
• @rteder and @dishrex from Lifeboat - for the job that's empowered and liberated me in the last few years
• @Intyre - for guiding me during the early days of PMMP, helping me learn how to reverse-engineer Minecraft, and more
• @HBIDamian - for being a steady hand for the community before I knew how to do that
• @brandon15811 - for tirelessly maintaining PMMP's infrastructure through the years, behind the scenes
• @99leonchang - for hosting some of our infrastructure on a VPS pro bono
• @robske110 - an old friend I collaborated with on Minecraft development back in 2016
• ZedCee - an old friend who helped me to be less of a jerk in 2016
• Von from PigRaid - a good friend who gave me great advice, sponsored me in 2017-2018
• @NiclasOlofsson (gurun) - a great friend and collaborator with whom I had a lot of fun reverse-engineering the protocol in 2017-2019
• @SOF3 - a good friend and collaborator since the very beginning, who always had unique insights into problems whenever I was stuck on things
• Our Discord and Forums community moderators, past and present
• Donors and Patrons, past and present, who have helped to pay for PMMP's infrastructure and offset the cost of development
• Code contributors, for trying to help improve the project
• Server and plugin developers, for building cool stuff with PocketMine-MP and making me feel like I was doing something useful for the world

Summary

After a long run, it's time for me to move on. PocketMine-MP got me through one of the most difficult times of my life, which I'll always be thankful for. I've also learned a huge amount, made friends, and gained valuable experience.

Finally – There's probably many people in this community silently struggling with mental health issues, just like me. You're not alone, and you're not crazy. Talk to someone you trust, even if you don't know how to explain properly. People who genuinely care will help you get the support you need.

[sylvrs]

thank you for the years of hard work and dedication just so people could create amazing things ❤️

[TobiasGrether]

Second

[Infernus101]

God bless you for giving me everything i have in my life right now without even knowing about it 🙏🏻 good luck with your future endeavors madlad!

[ShockedPlot7560]

fourth

[HydroGames-dev]

Ah well
Good luck with your future dylan

[royaljacques]

We didn't talk often, and the few times I came, in general it was a misunderstanding on my part about the way you wanted to develop pocketmine.
It's true that many people take you for their idol and that's understandable. You have done so much for pocketmine, deploying updates as quickly as possible and also allowing the understanding and passion of programming to many young people under 16 years old.
your course on pocketmine is mind-blowing, like many you started from nothing, and like few of us you managed to overcome the bridge of difficulty that there was to completely understand development.
honestly, even if I criticized you a lot for the way you made your decisions (overwriting items for example lol) you were a savior, and above all a person who allowed many to realize their dreams.
unfortunately the French community did not spare you, taking advantage of a small error that happened there, errors on your side as well as on Mojang's side.
I don't know what else to say, except that we will certainly miss you, and that we will have difficulty finding someone with your skills and dedication

[mmm545]

It's been a good run.

Good luck on the future Dylan! Hope you get a good and steady career, and have a good life man.

[JaxkDev]

I hope you find your calling, and a steady happy career whether thats software development or not :)

All the best, and DMs always open for chit chat 🫡

[RestartFU]

bro is retiring from an open-source project

[TheRealHypixL]

RIP

[jeantkg]

I hope you find what you're looking for and a steady, happy career. Good luck Dylan, you are the best.

[Josscoder]

Thank you very much for making me find meaning in my life too. I hope you find what you are looking for. Good luck Dylan

[Laith98Dev]

Good luck with your life, Dylan 👌

[nicholass003]

Thank you very much for your hard work so far Dylan. Good luck!

[dktapps]

Thanks y'all for the kind comments ❤️

[HBIDamian]

[cqdetdev]

In the least cringe and fanboy way possible:

Thanks for all you've done. You've kept up the addiction of many 12-year-olds (and more to come) by maintaining this software and inspired a lot (including me) to start programming and using PM. On behalf of the millions of players who don't even know or understand your impact on this game, thank you.

I wish you great things in your future endeavors, Inshallah.

[alvin0319]

Good luck with your future, Thank you for your hard work here.

[UnknownOre]

It has been quite the journey. Thank you for updating PocketMine for all those years. Good luck on your future projects!

[shoghicp]

Thanks for doing what I couldn't at the time. Congrats in a way as well, and good luck to whoever has to deal to the (now heavily decreased thanks to you) legacy code leftover.

[AIPTU]

It's been a long journey, thank you dylan!

[riesters]

🫡

[OurLobanov]

😢🫡

[Jviguy]

Wish you luck in the future, and thank you for all your hard work!

[Smorted]

thank you for all you've done for us, be assured we are very grateful for all the things you've accomplished along the years of maintaining pocketmine..

for sure your efforts succeeded to have an impact on my life as it cleared the road for me to explore and enjoy developing plugins based on pocketmine.

thank you dylan :)❤️.

[kaxyum]

It's true that you're not necessarily a person I appreciate, but if I'm passionate about development, it's thanks to you. You've done a lot for PMMP (some good and some bad), but I can't thank you enough for all the work you've done.

Good luck for the future.

[robske110]

Hi Dylan,

thank you for the honorable mention, although I don't deserve of it.
Thank you for all you have done! For singlehandedly making PocketMine-MP rise from ashes. For doing an incredible job on a technical level, including pushing a language to its absolute limits. And most importantly for this community and especially the people in it.
You enabled so much in so many others. There are not many that can attribute that to themselves, be proud of that! You already did something incredibly impactful to this world.
I wish you all the best with your future. I know you will continue to do great things where you'll go or end up.

[Sergittos]

4 years ago I didn't know what I wanted to work on, at that time I loved playing minecraft. Curious about how servers worked, I started learning how to make plugins, which inspired me to become a software developer.

Thanks for everything Dylan!

[Plextora]

You've done a lot of good for the community, good luck with your future endeavors!

[Klaandee]

Thank you for all these years and for contributing so much to this great community. You are big.

[StefOnMc]

Thank you very much for having worked for years to provide a simple and efficient type of ready-to-use server and a stable API. You are a very courageous person with experience.

[Steellgold]

All the best for the future!

[adeynes]

Hey Dylan,

Thanks for everything you've done over the years. I discovered PocketMine in early 2017, during the early stages of the 3.0.0-ALPHA saga. You've always been a beacon of guidance and advice for so many young developers from all over the world taking their first steps in the world of programming. You enabled the existence of a huge MCPE community and I think you've had a significant impact on the game. It is truly admirable how far you were able to take a language like PHP. While I've moved on from Minecraft and programming in general, I look back fondly on the memories I've made, chatting and laughing on the Discord server, receiving and giving help, building plugins for the community. You made all that possible.

I wish you the best in all your future endeavors.

[dktapps]

Thank you everyone for the kind messages, there's too many for me to respond to all, but I see them <3

[fuyutsuki]

Thanks to you and the many other contributors who keep pmmp going, I found programming. Through engineering I have learned a lot while enjoying Minecraft. Thank you for all you’ve done for me.

I sincerely believe you will accomplish great things in real life. Keep moving forward with confidence.

Best regards from Japan,
fuyutsuki

[joaomsl]

Heartfelt thanks for your unwavering dedication in keeping this project alive for so many years, and rest assured that your name will always be remembered for this remarkable achievement.

It's not just software; it's something that has made possible countless unforgettable moments in the lives of many. How many people have had years of fun on Pocketmine servers? Whether they were players or server owners, you have been a big part of everyone's journey.

You've learned a lot, and many have learned from you.

I can't even begin to count the many good memories I have of creating servers with my friends, let alone the hours spent figuring out pthreads.

I wish you lots of health and success.

From one among many in Brazil, thank you.

[elchinomandaron]

Not only did you earn money and disappointment with this project, you gained the admiration of several. Good luck with your future challenges.

[pmCraftiR]

Thanks for make me programmer :)

[Kylan1940]

Hello, Dylan

2021, about three years ago, I started learning how to create a Minecraft server, and I found Pocketmine-MP. At that time, I was interested in starting my career as a Pocketmine-MP developer. From PM3 to PM5, I learned a lot of things.

Thank you for everything,
Dylan

[NayLeDev]

[moderator edit] removed quote of entire OP

❤️

[L3ice]

Hello Dylan
I'm 26 yrs old just like you.
I was also struggling with mental health and Minecraft was an escape for me.
Now I'm having a job and trying to solve problems in real life and trying to do stuff in the real world.
But I regularly checked this and was always excited when you added new things.
Thanks for your hardwork!
I will always remember this time and this part of my childhood :)
Hope your having a good future
Always remember that nothing that you learned or did is wasted, just part of your journey
We still have a long time to enjoy life!

[minijaham]

What a ride it's been.

[ahnsunggwan45]

Thank you very much for your hard work :)

[anonlikes]

ily dyan

[archie426]

some random sent this message, to which dktapps replied. here it is for archive purposes:

This whole scene’s been a circus, and straight up, Dktapps wrecked Pocketmine-MP, turning it into his own locked-down, tough-to-maintain side show.

Since he rolled up in 2016, it’s been nothing but chaos for the MCPE/MCBE scene. Yeah, some folks are saying they got more into PM because of him, but what about all those who bounced? A whole lot of them. We've seen the community shrink big time—servers and players are dipping, and it’s on him. Remember back in 2015? This guy was out there bullying minecraftgenius76, who basically fueled the growth of hundreds of MCPE servers with his plugins.

And this dude bragged about making daily commits that did nothing more than change a semicolon. That was his so-called daily cope. Lifeboat scooped him up after he basically nuked PocketMine, saying it was for business. If they hadn’t, LBSG would’ve tanked too, so they shut down the solid Steadfast project to keep him onboard.

Let’s get real—this guy’s been a disaster for the project. But hey, after 8 years, he’s finally out. PocketMine-MP can get a fresh start, free from dictators like him.

Bet: this project’s toast without him. It’s been built all wrong, ignoring both the community and market needs. With MCBE’s user potential blowing Java Edition’s out of the water, if we’re sitting at just a tenth of Java’s server and player counts, blame Dktapps.

And for the record, a bug ain’t a feature. Dkt-sh*t 4 ever.
2016 - 15000 servers registered mainly using PocketMine-MP

[dktapps]

First thing I want to address here: Yes, I was very toxic to many people back in my early days, especially in 2016-2020. (Some of them did have it coming though...)
While I don't know the full list of people I owe apologies to, I'm sorry for my behaviour. All I can say is that I was stressed in a very bad situation and I took out my anger and insecurity on other people, without thinking about the effects of doing things like that as a community leader. It doesn't excuse what I did, but maybe it helps some people understand.

As for minecraftgenius76 - I don't think I ever interacted with the guy. As you said yourself, I didn't even arrive on the scene until 2016. I only recognized his name because I copy-pasted some of his old WorldEdit code in 2016 to build my own plugin for API 2.0.0 back in April 2016 or so. He doesn't have a github, and I'm pretty sure I never commented on any of his videos. Strange you should bring up him specifically though, and not one of the dozens of other people I pissed off in my time here...

As for my impact on PM - everyone was free to fork off and do their own thing with the project whenever they felt like it. In fact, this did happen many times in the past, with a long list of custom PM versions I don't even know the full extent of - Genisys, ImagicalMine, ClearSky, Elywing, Leveryl, GenisysPro, Turanic, Altay, NetherGames, etc etc. One strange thing you'll notice about these is that they are almost all dead. That's not because of me - it's because their maintainers quit and moved on with their lives.

But hey, after 8 years, he’s finally out. PocketMine-MP can get a fresh start, free from dictators like him.

No one was stopping you or anyone else from giving it a fresh start at any other time during those 8 years either. You just have to build a good enough project and convince enough big players to use it. That's what I did back when everyone was using Genisys and I founded Phoenix (now known as PMMP).

Yes, the size of the community has shrunk. The player base has also shrunk. But it's funny to me that you think I could have done that all by myself. The reality is that the actual server player base has shrunk because of changes from Mojang - the most notable being the Xbox Live requirement added in 1.2, which wiped out 90% of server player bases overnight. There's also changes to the in-game UI that make servers less visible, featured servers, BDS taking a big chunk of PM's userbase (filling a niche which PM was unsuited for anyway), and so on.
You'll also notice a major increase in server activity around COVID pandemic when kids were stuck at home with nothing to do. The players still exist, they just aren't playing Minecraft anymore when they aren't stuck at home.

Did I have an effect on PM's popularity? Probably. I've never denied that the massive change of PM4 was disastrous. I own that mistake, but I can't claim credit for all of this. lol

And this dude bragged about making daily commits that did nothing more than change a semicolon. That was his so-called daily cope. Lifeboat scooped him up after he basically nuked PocketMine, saying it was for business. If they hadn’t, LBSG would’ve tanked too, so they shut down the solid Steadfast project to keep him onboard.

I have nothing to say to this except that it's hilarious and complete fiction.

Also, real classy to make an alt account to post this message...

[archie426]

This whole scene’s been a circus, and straight up, Dktapps wrecked Pocketmine-MP, turning it into his own locked-down, tough-to-maintain side show.

Since he rolled up in 2016, it’s been nothing but chaos for the MCPE/MCBE scene. Yeah, some folks are saying they got more into PM because of him, but what about all those who bounced? A whole lot of them. We've seen the community shrink big time—servers and players are dipping, and it’s on him. Remember back in 2015? This guy was out there bullying minecraftgenius76, who basically fueled the growth of hundreds of MCPE servers with his plugins.

can confirm, i came back from a 8 year break as soon as Dylan retired. free PMMP!

[cqdetdev]

POV: dylan gets gaslit by an AI generated essay 💀

[HBIDamian]

Since he rolled up in 2016, it’s been nothing but chaos for the MCPE/MCBE scene.

Fun fact: When Shoghi left (Back when I was known as "TheDeibo"), It was mainly @PEMapModder and @Intyre just doing enough to keep the lights on. Sometimes a game-breaking update would take 2+ weeks before an update that allows you to join the next current version of Minecraft came around. Intyre was even trying (in vain) to train me up to help update PocketMine too.
From my point of view back then, PocketMine was on life support.

When Dylan came around, I thought: "Who's this idiot, with all his ideas and thoughts?!"
Little did I know that this "idiot" was the idiot PocketMine needed to stop crawling and start running!
Can't a man enjoy a nice retirement by a TV that has a gif of a beach on it in peace?!

I hold up my mug of Yorkshire Tea up to you Dylan!

[rjworks]

Thanks for all your hard work Dylan! So many familiar names mentioned… PEMapModder etc. I used to play on LegionPE/PvP then got into server development around 2019/2020 until 2021 thanks to PMMP.

[MegaSpud]

Dylan! I'm really grateful that I've able to get to know you through the Minecraft community over the years - for me, starting really early on from the days of the G+ community group! Thanks for your contributions to MoJira and the Minecraft community all up. Your experience and advice has been invaluable, and I've really appreciated your open and honest input. Wishing you all the best!

[smartcmd]

[moderator edit: removed quote of large message from troll]

😓

[HBIDamian]

Yeh, there's always gonna be haters.
But talking as someone who has been around for 10+ years, Dylan deciding to maintain PocketMine was a godsend. Sure we didnt tend to see eye to eye on a few things, but it was always for a good reason.
#6295 (comment) pretty much sums it up really. 😅

[dktapps]

Dylan! I'm really grateful that I've able to get to know you through the Minecraft community over the years - for me, starting really early on from the days of the G+ community group! Thanks for your contributions to MoJira and the Minecraft community all up. Your experience and advice has been invaluable, and I've really appreciated your open and honest input. Wishing you all the best!

@MegaSpud Likewise, glad I got the opportunity to work with you! Man, the G+ reminder is a big ole throwback. I would never have found PocketMine if it wasn't for that group. To think the last 10 years of my life would've taken a totally different course if it hadn't been for that one summer in 2015 when 0.12 beta was being trialled...

[joppari]

Hi Dylan,

You probably don't recognize me, and the few encounters we had were on the negative side, but the motivation and inspiration I got through your works are countless. Back when I was just a regular MC player, I happened stumble upon the PMMP Discord, which ultimately got me into the server development . Your guidance and the community you fostered made a huge impact on my journey. I made a tons of friends, and gained lots of experience and so on through my journey thanks to pmmp and ultimately thanks to you.

Thank you for everything you've done, and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.