Guides · Playing together
The Makers’ Trial
Four to twelve makers, one theme, a plot each over the cloud sea. Build until the time runs out. Then everyone tours every build and kindles one to five lights for it, and the Verdict ranks them.
How to get in
- From the title menu: press The Makers’ Trial. Its line says how many are waiting.
- Bots. 40 seconds after the first player arrives, bots take plots until there are four makers. A bot carries a rune before its name. A trial holds up to twelve players.
- Your character in a trial is the one you play in the Riven Lands, with your name and your look. Your bag stays at home.
The building
- The theme shows for six seconds before the building: “A Vael workshop”, “The night of the Riving”, “A bridge across the rift” and many more.
- Your plot is the meadow inside the skystone rim, 15 blocks a side and 24 high. Nothing builds past its rim or in another maker’s plot.
- Every block is yours to use: you fly, blocks never run out, and the bag (E) holds every block in the game. Seven minutes on the clock (a server may run five to ten).
- Arriving after the start, you take a free plot while the first part of the building lasts.
How a trial runs
| Part | How long | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| The gathering | Up to 40 seconds | Makers arrive and take plots. Twelve makers start it at once; otherwise bots fill to four when the wait ends. |
| The theme | 6 seconds | The theme shows over the grounds and stays at the top of the screen. |
| The building | 7 minutes | Everyone builds in their own plot. The clock turns orange in the last minute. |
| The Viewing | 15 seconds a build | Every build with 12 blocks or more, in turn. Kindle one to five lights for each. |
| The Verdict | About a minute | Every build’s place and score, your Embers, then Play again or Leave. |
Building in seven minutes
- Start with the shape. Raise the outline of the whole build in the first two minutes in one cheap block, then dress it: a tower’s height and a hall’s roof line read from the Viewing’s spot long before any detail does.
- The Viewing looks down from the front. Everyone stands high before your plot’s south edge, so the face toward them and the roof carry the build; the back is rarely seen.
- Light and colour. Lanterns, glass and a few colours of wool set a build apart from a meadow of grey. Bots judge size and variety; players judge the theme.
- Use the whole height. A plot is 24 blocks high, and the tallest builds catch the eye first.
The themes
Each trial draws one theme, never the same one twice running on a server. They come from the world’s own story: its makers, its Keepers and the night it broke.
- A Vael workshop
- The night of the Riving
- A Keeper's temple
- A watchtower over the cloud sea
- A hall round a Homefire
- The Titan's resting place
- A bridge across the rift
- A shrine to the Crystal
- A wanderer's camp
- A lighthouse for lost travellers
- The Rime Sovereign's throne
- A ruin the jungle took back
- A forge under the volcano
- A Vael skyship
- A market at the edge of the world
- The gate to a hidden land
- A chain-binder's tower
- A house the Wrights built
- The last Homefire
- A garden in the wastes
The Viewing
- Every build in turn, 15 seconds each, everyone watching from the same spot before it. A plot with fewer than 12 blocks is left out.
- Kindle a light for this build: one to five, with the keys 1 to 5 or a tap. You may change your mind while the build is shown. Your own build gets none from you.
- Bots judge too, by how big and varied a build is. Their shards count half.
- Report a build that shouldn’t stand with the flag beside the lights (Hate, Safety or Other). Moderators see it with its plot and theme, and can clear it from the trial.
The Verdict
- A build’s score is the average of its lights with one 3 counted in, so a single 5 is not a perfect score and two 5s beat one.
- Ties go to more fives, then more votes, then more blocks.
- Embers: 24, 16 and 12 for the top three, 8 for any other build shown, and one more for each build you judged, up to 6. Half when no other real player built. At most 90 a day from trials.
- For your bag in the Riven Lands: the top three carry back four Lanterns, the winner a Wanestone as well, on two trials a day.
More ways to play with others: Playing together. Courses of leaps: Riftways.
Play nowTake up the theme. Free, in your browser.
Next: The story. All sections: the guides.