My son has been heartbroken, as the servers that we’ve been trying for the Pixelmon Minecraft mod haven’t been working at all. I offered to tweet the Minecraft guys. I tried to add different servers. No go. Figuring out how to install mods in Minecraft is tricky, as it depends on whether you use a PC or a Mac, and takes patience.

But then I watched a few Youtube videos about how to do this stuff, and made my son the happiest man in the house. I added a mod to Minecraft so that he could play as his beloved Pokemon characters.

It really wasn’t that difficult. First, you go to Pixelmonmod – it’s a great resource. Unfortunately the servers just wouldn’t work with the version of Minecraft that we have – 1.7.10. What I learned was that we had to instal a mod instead. We downloaded Forge in order to quickly install a mod. Once you open it click the top option to install the files. It will end up saying that 11 files have been installed. I found a free Pixelmon mod on Minecraft Six. Mods are saved as ‘jar’ files. Once downloaded to your computer, search your computer files for the Minecraft folder. In this folder will be a subfolder for ‘mods’. Pop the jar file into this folder, and you’re good to go.

When you open Minecraft, you must select the bottom (Forge) version from the dropdown menu. My son can now select his Pokemon characters and continue to build and explore the very spacial world of Minecraft.

Happy kids, happy Pokemon, and endless fun. And mommy looks like a computer genius rockstar! I just wish I could build half of what the kids can in Minecraft – actually I should start with a lesson on moving my character without bumping into walls and falling into oceans!