Published 23 January 2026
At the beginning of each year, I will plan out the goals for KS to achieve, as well as outline my ideas for the year. These goals and ideas are categorized as precisely as possible. I believe that making a detailed plan at the start of the year is essential for identifying areas of improvement, guiding development, and gauging progress throughout the year.
This page will always be tentative—it can be modified at any time, as I see fit.
Starting this year, I will come up with a main theme for each year. The theme for 2026 is: From Local to Global. The big picture that I envisage is expanding KS' current majority audience base beyond Hong Kong to other places in Asia and Canada, and potentially connecting audiences across these locations.
In 2026, MCMTR will transition from being a Minecraft transit server based solely on Hong Kong and the MTR system to consisting of multiple cities and their transit systems across Asia. Last October, we announced that we will be expanding to include Macau and Shenzhen. This year, we will expand further to include Taipei and Singapore.
By the end of the year, the goal is to have finished building the following:
Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High Speed Rail – only the section connecting the following two stations:
Hong Kong West Kowloon Station
Futian Railway Station (Shenzhen)
the rest of the Hong Kong Tramway (Hong Kong Island)
the full Macau LRT Taipa Line
a few more Shenzhen Metro stations, especially stations on Lines 1 and 4
at least two stations of the Taipei Metro
at least two stations of the Singapore MRT
The plan is to finish and open the following MTR lines to the public in 2026. Same as before, for each opening, we will be having an event consisting of an opening ceremony, station tours and first train ride. Events will be live streamed on YouTube, as usual.
Airport Express – the entire line
Island Line – most likely only a portion of it, to be determined
In 2026, I am planning to finish building a few more Montreal metro stations—mostly stations on the western side of the Orange line from Vendôme to downtown Montreal, as well as some Green line stations.
However, the main focus will be on the REM, in which I plan to finish all 19 stations on the main Deux-Montagnes branch (from Deux-Montagnes Station all the way to Brossard Station). I will aim to have the full 19-station route open by the end of the year.
Overall, by the end of 2026, I would hope to finish around 25 stations (metro and REM combined), so I plan to finish building one station every two weeks on average.
This is something new that I want to work on this year. I am planning to make two Minecraft Java (Spigot) plugins for the Minecraft Greater Montreal Transit server (and perhaps they could be utilized in MCMTR as well).
The first one will be a simple escalator plugin. As of now, escalators in the Montreal Transit server and MCMTR are "just for the looks" and do not actually work—ie. you need to manually move in order to go up/down on an escalator. On the other hand, we have been using working elevators in Minecraft with an elevator plugin for a long time already, and there are already elevator plugins out there. So I thought: why not working escalator plugins too? I could not find anything like that on the internet, so I wanted to make one.
Making escalators that work should be pretty straightforward in theory. Normally, using redstone, albeit a lot of them would suffice, but given our context, which is that we will be having well over 1000 escalators in the stations across the servers, it would be a tedious amount of work to install all of them, and so using redstone is simply not the way to go. Therefore, using a plugin instead would be a superior option since it could allow mass, rapid and repeated deployment of working escalators with just a command (or some other simple mechanism, which I have yet to figure out).
The second one will be more complicated. It will be a transit smart card/ticketing plugin, similar to the "Essencard" plugin that we are currently using for MCMTR. However, it would be a more advanced version of Essencard with more features, especially, more configuration on the fare structure (ie. variations on how fares are calculated), making it applicable to more transit systems across the world.
I can roughly categorize the fare structure used by transit systems across the world into one of the following schemes:
distance-based (what Hong Kong MTR uses in real life),
zone-based (what London Underground uses in real life),
time-based (I don't know what systems use it), meaning the fare depends on how long you stay within the transit system,
trip-based (what Montreal STM/REM uses in real life), meaning each time you ride, regardless of the distance/zone/time travelled, a "fare trip" is deducted, which also means you don't need to "tap out" when you exit the system, unlike the above three schemes
As far as I know, the Essencard plugin currently only allows setting up zone-based fares, so technically the fare system used in MCMTR is completely different from the MTR in real life. However, this is not necessarily an issue since things in Minecraft don't have to be exactly the same as in real life, right? So why bother making a new plugin?
Well, I still want some variation between Hong Kong and Montreal. Since the fare structures are completely different, the Essencard plugin simply cannot be applied to the Montreal Transit server, and given that I can't find any other fare/ticketing plugin as capable as Essencard out there, I will need to make a new plugin.
Last year, I introduced KS Kahoot Games to the community, where members could test their knowledge on various interesting topics and compete against each other through interactive Kahoot quiz events. This was an attempt to increase activity in the community, so in order to incentivize members to participate, I also implemented a scoring system. The idea is that at the end of each game, the top-scoring three players could gain points; by the end of the year, the three members with the highest scores would receive a special reward. My plan was to organize 7 to 8 such games throughout 2025. But unfortunately, only three games were held, and the scoring system was basically scrapped after the third game.
The main reason for cancelling the remaining Kahoot games was that the number of participants in each game had been lower than I had anticipated. Despite that, I really liked the idea of letting members score points, because I think these types of competition activities are capable of stimulating interest the most. So in 2026, I will reintroduce the scoring system, but it will no longer be limited to the Kahoot games; instead, it will be a universal rewards system that applies to other KS events as well.
Similar to the scoring system for the Kahoot games in the past, throughout the year, members can earn points by participating in various activities, joining gaming events, and even watching certain videos and live streams. As an example, I might, at the halfway point of a live stream, ask viewers a question, and they can answer, without it being announced beforehand or elsewhere. By the end of the year, the top-scoring three members will get a special reward. Also, I will reuse the score data from last year, so members who scored during the Kahoot games last year will have a head start this year with what they already have.
With that, I am offering you right now the first opportunity to score points in 2026: the first three members who send a message in the "general" text channel in the MCMTR Discord server (only from 23-31 January) to tell us what your favourite Hong Kong MTR station is and why will each receive one point as a reward for reading this page up to this point! I will not announce this opportunity anywhere else other than here.
Despite attempts to organize more activities, engagement across our Discord server communities in 2025 was not as high as expected overall. I have to admit that, apart from the introduction of KS Kahoot games, there has not been a good variety of events organized, which may explain the low level of engagement.
So this year, I will aim to organize a wider variety of activities in the form of competitions or contests, since they are most effective at driving interest. Ideally, I would like to organize one event every 2 months or so (so around 6 in total for the year). Below are some ideas I have come up with. As mentioned in section 3.1, these events will involve rewards to incentivize participation.
As mentioned previously, Kahoot games were introduced in an attempt to increase community activity, but to no avail. However, I still think that quiz-based games are one of the most interactive forms of events. So I will still keep the idea, and maybe organize one or two this year. I could also try using something other than Kahoot.
A new kind of activity I have in mind and that I think would be engaging is "build battles" in Minecraft, in which players attempt to build things related to a certain topic within a limited time and compete against each other to see who has the best build. Topics could include railway stations (fictional or replicating one in real life), skyscrapers, landscape, redstone machines, etc. This could also be an opportunity to recruit new builders for our Minecraft servers (MCMTR and MTR Crafters).
These have actually been done more or less in various live streams in the past, but most of the time they were spontaneous game ideas that we came up with during the stream. So, I am thinking we could also organize some of those as independent events to make them more accessible and thus, have more players participating.
Examples:
in-game speedruns – travelling from one location to another by MTR
in-game MTR challenges (inspired by those that other people have done in real life)
treasure hunts
guessing the composition of blocks of a station
Apart from the above, I have also come up with other ideas in the form of minigames that are accessible to the vast majority of members, i.e. they should be relatively easy to join, regardless of the device used. Below are some that are interesting in my opinion:
Minecraft server minigames (eg. parkours, bed wars, PvP games)
GeoGuessr – a geography-based online quiz game to guess Google Maps in-real-life locations
Roblox mini-games
casual online multiplayer game sites (eg. bloxd.io)
The KSMP server (our Minecraft survival multi-player server) has never been, and never will be, the main focus of KS. Its purpose is to facilitate community building through engaging gameplay; specifically, it is a place where members can interact and bond in a casual setting. To me, the community aspect of KSMP is the most important thing, rather than the fancy features found on some other SMP servers. Therefore, I will refrain from adding new features to KSMP other than those included in new Vanilla Minecraft updates, and I intend to keep it this way moving forward.
Almost half a year has passed since we started the KSMP server, which also means its first anniversary is coming up soon. So, what better way to celebrate it than with a big community event? If all goes well, then we will collectively fight the Ender Dragon on the day of KSMP's first anniversary (Thursday, 13 August 2026). All server factions will fight the dragon together, rather than competing against each other, and rewards will be shared equally amongst the participating players. After that, the End dimension will finally be opened up for exploration. More details to come in the coming months!
2026 will be an important year for public transit in Canada, as there will be quite a few new railway openings. I hope I will be able to experience all of them in person and do a special live stream event for each, just as what I did last November for the opening of the Montreal REM's Deux-Montagnes branch. Provisionally, the following transit projects should open this year:
Montreal's REM Anse-à-l'Orme (West Island) Branch – spring 2026
Ottawa's O-Train Extension (Line 1 East extension) – sometime in 2026
Toronto's Eglinton Crosstown LRT (TTC Line 5) – hopefully
Since I am currently in Montreal, I would hope to collaborate with other (Montreal-based) (transit) YouTubers, such as going on outings and doing podcasts discussing transit or other topics.
Frankly speaking, the YouTube channel is what makes KS what it is today. It is the videos and content I make on YouTube that have made all of this possible—the servers, the community, and whatnot. However, after years of trying to constantly post videos and gain subscribers and views, or as some might say, "chasing the algorithm", I would like to take a step back this year.
This year, I want to focus on the projects, events, the community and the audience, rather than how many views and subscribers I get. As such, I will not be setting specific goals for subscriber and view counts, which is contrary to what I have done in previous years. I believe these will result from the quality of my productions.
Nevertheless, it is important to continue using the YouTube platform actively and wisely, as it is essential for promoting my projects to the world, connecting with different audiences and building community.
Video ideas this year will stem from the various projects and events (see the previous sections above), so I will not be deliberately coming up with new ideas for videos. This should hopefully lead to a more consistent video upload schedule. I will aim to publish at least one video every three weeks. Most of the videos I upload will focus on:
MCMTR server:
MCMTR station tours (will start a new video series for each transit system, eg. a new one for Macau LRT, separate from Hong Kong MTR)
progress updates – for example, when a new area is built, I will do a tour of it
MTR Crafters:
a time-lapse front-view train ride video for each line that is about to open
multiple train journey ride videos for a line after it opens
Minecraft Greater Montreal Transit Project:
detailed tours of each completed station
train journey rides
trailer/teaser videos for the projects and events
I have always thought that doing more live streams would increase engagement. However, based on what I saw in 2025, this does not seem to be the case. To be honest, part of the reason is my relatively inconsistent live-streaming schedule, but I also think it is partly due to the repetitiveness of my live streams. It is just difficult to come up with many interesting ideas to keep live streams engaging.
After some reflection, I have come to the conclusion that constantly doing live streams is not a great idea. Here is the thing: if I keep doing live streams with the same content all the time (eg. building stations in Minecraft), people will tend to lose interest. On the contrary, if I were to do fewer live streams, but each time it is something different, then people should be more willing to watch them; it gives viewers the impression that each live stream is a special event and not just "any other live stream."
Therefore, I will reduce the number of times I live-stream on YouTube this year. So in general, I will only live-stream for events (see section 3 above for details of the various events and activities planned for this year). Progress updates about the projects (see section 2) will be in the videos instead.
I have decided from now on to use the YouTube "posts" feature to publish important announcements and updates only. All announcements and updates will be posted on Discord.
Also, I don't think a lot of people know this already, but recently, YouTube enabled the community page feature that allows viewers to make public posts on my channel. You are welcome to use it to ask questions, share your creations and your videos and channels, so long as you are not posting something that gives you direct monetary gain. I hope it can be a new way of connecting with my audience, and for viewers to connect with each other.
Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/@KinsonStudio/community
The Instagram page will continue to serve as an auxiliary platform where I post updates about KS. However, I will tend to use it less often since every time I want to post something, I must include images; most of my posts are text-based and do not involve graphics.
Nonetheless, you can still send me DMs through Instagram, though, and I will try to be more active in responding to your DMs.
Starting this year, I will officially stop using the KS Facebook Page (although it will remain public) because I no longer see the point of using a Facebook Page. Sometimes, I find it annoying that I need to manage multiple social media accounts across platforms—having fewer is better in my opinion. Besides, I have not been posting stuff on it for quite a long time already.
None for now.