During the first four episodes, Jesse and their friends attempt to reassemble an old group of heroes known as the Order of the Stone to save the Overworld from the destructive Wither Storm.

The rest of the first season follows Jesse and their friends, now the new Order of the Stone, on a new adventure after discovering a powerful artifact.

[14][15] Minecraft: Story Mode is an episodic interactive comedy-drama point-and-click graphic adventure video game.

Players can collect items, solve puzzles, and talk to non-player characters through conversation trees to learn about the story and determine what to do next.

[16] However, Minecraft: Story Mode is intended to be a family-friendly title, unlike Telltale's previous games, which tend to carry more mature or emotional overtones (including the death of major characters).

[16][17] The game includes combat and other action sequences, carried out through both quick time events and more arcade-like controls, such as steering around debris on a road.

[19] The main character, Jesse, is an inexperienced resident of said universe who sets out on a journey with their friends within the world of Minecraft to find The Order of the Stone (Gabriel the Warrior, Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer, Magnus the Rogue, Soren the Architect and Ivor the Potion Brewer and Enchanter), five legendary adventurers who saved the Minecraft world.

[21] Other main characters within the Minecraft: Story Mode world include Jesse's friends Petra (voiced by Ashley Johnson),[17] Axel (Brian Posehn), Olivia (Martha Plimpton, Natasha Loring), Lukas (Scott Porter), and Jesse's pet pig, Reuben (Dee Bradley Baker).

The first season features several characters in supporting roles, including the Order of the Stone—Gabriel (Dave Fennoy), Magnus (Corey Feldman), Ellegaard (Grey Griffin), Soren (John Hodgman) and Ivor (Paul Reubens), the latter of whom becomes a main character from episode five onwards—former Ocelot member and Blaze Rods leader Aiden (Matthew Mercer); the ruler of Sky City, the Founder (Melissa Hutchison); Milo (Jim Meskimen), the leader of an underground building club; Minecraft YouTubers CaptainSparklez, DanTDM, LDShadowLady, Stampy Cat and Stacy Plays (all played by themselves); Torque Dawg (Adam Harrington); Cassie Rose/The White Pumpkin (Ashly Burch with a disguised voice by Roger L. Jackson); the super-computer PAMA (Jason 'jtop' Topolski); its creator and former Old Builder Harper (Yvette Nicole Brown); the warrior Emily (Audrey Wasilewski); and the Old Builders—Hadrian (Jim Cummings), Mevia (Kari Wahlgren) and Otto (Jamie Alcroft).

Season 2 adds several more, such as Jesse's assistant Radar (Yuri Lowenthal), the famous hero Jack (Fred Tatasciore) and his villager sidekick Nurm (Mark Barbolak), Champion City ruler Stella (Ashley Albert) and her treasure sniffing llama Lluna, and the sinister Admin named Romeo (JB Blanc).

There are also several background characters, such as Maya, Ivy and a Fangirl (GK Bowes); Owen (Owen Hill); Gill (Phil LaMarr); an EnderCon Usher named Reuben (also Jason 'jtop' Topolski); a Fanboy (Billy West); Lydia (Lydia Winters); and the EnderCon Building Competition Announcer (Erin Yvette).

In a flashback, the Order of the Stone, consisting of Gabriel, Soren, Ivor, Ellegaard, and Magnus, defeats the Ender Dragon.

In the present day, Jesse, his friends Axel and Olivia, and his pet pig Reuben prepare for the EnderCon building competition.

Soon after, the group finds an enchanted Flint and Steel, which Ivor reveals that the "Old Builders" created it and supposedly the "Eversource", a chicken that lays spawn eggs.

While travelling between them, they arrive in a graveyard with an invite to a supposed party in a nearby mansion, in which they meet others who were lured into it, among them Cassie Rose.

The Old Builders, consisting of Hadrian, Mevia, and Otto, imprison Jesse and force him to compete in games to win his friends' freedom, but Jesse makes a deal with Otto to free his friends, before battling and defeating Hadrian and Mevia with the aid of Harper and the other imprisoned fighters, allowing them and the group to return home.

Their meeting place self-destructs to reveal a bottomless pit, nicknamed the "heck mouth" where Jesse finds a mysterious Prismarine gauntlet that gets stuck in their hand; but they manage to escape.

At the monument's centre, after Jesse frees Jack's old friend Vos and collects a Structure Block the Admin appears as a Prismarine Colossus and attempts to kill them, but they and their companions escape.

Xara agrees to help Jesse and the rest of the group, but her prison is rigged with TNT and pressure plates, if there is no one standing on them, the room will explode.

Xara agrees to help fix the portal in her old town the Oasis while Jesse, Petra, and Radar go to Fred's Keep, where they meet the people living there and find a clue that hints the weapon could be located in Romeoburg.

Regardless, Jesse is forced to choose between letting Radar apparently sacrifice himself to distract a giant Enderman or leaving Fred's people for dead.

Jesse's final choice involves them either choosing to leave Beacontown and go on adventures with Petra, or staying as mayor.

The main Minecraft: Story Mode game was separated into five episodes for its first season, released in one month intervals.

[16] The two groups recognized the amount of fan-generated narrative content that existed in the way of YouTube videos and other media forms that demonstrated the potential for storytelling in the game.

[28] Many on Telltale's staff were also already fans of Minecraft, with a private server that they played on, with some of the incidents that occurred on there becoming ideas for the game's story.

[29] Other primary characters in the game are loosely designed around archetypes of common player-characters for Minecraft, such that those that engage in building, fighting, or griefing other players.

[28] Stauffer stated that the game's story would be aimed as family-friendly, similar to the films The Goonies or Ghostbusters;[16] their intended content would be equivalent to a PG-13 or PEGI-12 rating.

[16] In addition, Minecraft: Story Mode – The Complete Adventure, incorporating both the main episodes and downloadable content, was announced for the Nintendo Switch.

Patton Oswalt, Catherine Taber, Ashley Johnson, and Scott Porter were confirmed to continue voicework for the new season.

On December 21, 2018, during the closure of Telltale, the duo released Story Mode Archives, an album consisting of 18 unused tracks from the game.