EDIT: Oh, it's a game engine. Is there a basic 'vanilla' Minecraft clone based on Minetest, for this purpose?
Yes, it's the default `minetest_game` that comes with the game (as well as `minimal`). Note that the redstone-alike mesecons is a separate modpack (which isn't a problem in practice) as is mob support (which is).
It's also in the repos of every linux distro I've tried it on (Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian), and if it isn't it builds really easily (even built on my Chromebook with both crouton and crostini).
You can also add "mods" to it that add a ton of rich features to the game. I recommend adding one at a time tho as they can make your server unstable (mods vary in quality). The minetest core is rock solid stable IME, but not all mods are.
If there's any interest, I can write a blog post about this with getting started instructions at playing and configuring. I'm not affiliated with the project, but I'm a big fan and use it at home with my kids (and a server I setup on our LAN).