Blockland is a sandbox game in which players build and play using Lego-like building blocks in singleplayer and multiplayer modes. It was created by American developer Eric "Badspot" Hartman, using the Torque Game Engine, and was originally released as freeware on November 15, 2004. The game is not endorsed by, or affiliated with, the Lego brand, but at one point, Lego was in talks with Hartman about purchasing the game. Blockland was spotlighted on The Screen Savers on February 11, 2005, drastically increasing the user base overnight. It has also been featured on Shack News. Blockland was officially released on February 24, 2007. It was released on Steam in December 2013 after spending nearly a year on Steam Greenlight.
AppJet, Inc. was a website that allowed users to create web-based applications on a client web browser. AppJet was founded by three MIT graduates, two of whom were engineers at Google, before starting AppJet. They launched their initial public beta on December 12, 2007, allowing anyone to create a web app.
Earthrise is a science fiction player vs player massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by independent Bulgarian developer Masthead Studios released in February 2011.
Blue Mars, a 3D massively multiplayer virtual world platform developed by Hawaii-based Avatar Reality, allows 3rd parties to create virtual worlds, MMOG games, simulations, shops, businesses, entertainment venues, clothing, custom avatars, furniture, virtual homes, and other items. It consists of four main parts: the client software, the Sandbox Editor SDK suite, the website, and the host servers. It is often compared to Second Life, since both are virtual social worlds allowing user-created content. According to Jim Sink, CEO of Avatar Reality, "Blue Mars was inspired by a vision of the future when the power to terraform whole worlds is within our grasp. The name Blue Mars represents possibility and hope."
Battle.net is an Internet-based online game, social networking service, digital distribution, and digital rights management platform developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The service was launched on December 31, 1996, followed a few days later with the release of Blizzard's action-role-playing video game Diablo on January 3, 1997. Battle.net was officially renamed to "Blizzard Battle.net" in August 2017, with the change being reverted in January 2021.
Evochron Legends is an online science fiction game developed and published by Starwraith 3D Games for Microsoft Windows. It was released on February 5, 2009.
Minecraft is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java programming language, the first public beta build was released on 17 May 2009. The game would be continuously developed from then on, receiving a full release on 18 November 2011. Afterwards, Persson left Mojang and gave Jens "Jeb" Bergensten control over the game's development. In the years since its release, it has been ported to several platforms, including smartphones, tablets, and various video game consoles. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. Minecraft has since become the best-selling video game of all-time, with over 300 million copies sold and nearly 170 million monthly active players as of 2024.
Terraria is a 2011 action-adventure sandbox game developed by Re-Logic. The game was first released for Windows and has since been ported to other PC and console platforms. The game features exploration, crafting, building, painting, and combat with a variety of creatures in a procedurally generated 2D world. Terraria is one of the best-selling video games of all time, selling 58.7 million copies as of 2024.
Project Zomboid is an open-world, isometric video game developed by British and Canadian independent developer The Indie Stone. The game is set in the post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested exclusion zone of the fictional Knox Country, Kentucky, United States, where the player is challenged to survive for as long as possible before inevitably dying. It was one of the first five games released on the alpha funding section of the gaming portal Desura.
ArcheAge is an MMORPG developed by Korean developer Jake Song and his development company, XL Games. The game was released in Korea on January 15, 2013, and in Europe and North America on September 16, 2014. ArcheAge is described as a "sandpark" MMORPG, which the developers say is a hybrid of the open content style of a "sandbox" game and the more structured play experience of a "themepark" game. A sequel, ArcheAge Chronicle, was announced on September 24, 2024, as part of September PlayStation State of Play.
StarMade is an effectively infinite open-universe space simulation sandbox game in development by Schine for Windows, macOS, and Linux. StarMade is currently in alpha and is free to play, during alpha.
Nether is a first-person multiplayer survival game for Windows. It was developed by American studio Phosphor Games, and was first available on October 29, 2013. Nether became popular in late 2013, when many YouTubers such as Markiplier were uploading videos of them playing the game. Nether has often been compared to other similar sandbox survival games such as 7 Days to Die and Rust, and contained early Extraction Shooter genre features, such as 'safe zone' hubs to safely extract the loot acquired in session into 'stashes'.
Android Runtime for Chrome (ARC) is a compatibility layer and sandboxing technology for running Android applications on desktop and laptop computers in an isolated environment. It allows applications to be safely run from a web browser, independent of user operating system, at near-native speeds.
Albion Online is a free-to-play medieval fantasy MMORPG by Sandbox Interactive, a company under the Stillfront Group since January 2021.
A Minecraft mod is a mod that changes aspects of the sandbox game Minecraft. Minecraft mods can add additional content to the game, make tweaks to specific features, and optimize performance. Thousands of mods for the game have been created, with some mods even generating an income for their authors. While Mojang Studios does not provide an API for modding, community tools exist to help developers create and distribute mods. The popularity of Minecraft mods has been credited for helping Minecraft become one of the best-selling video games of all time.
Survivalcraft is a 2011 open sandbox video game developed by Marcin Igor Kalicinski under the brand Candy Rufus Games. Following early test versions, it was released on 16 November 2011 for the Windows Phone, and is also available for Android, iOS, and Microsoft Windows. The game is set on a deserted island in an open world, where the player collects resources and items that can be made into survival tools. The game has six different game modes: Survival, Challenging, Cruel, Harmless, Adventure, and Creative. The first four involve the player gathering necessary resources to stay alive. The Creative mode gives the player unlimited items and health, and the Adventure mode is used for quest and parkour maps.
Luanti is a free and open-source voxel game creation system. It is written primarily in C++ and makes use of the Irrlicht Engine. Luanti has a Lua API allowing users to write their own games and mods. It is cross-platform, being available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, some BSD descendants, some GNU variants and Android.
ES File Explorer is a file manager/explorer designed by ES Global, a subsidiary of DO Global, for Android devices. It includes features like cloud storage integration, file transfer from Android to Windows via FTP or LAN, and a root browser. It was removed from the Google Play Store for committing click fraud.
Scrap Mechanic is a sandbox video game developed for Windows by Swedish game studio and publisher Axolot Games, in which players can build machines, vehicles, and buildings, and share their creations online. The initial version of the game, released on January 20, 2016, was a creative mode with unlimited access to all available parts for building. On the day of its release, it was the top-selling game on Steam and is estimated to have 1–2 million sales. The survival mode update for the game, with new game mechanics including wildlife, scavenging, farming, and cooking, as well as an underwater biome, was released on May 7, 2020. It was the third-best-selling game on Steam the week after the update.
Core Keeper is a survival sandbox game developed by Pugstorm. The game features mechanics similar to other games in the sandbox genre such as Minecraft, Terraria and Stardew Valley, including mining, crafting, farming and exploration in a procedurally generated underground world. It was released to Steam in early access on 8 March 2022 and received praise for its game mechanics, art style, tone, atmosphere and ease of access to multiplayer modes. The game was released on Windows, Linux, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on 27 August 2024, and was released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on 17 September 2024.
