A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or alternatively with a goal that the players set for themselves. Such games may lack any objective, and are sometimes referred to as non-games or software toys. More often, sandbox games result from these creative elements being incorporated into other genres and allowing for emergent gameplay. Sandbox games are often associated with an open world concept which gives the players freedom of movement and progression in the game's world. The term "sandbox" derives from the nature of a sandbox that lets people create nearly anything they want within it.
Early sandbox games came out of space trading and combat games like Elite (1984) and city-building simulations and tycoon games like SimCity (1989). The releases of The Sims and Grand Theft Auto III in 2000 and 2001, respectively, demonstrated that games with highly detailed interacting systems that encouraged player experimentation could also be seen as sandbox games. Sandbox games also found ground with the ability to interact socially and share user-generated content across the Internet like Second Life (2003). More notable sandbox games include Garry's Mod (2006) and Dreams (2020), where players use the game's systems to create environments and modes to play with. Minecraft (2009) is one of the most successful examples of a sandbox game, with players able to enjoy both creative modes and more goal-driven survival modes. Roblox (2006) offers a chance for everyone to create their own game by using Roblox Lua programming language. It allows adding effects, setting up functions, testing games, etc.[1]Fortnite (2017) has gamemodes which allow players to either fight one another, fight off monsters or create their own battle arenas.
Terminology
From a video game development standpoint, a sandbox game is one that incorporates elements of sandbox design, a range of game systems that encourage free play.[2] Sandbox design can either describe a game or a game mode, with an emphasis on free-form gameplay, relaxed rules, and minimal goals. Sandbox design can also describe a type of game development, where a designer slowly adds features to a minimal game experience, experimenting with each element one at a time.[3] There are "a lot of varieties" of sandbox design, based on "a wide range of dynamic interactive elements".[2] Thus, the term is used often, without a strict definition.[4] Game designers sometimes define a sandbox as what it is not, where a game can "subtract the missions, the main campaign, the narrative or whatever formatively binds the game's progression, and you have a sandbox."[2]
In game design, a sandbox is a metaphor for playing in a literal sandbox.[5][6] Game historian Steve Breslin describes "the metaphor [as] a child playing in a sandbox ... produc[ing] a world from sand", compared to games with more fully formed content.[2] This metaphor between the virtual and literal sandbox is noted by architectural scholar Alexandra Lange, with a sandbox describing any bounded environment that offers freedom to explore and construct.[7] This can distinguish it from conventional ideas of a game, where the metaphorical sandbox is a "play space in which people can try on different roles and imaginary quests ... rather than a 'game' to play."[8]
In describing video games, sandbox design is often associated with the open world gameplay mechanic and vice versa, but these are two disparate concepts. Open worlds are those where the player's movement in the virtual world is typically not limited by the game allowing the player to roam freely through it.[9]Adventure on the Atari 2600 is considered an open world game as the player can explore the entire game world save for through locked gates from the start, but it is not considered to have sandbox design as the player's actions are generally restricted.[2] Similarly, games like Microsoft Flight Simulator are also open world since the player can take their plane anywhere in the game's virtual world, but as there is no creative aspects to the game, would not be considered a sandbox.[2]
Player creativity is often included in sandbox design. When a player is allowed to use a game as a sandbox, they gain the freedom to be creative with their gameplay.[13] A sandbox will have a combination of game mechanics and player freedom that can lead to emergent gameplay, where a player discovers solutions to challenges that may not be intended by the developers.[2] A sandbox sometimes gives the player "transformative" power over the game world, where "the free movement of play alters the more rigid structure in which it takes shape."[14] Will Wright describes this generative aspect of sandbox designs, leading to a measurable increase in player possibilities.[15]John Smedley describes this type of emergent gameplay more succinctly, having seen in EverQuest "how hungry people are for sandboxes -- for building stuff".[16]GameDeveloper.com notes the growth of player-generated content as a "particular brand of sandbox design: that game design is so fun in itself that, if properly packaged, it can well be reinterpreted as gameplay itself".[2]
Some games offer a separate sandbox mode, where the player can use a game's creative systems with fewer constraints.[17] "This mode has few restrictions on what he may do and offers no guidance on what he should do."[18] For example, a sandbox mode might unlock unlimited resources, or disable enemy threats.[19] A sandbox mode is separate from the campaign mode, without a main narrative progression.[2] In one sense, an approach to this design is to "enable the player to continue after the main storyline has been 'won'."[20]
Many games tutorials utilize this type of design, since "sandboxes are game play much like the real game, but where things cannot go too wrong too quickly or, perhaps, even at all. Good games offer players, either as tutorials or as their first level or two, sandboxes."[21] The game designers allows players to experiment in a safe environment, as "the point about open ended/sandbox design and when they work best in teaching the player is through learning by doing".[22]
Cohesive narratives in sandbox design can be difficult since the player can progress through the game in a non-linear manner.[23] Some sandbox designs empower players to create their own stories, which is described as sandbox storytelling.[24] Sandbox stories can either replace or enhance a main plot.[25] Some games give players "pure agency by giving them tools and a sandbox",[26] sacrificing the story in favor of player creativity.[27] Where the game systems are reactive enough, this "does not remove the narrative, but rather transforms predetermined narrative into dynamic, responsive narrative".[2] According to Ernest Adams, "in sandbox storytelling, the idea is to give the player a big open world populated with opportunities for interesting interactions ... in any order".[24] Sandbox stories can also be told through shorter quests, conversations, collectibles, and encounters, all of which reward players for engaging with the world.[25] This side-content becomes an "extremely common and an excellent format for sandbox gameplay: one central campaign (itself perhaps multi-threaded), plus a large number of side-missions".[2] In general, sandbox storytelling occurs when the player can move through the story independently of their movement through the game space.[24]
Designers also refer to sandbox worlds and sandbox game spaces, which create the feeling of a large open world.[28] The concept of an open world is much older than the term sandbox.[2] Overall, "a sandbox design usually means that the game space is not divided into discrete units", which emphasizes continuity and exploration.[29] This can sometimes overwhelm the player, which is why successful game designers draw on "urban design principles that can be used to build successful sandbox spaces".[28] As a best practice "when creating these sandbox worlds, [designers] should divide them up into distinct areas to aid the player's navigation and orientation."[30] Overall, a sandbox world should "provide the player with a large open set of spaces in which to play, and give him or her things to do".[28] "The more a game's design tends towards a sandbox style, the less a player will feel obliged to follow the main quest."[29]
Game designers often need to create more dynamic game systems to support sandbox-style gameplay. Physics systems are part of the sandbox experience of several games.[31] The popularity of voxels has also shown another system that can create "colorful sandboxes to dismantle and reconstruct."[32]
There is also the value of more robust artificial intelligence. GameDeveloper.com notes how "a sandbox means that the whole game becomes more of a simulation where AI plays an important role."[33] This means that "believable and self-motivated characters have become key to sandbox play, because they produce a rich space for interactivity and greatly help establish the open-world aesthetic."[2] Game designer John Krajewski observes for "a game that features sandbox-style play, the AI needs to provide enough different and interesting characters to interact with in the world, and the size of the world doesn't have to get very big before it becomes unfeasible to hard code them all."[34]
An open-ended sandbox experience is sometimes contrasted with goal-oriented gameplay.[35] Sandbox design usually minimizes the importance of goals. Rather than 'winning' a game, a sandbox design allows player to 'complete' a game by exploring and actualizing all of its options.[29] This lack of victory condition may define sandbox as not a game at all. "For many, a game needs rules and a goal to be a game, which excludes sandbox/simulators."[36] In sandbox mode, "the game resembles a tool more than a conventional video game".[17]
Criticism
Sandbox design has been criticized for providing a lack of satisfying goals for players. According to Ernest Adams, "plunking the player down in a sandbox and saying, 'have fun' isn't good enough. Especially at the beginning of a game, the player should have a clear sense of what to do next and, in particular, why."[37] Christopher Totten observes that "sandbox elements can be mistakenly taken as fair replacements of narrative content; indeed, many games have missed their potential because they imagined that free-play would compensate for a lack of narrative. But even for our idealized child, playing around in a physical sandbox gets old pretty quick."[28] Critics point to repetitive in-game tasks, arguing that an "overabundance of mundane events can get in the way of enjoying the sandbox."[38]GameDeveloper.com notes that the quality of sandbox gameplay varies because "the great risk of the sandbox is that it can be boring." This is because "sand by itself is not much fun. Automated, complex, and perhaps most of all, directed responsiveness is essential to sandbox play, and the more complex and responsive the world, the more interesting the sandbox."[2]
History
Multi-user dungeons (MUDs) are early examples of the principles of sandbox games; users of MUDs would generally be able to gain the ability to create their own content within the MUD's framework, creating opportunities to collaborate with other users. However, MUDs never gained commercial release; while they inspired the first massively multiplayer online (MMO) games like EVE Online, the creation aspects of MUDs did not carry into commercial games.[39]
Prior to 2000, the bulk of what were considered sandbox games in commercial software came from two genres:
Space trading and combat games: Elite (1984) is considered one of the first sandbox games: the player as a space pilot traveled across a randomly-generated galaxy, engaging in combat with enemies (one of the first games to use simulated 3D combat through wireframe graphics) and trading resources at various planets to improve their ship towards the best class possible, but otherwise the player has freedom towards completing this goal. Elite led to a number of similar trading and combat games, including The Seven Cities of Gold (1984), Sid Meier's Pirates! (1987), Star Control (1990), and Freelancer (2003).[2]
City-building and tycoon games: Early city-building games like Utopia (1981) were more focused on arranging city features for achieving high scores, but with SimCity (1989), Will Wright wanted to give players more freedom to create a city and see how it operates while challenging the player to manage the growth of the city against its finances. SimCity's success led to a number of similar city-building and other tycoon games including Railroad Tycoon (1995), SimIsle (1995), and Capitalism (1995).[2]
Two games at the turn of the 21st century redefine the notion of what a sandbox game is.
The Sims (2000) is a life simulation game where the player interactions with simulated humans in a house as they go about their daily lives. Life simulation games were not a new genre, but prior games such as Little Computer People (1985) had very limited artificial intelligence beyond the simulated humans, limiting the amount of interactions that a player had with the simulation and making such games more curiosities. With The Sims, the simulated humans were given more detailed and believable behavior based on studies in artificial life, which led to players experimenting more with the simulated humans and exploring the simulations.[2][40] In terms of defining the sandbox, The Sims was considered a freeform game, but added sets of minimal goals through the game to guide the player and encourage progression.[41]The Sims became a best-selling title in the United States in 2000 and a long-running franchise for Electronic Arts. Further life simulation games would follow, such as Spore (2008).[2]
Grand Theft Auto III (2001) is an action-adventure game in which the player takes the role of a small-time crook in a large city, completing various missions for bosses over the course of the game. This was the first game in the open worldGrand Theft Auto series to be set in a three-dimension world, prior games having been played from a top-down perspective, and the first game to include a detailed physics engine for the various interaction of objects in the world. The combination of the game's open world and physics system gave players the opportunity to explore how they could cause havoc within the game, making the game a virtual sandbox with players to toy with.[42][43] In this manner, Grand Theft Auto III added the idea of emergent gameplay as a feature of sandbox games.[44]Grand Theft Auto III succeeded The Sims as the best-selling game in the United States in 2001; In addition to its highly-successful sequels, Grand Theft Auto III led to a genre of derivative Grand Theft Auto clones focused on criminal activities such as the Saints Row series, as well as a broad range of open world, action-adventure games such as the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry series.[2] This action game broadened expectations of a sandbox, a concept that was previously reserved for experiences like SimCity.[45]
These two games would become a major influence on many different games and genres to come. In 2007, game designer Warren Spector noted the influence of Will Wright on numerous designers, but was surprised that there weren't more who "mimic Wright's games or his sandbox-style, saying titles in the Grand Theft Auto look-alike genre are about the closest most developers have come to doing so."[46] This influence led to a trend, and by 2010 critics were noting that "almost every blockbuster game now contains a considerable 'sandbox' element."[12] This trend was linked to the rise of dynamic storytelling in sandbox worlds,[47] as well as AI that is dynamic enough to supplement scripted content.[33]
Another major shift in sandbox games came with the release of Minecraft, which was first introduced in 2009 in beta form and its first full release in 2011. At its core, Minecraft is a voxel-based survival game, where players collect resources to build tools that help them to collect better resources, and to construct shelters to protect them from hostile creatures. However, there are no limits on how players can build these structures, and using the vast array of resources available in the game, players can build nearly anything they could imagine; the game has been compared to digital Lego bricks.[27] Players' use of Minecraft in this way led to the developers to add a dedicated "Creative Mode" that stripped the survival elements from the game so that players could build without any hazards or other artificial limits.[48]Minecraft became a massive success, having sold more than 180 million copies by May 2019 and being the best selling personal computer game of all time.[49]
With time, sandbox design had become a mainstay in survival games,[22] as well as a popular subset of shooters,[36] and RPGs.[50][51] Long-time series such as Metal Gear had made the "shift to an open-world sandbox design," where the game dynamically "adds more missions as the story progresses and players complete the available side-ops".[52] Other long-running series such as Hitman were celebrated for their sandbox design.[53] The series became influential, creating a new template of games "that echo the same emphasis on sandbox design, open-ended mission structure, and sneaking".[54] In 2020, PC Gamer noted Mount & Blade as "a triumph of sandbox design". They observe that "because of its sandbox nature, Mount & Blade's quests are procedurally generated around a number of set templates," which leads to a game where "the simulation is the story".[55]
One pure sandbox game, aimed to offer no goals but allow players to create works to be shared with others, is Second Life (2003), a large massively multiplayer online game set in a virtual world where users could create various sections of the world as their own. The game was purposely developed as a community-driven world, so while the developers established some of the fundamentals of the in-game economies, much of how the workings and economics of the rest of Second Life's world was set by the players, which created several issues around pricing, gambling, and taxes, among other aspects. The game ultimately drew use by business as well, seeking to create space within it.[56]
More recent sandbox games have been aimed at provided interactive works that can be shared with others. Garry's Mod allows players to tinker with the Source engine from Valve to make animations and games[57] while games like LittleBigPlanet and Dreams (2019) from Media Molecule give users assets and primitive programming elements to craft games that can be shared with others.[58]
Use in education
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2022)
Some sandbox games have gained favorable use in education settings for inspiring studies to use creativity and critical thinking skills.[59]
Part of Microsoft's rationale for acquiring Mojang, the developers of Minecraft, for US$2.5 billion in 2014 was for its potential application in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, according to CEO Satya Nadella on its acquisition in 2014, as the game already helps to pique children's curiosity.[60] Microsoft subsequently enhanced the MinecraftEDU version of the game into its Minecraft: Education Edition that gives teachers and students numerous pre-made resources to work from, and the ability for teachers to monitor and assist students in their work, but otherwise allowing students to create and learn following several lesson plans developed by Microsoft.[61][62]
Educators and schools leverage Roblox for their computer and programming lessons. Students learning with Roblox can use their maintained game creation engine called Roblox Studio. The creation of these games can inspire students to work with creativity and concepts.
Related Research Articles
Video game modding is the process of alteration by players or fans of one or more aspects of a video game, such as how it looks or behaves, and is a sub-discipline of general modding. Mods may range from small changes and tweaks to complete overhauls, and can extend the replay value and interest of the game.
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a variety of forms and are often grouped with puzzle games due to their common use of "rhythmically generated puzzles".
Multi Theft Auto (MTA) is a multiplayer modification for the Microsoft Windows version of Rockstar North games Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that adds online multiplayer functionality. For Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the mod also serves as a derivative engine to Rockstar's interpretation of RenderWare.
Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics.
Marc "Mahk" LeBlanc is an educator and designer of video games.
Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and the eleventh instalment overall. Set in the fictional Liberty City, based on New York City, the single-player story follows Eastern European war veteran Niko Bellic and his attempts to escape his past while under pressure from high-profile criminals. The open world design lets players freely roam Liberty City, consisting of three main islands, and the neighbouring state of Alderney, which is based on New Jersey.
A video game with nonlinear gameplay presents players with challenges that can be completed in a number of different sequences. Each player may take on only some of the challenges possible, and the same challenges may be played in a different order. Conversely, a video game with linear gameplay will confront a player with a fixed sequence of challenges: every player faces every challenge and has to overcome them in the same order.
A Grand Theft Auto clone belongs to a subgenre of open world action-adventure video games, characterized by their likeness to the Grand Theft Auto series in either gameplay, or overall design. In these types of open world games, players may find and use a variety of vehicles and weapons while roaming freely in an open world setting. The objective of Grand Theft Auto clones is to complete a sequence of core missions involving driving and shooting, but often side-missions and minigames are added to improve replay value. The storylines of games in this subgenre typically have strong themes of crime, violence and other controversial elements such as drugs and sexually explicit content.
In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include The Legend of Zelda (1986), Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and Minecraft (2011).
0x10c is an unfinished sandbox science fiction video game previously under development by Mojang AB. It was announced on April 3, 2012, by Markus Persson, the game's lead designer. The game was indefinitely postponed because Persson found himself burned out and demotivated after so much early effort were spent into planning and designing the game, up until the point that it "sucked out any fun from the project". Persson then stated he will instead most likely continue to work on smaller projects for the rest of his life, rekindling the reason he loves programming games in the first place. The game was later cancelled.
Unturned is a free-to-play survival game by Smartly Dressed Games, a studio consisting solely of Canadian game designer Nelson Sexton. It was released for Windows, macOS, and Linux in July 2014. Unturned allows players to create custom maps using an in-game editor. Cosmetics and mods can also be created using the game's Unity engine, which allows them to publish creations on the Steam Workshop. A retail version of the game was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One by 505 Games in November 2020.
Cube Life: Island Survival is an indie open world sandbox survival video game developed and published by Cypronia. It was released for Wii U in June 2015. An HD remake was released for Steam in April 2018, for Android and iOS in August 2018, and for Nintendo Switch in December 2020.
Minetest is a free and open-source game creation system with focus on voxel graphics. It is written primarily in C++ and makes use of the Irrlicht Engine. Minetest provides an API for users to write their own games and mods written in Lua. It is cross-platform, being available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, some BSD descendants, some GNU variants and Android.
Hytale is an upcoming sandbox game by Hypixel Studios. Production began in 2015 by developers from the Minecraft multiplayer server Hypixel with funding from Riot Games, who later bought the studio in 2020. It is scheduled to release for Windows and macOS operating systems, as well as consoles and mobile devices.
Vintage Story is a sandbox survival game developed and published by Anego Studios. The founders of Anego Studios, Tyron and Irena Madlener, began development on a standalone version of an earlier mod for Minecraft called Vintagecraft. An old version of the game is available for free download. The game is in early access and can be played in singleplayer or multiplayer modes.
Teardown is a 2022 sandbox–puzzle game developed and published by Tuxedo Labs. The game revolves around the owner of a financially stricken demolition company, who is caught executing a questionable job and becomes entangled between helping police investigations and taking on further dubious assignments. Teardown features levels made of destructible voxels, and the player follows the campaign through consecutive missions. In most missions, the player must collect or destroy objects connected to a security alarm. The player has unlimited time to prepare and is given upgradable tools, vehicles, and explosives to create a path within the level that allows them to complete the objectives as quickly as possible. A timer starts as soon as the security alarm is triggered, and the player must complete all required objectives and reach a getaway vehicle within sixty seconds, though the alarm can be adjusted from the settings.
Steve is a player character from the 2011 sandbox video game Minecraft. Created by Swedish video game developer Markus "Notch" Persson and introduced in the 2009 Java-based version, Steve is one of nine default player character skins available for players of contemporary versions of Minecraft. Steve lacks an official backstory as he is intended to be a customizable player avatar as opposed to being a predefined character. His feminine counterpart, Alex, was introduced in August 2014 for Java PC versions of Minecraft, with the other seven debuting in the Java edition of the game in October 2022. Depending on the version of Minecraft, players have a choice of defaulting to either Steve or any other variant skins when creating a new account. However, the skin is easy to change from the game itself or website.
In video games, narrative has been of varying significance and importance since the beginning of the medium. Though early games did not feature stories as a focus, technological advances have afforded developers the freedom to make narrative a major element. Adding story was not typically feasible in the earliest video games due to technological limitations of the time, but technological advances made since then have enabled a greater focus on stories through cutscenes and voiced dialogue.
References
↑ Brumbaugh, Zander (2021). Coding Roblox Games Made Easy (1sted.). Packt Publishing, Limited. ISBN9781800561991.
↑ Jorge A. Blanco-Herrera; Christopher L. Groves; Ann M. Lewis; Douglas A. Gentile (2015). "Chapter 7 - Teaching Creativity: Theoretical Models and Applications". In James C. Kaufman; Garo Green (eds.). Video Games and Creativity. Elsevier. pp.139–158. ISBN978-0128017050.
↑ Domsch, Sebastian (2013). "3.2 Non-Unilinear Existents". Storyplaying: Agency and Narrative in Video Games. Walter de Gruyter. pp.61–68. ISBN978-3110272451.
↑ Acharya, Devi; Wardrip-Fruin, Noah (2019). Building worlds together: understanding collaborative co-creation of game worlds. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. pp.1–5.
↑ Edery, David1; Mollick, Ethan (2008). Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business. FT Press. pp.11–13. ISBN978-0137151752.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
↑ Alex Fitzpatrick; John Patrick Pullen; Josh Raab; Lev Grossman; Lisa Eadicicco; Matt Peckham; Matt Vella (August 23, 2016). "The 50 Best Video Games of All Time". Time. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
↑ Edery, David1; Mollick, Ethan (2008). Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business. FT Press. pp.9–11. ISBN978-0137151752.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
↑ Taylor, Laurie N. (2006). "From Stompin' Mushrooms to Bustin' Heads: Grand Theft Auto III as Paradigm Shift". In Garrelts, Nate (ed.). The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: Critical Essays. McFarland & Company. pp.115–125. ISBN0786428228.
↑ Taylor, Laurie N. (2006). "Labyrinths, Mazes, Gardens, and Sandboxes: Game Space Metaphors". In Oosterhuis, Kas; Feireiss, Lukas (eds.). The Architecture Co-laboratory: GameSetandMatch II: on Computer Games, Advanced Geometries, and Digital Technologies. Episode Publishers. pp.98–106. ISBN9059730364.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
