User:Hellknowz/Sandbox game

Sandbox is a video gaming term used to refer to sandbox genre as a video game genre and sandbox mode as a game mode.

Overview

"Sandbox" is an abstract video gaming concept and term used to refer to a broad range of open-ended gameplay mechanics. While there is no exact definition, the term is mainly used to describe sandbox genre as a video game genre, sandbox mode as a game mode, or a specific approach to game design.

Sandbox mode is a game mode in an otherwise non-sandbox game, where the player is free to act outside the game's narrative or progression.

---

"Sandbox is a much wider genre in terms of play than it is in terms of explicit design: a wide variety of games can be played in a sandbox style" SEMI-USED

QUOTE "any sufficiently complex game can be considered a sandbox if one of the aims of the players is to explore the implications of the game's rules"

"The invention of the term did indeed accompany a new development in game design, but this was not, as the term suggests, player freedom, which was already available by any number of means: non-linearity; the lack of objectives or central storyline; automatic variation of the game-world and game-behavior"

"This is the sandbox we mean when we speak of "Sandbox Mode" ... subtract the missions, the main campaign, the narrative or whatever formatively binds the game's progression .. The player can fool around without doing anything. .. it is closely similar to how the term is used in software development" USED

"True sandbox design means adding game behaviors which, in combination, produce interesting emergent behavior, but it also means adding some reward for free play"

"It's such a buzzword nowadays -- sandbox. It is a very abstract concept, so there are a lot of varieties. .. Being applied in such a broad range" USED

""Sandbox gameplay" is one of those ambiguous terms in game development that is used a lot, but rarely defined" USED

---

"stories are created and directed largely by the player's decisions."

"large number of decision points and wide range of possible outcomes .. make the variation in experiences from game to game and from player to player -- one of the key selling points of sandbox games"

"developer must provide some amount of structure, as well as the tools the player uses to shape the story. There must be boundaries, goals, and games system that provide decision points."

"The problem that sandbox games have is that their stories are not obvious. .. disconnection between player and story must be an issue of presentation. Players do not realize they are creating a story because the game does not communicate the story in a way they understand"

"typical player of a mass-market game does not want to spend a great deal of effort distilling their experience into a story"

"to fully enjoy the story-creating potential that sandbox games provide, these games should incorporate features that do the bulk of the grunt work of turning gameplay into story"

"A great deal of the fun of sandbox games is reading about the disparate experiences other players have had"

"Although many games have taken small, tentative steps in exploiting this potential [sandbox story telling], all mainstream sandbox games have much room for improvement." (use this as words by author?)

"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"

"Modern sandbox games draw from a wide range of design structures: from open-world design to emergent behavior, from automation of believable agents to multi-threaded or non-linear story"

"The concept of sandbox-style gameplay, as we know, suggests more-or-less undirected free-play."

"The metaphor is a child playing in a sandbox: the child produces a world from sand, the most basic of material. This in contrast to a game where the upper-level content is presented fully formed and ordered."

"we anticipate that less imaginative players will get less out of a sandbox game"

""give them a sandbox, and they will build castles" -- that it must be met with a far greater investment in making the sandbox actually work .. sandbox-style game designer cannot simply offload the creative effort onto the gamer"

"normal game design is developing upper-level material (missions, etc.) based on an engine, sandbox design is writing an engine to express upper-level gameplay concepts. (but not that simple) sandbox design requires the development of engines which enable open exploration in various ways, engines which support upper-level sandbox design by providing systems for the handling of the sandbox elements"

"it's handling all of the player's various interactions, all the possible combinations (including reward for all actions)"

"necessary framework guides the presentation of the sandbox elements as the world develops and unfolds .. such as rewards .. great number of narrative elements across the game-world .. framework gives some strategic order to the game's elements, a presentational structure"

"even designers of the most free-form sandbox games must specialize in producing worlds which are geared towards making that free-play fun"

"it does not remove the narrative, but rather transforms predetermined narrative into dynamic, responsive narrative"

"Elite was truly profound because it presented a game-world space and a freedom of movement and choice that for the first time felt real and unbounded .. an open universe"

"this was of course the birth of a genre [after elite]: the trade/exploration/combat/adventure sandbox, typically in space or at sea (key metaphors of freedom). The successors are far too numerous to list"

"However, it would be about sixteen years [after elite] before game designers began to use the term "sandbox" to describe this kind of free-form play."

"The genre grew out of the natural pleasure of designing game-worlds .. SimCity, which became a record-breaking success, defining one of the largest genres of the 1990s"

"The metaphor of the "sandbox game" finally emerged at the turn of the century, around the publication The Sims and the following year, Grand Theft Auto III, the two games which are traditionally considered the two original and canonical "sandbox" games"

"great risk of the sandbox is that it can be boring"

"Where there is a narrative ... one of the main problems is the pacing"

"story and sandbox are sometimes very much competing principles"

prevalence of gta clones? "three-dimensional sandbox games, most of them firmly in the naughty crime spree mould"

"GTA 3 cemented the buzzword "sandbox" into the minds of developers everywhere"

"'great commercial success of games that have maximized novelty by implementing myriad disparate activities, as evidenced by the explosive popularity of so-called "sandbox" or "open world" games, which started with Grand Theft Auto III and continues with products like Skyrim or World of Warcraft"

""sandbox" format, with its wide and vast repertoire of activities, against the traditional game format [intro to below]"

"sandbox game leaves you with other options [than abandon game that becomes too hard, repetetiv etc]"

"GTA III showed just how effectively the sheer availability of variety can take advantage of the whimsical nature of consumers"

"But when Grand Theft Auto 3 showed up in 2001, the series forever changed, never to go back. The living world set a new bar for action games and helped bring the sandbox genre to the mainstream"

"[Sims] .. no other concept comes close to the blank canvas of possibilities offered by Maxis’ sandbox masterpiece" gamesTM #16 p.59

"The Sims is as close to a true sandbox game as there’s been" gamesTM #50 p.90

"Every developer seems incessant on trying to replicate that famous ‘sandbox’ environment [GTA], mimicking the structure of challenge-based missions, random tokens to collect and an entire map within which you are free to, yes, roam" gamesTM #36 p.119

"San Andreas – as much as people may pick holes in the pop-up and glitching, this represents a staggering achievement on the four-year-old console and raises the bar substantially in terms of scale, potential and, indeed, sandbox gaming in general." gamesTM #26 p.99

"[after GTA popularity] Indeed, sandbox modes are proving popular." gamesTM #42 p.84

"Just Cause could be a triumphant sandbox game; its lush environment and level of freedom bode well." gamesTM #44 p.47

"Rockstar single-handedly invented the sandbox genre with a title that went on to inspire more games that we could possibly keep track of" gamesTM #46 p.89

"DMA Design set out to create one of the earliest virtual sandboxes [GTA1] to appear in a videogame." gamesTM #128 p.139

Fully relevant

• mostly took everything relevant, rest HOWTO is game design suggestions
• almost all except AssCreed Spore GTA4 analysis
• unused this just talks about mmo sandboxes
• The Designer's Notebook: Sandbox Storytelling

Somewhat relevant

• very short gta coined term mention
• Genre Deathwatch 2011 reliable?
• short mention
• a little on it

Links from merge discussion:

• Feature Article: Defining Past and Present Game Genres relible?
• Xbox.com | Tips and Tricks - A Novice's Guide to Sandbox Games relible?
• Opinion: 'All The World's A Sandbox' "opinion" relible?

Brief mentions

• GameSpy's 25 Favorite PC Games of the '90s (page 20/26) older elder scrolls
• Minecraft, Intellectual Property, and the Future of Copyright minecraft goes beyodn typical sandbox image
• A History of Gaming Platforms: The Commodore 64 - mentions elite and sims
• Terraria dev saw a genre gap on consoles, and went for it terraria
• Just Cause 3 - What we want from the ultimate sandbox of destruction just cause 2
• Top 5 Underappreciated Innovators - mentions gta and elite
• The Edge ExPlay Panel: playing in From Dust’s sandbox - focus on dust and a few others
• Some Assembly Required: Why SOE should be leading the sandbox charge a few mmmos
• Saints Row The Third Review: Volition has finally earned the sandbox crown. saints row
• [1][2] goes on and on about sandbox mmos
• The complete history of open-world games (part 1) super brief metnion in quote
• Freelancer review freelancer tiny

Other stuff

• old sandbox (video games) revision before merge - totally irrelevant sources

Sandbox is just nonlinear argument

• (SAME as above) Opinion: 'All The World's A Sandbox'Deus Ex the ConspiracyAssassin’s Creed And The Future Of Sandbox GamesSteal a glimpse inside 'Grand Theft Auto IV'

Books (on me)

• Game Design Workshop. A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. p.172 - gta and sims as examples (designers perspective)
• Kevin Hile. Video Games. 2010. p.38-39,39,77,96 - several mentions, definition as game mode
• Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design - genre emerged, examples, several mentions, limitations

Gbooks

• GameAxis Unwired Nov 2006 short intro that sandbox is open world originally
• EZ Guides: The Games of the Decade sandbox or open world genre; unreliable?
• The Art of Videogames passing mention it begin genre
• Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business gta3 defined sandbox

Reflist

see also

• open world
• nonlinear gameplay