Topic summary
Sandbox Games
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Sandbox game.
Early sandbox games took the form of space trading and combat games like Elite (1984) and city-building simulations and tycoon games like SimCity (1989). The release 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. Some sandbox games involve the ability to interact socially and share user-generated content across the Internet, as in Second Life (2003). Sandbox games Garry's Mod (2006) and Dreams (2020) allow players to use the game's systems to create new environments and modes. Minecraft (2009) is the most successful example of a sandbox game, with players able to enjoy both creative modes and more progression-driven survival modes. Roblox (2006) allows users to create their own games using the Luau programming language. Fortnite (2017) has game modes which allow players to interact competitively, or socialise.