Sandbox game

A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of freedom to interact creatively, usually without any predetermined goal, or with a goal that the players set for themselves like making a house. Such games may mostly or totally lack any end goals, and are sometimes referred to as non-games or software toys. They are often a product of creative elements being incorporated into other genres and systems allowing for emergent gameplay. Sandbox games are often associated with an open world structure, giving the players freedom of movement and progression in the game's world. The game design term "sandbox" derives from the nature of a physical sandbox, which lets people create nearly anything they want within it. 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.