by theygamesThe internet is indebted to Garry’s Mod. Without it, we wouldn’t have Prop Hunt, Trouble in Terrorist Town, and the countless machinima that flooded YouTube in the late ’00s. Garry’s Mod is the user-generated tool, standing tall amongst Minecraft, Roblox, and Dreams, as the best way to make and share whatever you can think of. That could be about to change, though, as Garry’s Mod successor Sandbox just opened up the floodgates to even more players and creatives. So if you’ve ever wanted to make a game, now’s your chance.
From Rust and Garry’s Mod developer Facepunch Studios, Sandbox (stylized as s&box) is part videogame and part creative toolbox. Similarly to Roblox, players can build whatever game mode they can imagine and share it to a user-generated content (UGC) marketplace for free. Using the programming language C# and built inside Valve’s Source 2 engine, anyone can make any game mode they’d like, and that’s the whole point.
So it’s sort of a sandbox game, and sort of isn’t. Since Sandbox was revealed in 2017 you can make what you want within the tool, but the Garry’s Mod spiritual sequel deliberately de-emphasizes the connection to previous Valve games like Counter-Strike, Portal, and Half-Life. You don’t bring content from these games over to make machinima or game modes anymore. It’s all original.
To that end, earlier this year a Team Fortress 2 fan remake was issued a DMCA takedown by Valve, as developer Amper Software was using TF2 assets while attempting to rebuild the shooter in Source 2.
Creator Garry Newman previously set it so access to Sandbox worked on a first-come, first-served basis as Facepunch expressly gave aspiring developers priority, but now the creative tool is open to all. This could be a watershed moment for Sandbox, with even more people coming in, making game modes, and sharing their creations for the growing community to engage with.
While the invite system for Sandbox is gone, keep in mind that Facepunch says “it can revoke access at any time,” but right now anyone can easily gain access to the game-making tool.
You just need to click this link and sign in with your Steam account to get access to Sandbox. The initial download is 4.99 GB, with even more space required depending on what you want to do or play.
Make sure you check out all of the best free Steam games on top of Sandbox, and there are plenty of excellent old games if you fancy a blast from the past.
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