Freedom has always been the yearning of human beings, and the most intuitive game that embodies freedom in the game is sandbox game. The word sandbox comes from the west. It originally refers to the area where children play with fine sand, and children can build all kinds of things with sandbox. So the word sandbox also implies purity and freedom. Sandbox is now more suitable for psychology to relieve stress. ) At present, the most popular sandbox game borrows this metaphor. Sandbox game is a kind of nonlinear virtual game, which is essentially different from the traditional linear virtual game. Open scenes, dynamic worlds, random events and seamless maps are the main features of sandbox games. Players can explore in the game and interact with various elements at will. Without having to do so-called established plot tasks or being forced to exchange scenes that cannot be returned. At the same time, all kinds of behaviors or subtle actions of players may have an irreversible impact on the whole game world. Such a game will give players a real feeling of playing the game. Instead of the traditional linear plot game, the player is led by the game and "played" by the game.
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Sandbox games are very different from traditional game types. From the perspective of core gameplay, traditional virtual games generally have a clear purpose and the core gameplay designed around this purpose. For example, the main goal of role-playing games can be set as PK, socialization or copy, but there must be a clear player goal at each stage, and the goal of competitive games is to beat opponents through their own operations and tactics. Sandbox games pay attention to "freedom", that is, interacting with the environment as freely as possible, without specific goals.
In addition, from the perspective of game planning, traditional game planning needs to fill in the content as much as possible, such as designing levels, values, combat modes, balance and so on. And sandbox game planning needs to try its best to build a basic platform for content and create a framework for players to move freely. At the same time, in the sandbox game, players no longer interact with limited props, but with almost all the props in the map, which not only greatly increases the complexity of the game, but also increases the demand for engine technology and technical stability.
From the development history of virtual games, many early games belong to sandbox games according to today's eyes. Because the early virtual games were limited by the technical level, they didn't have much ability to set enough systems, game modes and rules for the games. Many games often only have a basic gameplay, which gives players a certain degree of freedom to play games, which is exactly in line with the basic characteristics of sandbox games we are talking about today. So when did sandbox games appear? What kind of development has it experienced? Next, let's take a look at the development history of sandbox games.
Tracing back to the source, the first sandbox video game in the world appeared in 1976. At that time, a game named ColossalCave Adventure appeared on the computer platform, which was the first game in the world that could save the progress. During the game, players only need to enter "Save" on the command line, and then write a file name to save. When they need to read the progress, they can continue by entering the file name.
1972, William crowther, who just divorced his wife, developed a simple word computer game, hoping to attract his two daughters to play at home frequently. The loser in Love Life is a computer engineer who works for BBN Company in the United States, and is also a player of the table game Dungeons and Dragons and a fan of cave exploration. This adventure game is based on his cave exploration experience, adding many fantasy elements. From 65438 to 0976, Don Woods of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of Stanford University found crowther, hoping to expand the game. Woods has tripled crowther's game code and added the fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, such as elves and trolls. The new game they completed together is called "Adventure in the Giant Cave", and its commercial version has been transplanted to various platforms, which has had a far-reaching impact on future graphic adventure games.
At that time, computer time on American university campuses was very precious, so crowther set in the program that "wizard" players could not re-enter the game until 15 minutes after archiving, while ordinary players had to wait for 45 minutes. He hopes that players can have a rest, get some air and give their computers to others after saving their progress. However, it was not until ten years later that the players on the game platform enjoyed the fun of "saving" and "installing". 1986, Nintendo's Galaxy Warrior used password access for the first time, allowing players to continue the game progress. 1987, the legend of zelda realized the function of saving the progress on the home host for the first time with the help of the battery in the cassette.
However, there is no main story, no clear tasks and goals in the giant cave adventure, and players can move freely in the giant cave. Therefore, it is considered to be the earliest sandbox game set in the open world in the history of games, and it has no graphical interface. More like a mud word game in the future. But at that time, on Arpad, the predecessor of the Internet, exploring in giant caves became a hot topic, and many Silicon Valley geeks were fascinated by it. At that time, someone joked that "Adventures in the Giant Cave" stopped the development of the computer industry for two weeks. After that, the development of sandbox game experienced four periods.
First, the rise of the open concept.
In the arcade era, the typical games are cross-board clearance and fighting games. These games need to knock down opponents as soon as possible, but the game designers gradually found that some players were tired of this kind of games and began to add exploration to the game as much as possible. One of the masterpieces is Genesis: The First Dark Age by 1980, which is also considered as the embryonic form of the early rising RPG open game. Players can explore relatively freely from the first perspective.
Elite (1984) is considered to be the first real sandbox game in the world and the first PC game with 3D grid images. The main content of the game is that the player drives a novice spaceship, completes the entrusted tasks all over the universe and fights with the enemy. At present, its picture is only composed of simple lines and three-dimensional color blocks, but this work shocked the game world that year. The universe in the game is generated automatically and randomly, and its economic system itself is worth studying repeatedly, and its 3D grid picture is a great innovation.
More importantly, the elite embodies a freedom of space movement and choice, making the game world not a closed maze, but an open universe. Although the concept of "sandbox game" was not clear at that time, and the concept of this open world was quite superficial, it still created a precedent for free play, and the production concept influenced by players' behavior became the core pursuit of later sandbox game makers.
Second, the arrival of the sandbox era
At this stage, the core elements of these sandbox games, such as open world, free play and encouraging exploration, began to become clear, but these elements still appeared in the form of assisting other core games. One is "role-playing+sandbox", that is, the main core of the game is role-playing, but at the same time it gives a big map and great freedom. This type of game was very popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Among them, the legend of zelda and the legend of zelda released on 1985 are Nintendo's best-selling works, with sales exceeding 6.5 million, and they have been selected into the list of the greatest games for many times. This game combines the elements of action, adventure and role-playing games, and adopts a nonlinear narrative structure to consciously force players to think about what to do next.
The other is "action+sandbox", which benefits from the development of 3D technology and the rising trend of action games. Popular in the late 1990s, Super Mario 64 released by Nintendo 1996 is a typical representative. At present, global sales have exceeded 1 1 10,000, which has long been regarded as the benchmark of 3D action games in the industry. In Super Mario 64, there are many closed small worlds for players to enter and explore at will. Mario himself can make different moves, and players can also pick up or move certain items to solve puzzles. This kind of high-degree-of-freedom interaction between the action system and the environmental energy is considered to be an important part of the essence of sandbox games.
The third type is called "Simulated Training+Sandbox", and the representative work is "Simulated City", which is the biggest game type in the 1990s. Free games are sometimes combined with operating simulation games. For example, railroad tycoon released by 1990 is the pioneer of this kind of game.
Third, the emergence of sandbox as an independent game category
Like the development of other things, with the first game as the pioneer, there will be more and more pioneers. From the rise of the game of free play to the formal establishment of the word "sandbox game" in early 2000, this concept of free and open game production has gradually taken root in people's hearts, and developers have begun to focus on the "free" nature of the game, hoping to get rid of external constraints such as strategy or competitive games and focus on guiding players to pursue leisure and open fun.
At this stage, sandbox games have entered a period of rapid development. The characteristic of this period is that due to the development of technology, the improvement of computing power and the relatively free interaction with the map environment, it finally became a possibility. Freedom and openness have become the biggest selling points of games, rather than belonging to a certain type of games. As an independent game category, sandbox game began to enter the historical stage, and sandbox itself also formed its own gameplay.
The Sims series released in 2000 is a computer game with the theme of simulating ordinary people's lives, which is released by EA Company. The Sims sold more than150,000 sets worldwide, making it the best-selling game in EA history. The success of The Sims lies in the introduction of the concept of intelligent AI, and NPC's response can also be made according to the change of environment, which greatly expands the interaction between players and the surrounding environment.
Grand theft auto 3 is the best-selling game released by 200 1. The protagonist of the game is a criminal who was betrayed by his girlfriend in a bank robbery. In order to achieve revenge, he needs to cooperate with the gangs in the city and gradually become the criminal leader in the city. This game tries its best to imitate various elements of life in a city for players, such as racing, confronting the police, doing various gang tasks, interacting with passers-by, shooting and so on. The most successful thing about grand theft auto 3 is that it has created a huge 3D open city where players can enjoy themselves.
With the development of sandbox games, developers gradually find that the limitations of single-player games in communication and interaction seem to be an invisible barrier to give full play to the fun of free games. Even if the freedom of the game is high, it is only the interaction between the human brain and the computer database. The advantages of online games in social function enable them to solve this problem through interpersonal interaction.
Therefore, some online games with the embryonic form of sandbox gradually began to enter the player's field of vision. Europeans and Americans love freedom and adventure, which makes them ahead in the liberalization of online games.
EVE OL developed by CCP company in Iceland is a good example. As a masterpiece of hard science fiction online games, EVE Online has a very grand cosmic background and a highly free game mode. Players can choose their own growth route, whether they are interstellar businessmen who become trade intermediaries or kings who have many fleets to dominate one side, all depend on the players themselves. In addition, EVE is also a game that emphasizes players' cooperation, and the self-sufficient game mode is completely unworkable here. In order to ensure the fun of the game, developers also put all the players of EVE on the same server, thus forming a virtual universe, even a nearly real ecosystem. As far as the players themselves are concerned, the core of the game is displayed through the growth process from small to large and from point to line, thus truly realizing the feeling of growth and the fun of the game.
Of course, besides EVE, there are many sandbox or similar online games, such as Guild Wars 2 and Planet Edge 2. As well as "DayZ" of zombie survival and "Kingdom of Salem" of permanent death, all represent different attempts of European and American game developers on the sandbox road of online games. In addition, some works of Asian game makers have gradually shown the pursuit of freedom, such as Final Fantasy 14 and Ancient Century. Although their core can't completely get rid of the linear mode of traditional games, their enrichment and optimization in gameplay, including the extensive expansion of game maps that players can explore freely, and the setting that players' behaviors affect the whole game world, have greatly promoted the development and evolution of sandbox online games.
Fourth, masterpieces emerge one after another, and the gameplay evolves itself.
The heyday of sandbox games appeared in 20 15 years, which was characterized by the continuous appearance of a large number of well-made sandbox games and became the mainstream form of games, especially in 20 15 years, also known as "sandbox year". The game of sandbox is constantly evolving, and there are various branches, especially the official release of 20 1 1 My World, which marks the arrival of truly creative sandbox games, and since then, sandbox games have opened up a new situation. The following are some representative sandbox games in this period.
The Elder Scrolls 5 is a sandbox+action role-playing game released on 20 1 1. The Elder Scrolls V is full of various nonlinear plots, and players can accept tasks in non-player characters (NPCs) all over the world. The open plot system of the game itself can be dynamically changed to adapt to the actions of the players. In addition to the tasks in the plot, there are infinitely many randomly generated tasks in the game.
Grand Theft Auto V is a sandbox+action adventure game released on 20 13. Like previous games, players can roam freely in the open world, interact with NPC, fight or explore. On the third day after the release of Grand Theft Auto V, its sales have exceeded $654.38 billion, making it the fastest-selling entertainment product in history. In August of 20 15, the sales of the whole platform reached 54 million sets, making it the fourth best-selling game list.
H 1Z 1 is a sandbox+survival online game released on June 20 15. In the game, the background is set somewhere in the central United States, where a zombie virus broke out on a large scale. After being born randomly in a certain place on the map, players need to collect resources, build houses and join hands with their companions to fight zombies. Of course, players can also learn PK from each other. Sandbox survival game is an important branch of sandbox game, and players need to survive in various harsh conditions. This game is very popular.
Wizard 3: Wizard of wild hunt 3: wild hunt is an action role-playing and sandbox game. Published on May 20 15. The game is played from a third-person perspective. The player will play the role of a demon hunter, using swords and magic to resist the dangers encountered in the fantasy world and interact with NPC. Witch 3 was a commercial success and received wide acclaim. The game sold 6 million copies in six weeks.
4) Radiation 4 is a game that combines sandbox+survival+architecture+role-playing. Published on 20 15, 1 1 month. The game narrates that before the world nuclear explosion, the protagonist was sent to a shelter to be frozen. After 200 years, the player returned to the ground as the only survivor of the shelter and went to downtown Boston for an adventure. In Radiation 4, players can use waste to build various buildings, plus colorful plot branches and huge world view, which becomes the masterpiece of 20 15 sandbox game.
After entering 20 15, sandbox games have blossomed and various excellent sandbox games have emerged one after another, but what really pushed sandbox games to a new height is My World, which makes people cry and say that the original games can still be played at the same time. My World is a sandbox independent game, which was originally developed by Markus, a programmer of Swedish company, and later developed and distributed by Mojang, a Swedish company established in 2009. In 20 13, Mojang was acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion. The appearance of My World marks the birth of sandbox game in a pure sense.
In My World, players are born in a completely random world map to destroy and rebuild the unique cube materials in the game. Other functions in the game include exploring world resources, synthesizing objects, building buildings and exploring survival. To use a simple metaphor, my world is equivalent to Lego toys in the video game industry. Compared with the previous My World, it is more in line with the title of the sandbox game. Players can really create props at will, change the environment and build objects with square materials, just like piling sand.
The game is mainly played in the first person. The core gameplay mostly revolves around how to use different squares to build objects. The world is mainly composed of 3D blocks with strong pixelated style, and different blocks represent different materials, such as soil and stones. The game randomly selects the place where it is placed, thus creating various minerals, water and trunks. Players can collect these squares and place them to complete various manufacturing.
My world simulates many scenes in reality. Players can find all kinds of terrain, including plains, mountains, snow, forests and oceans. There are also days and nights in the game. In the real world, a day is 20 minutes. There are also various NPCs in the game, including animals, villagers and hostile creatures. Cattle, pigs, chickens and other non-hostile creatures can be hunted to make food and materials. On the contrary, in dark areas, such as caves, there will be hostile creatures, such as spiders, skeletons, zombies and so on.
Besides architecture, there are many modes of games. The four main game modes are survival mode, creation mode, adventure mode and spectator mode.
In the survival mode, players must maintain their lives and collect resources to build their own world; In creative mode, players have infinite resources and can fly; In adventure mode, players can play in maps customized by other players. In addition, the game also supports multiplayer online mode, players can build their own servers, and multiple players can interact and communicate with each other in a world.
This game, which gives full play to its freedom, completely abandons elements such as plot, competition and upgrade. In traditional games. It has no clear tasks and goals, no gorgeous pictures, and no complicated system. Players only need to "destroy" and "build" in the game, and with imagination, they can combine small pixels into houses and castles, even cities, and create a magical world that may or may not exist in reality. This subversive super-high degree of freedom in the game also makes this work as an independent game a dark horse in the game industry. Not only landing on major game platforms, but also the sales volume of each version has been maintained for a long time, which is regarded as a real "free" masterpiece by players.
My World is the most popular sandbox game in history and one of the best-selling games. According to official statistics, as of May 20 16, the global sales of My World exceeded 90 million copies, and the total revenue exceeded1500 million US dollars. Impressive achievements have made My World the best-selling PC video game in the history of world games.
A frequently asked question is: Is the player's acceptance of open exploration games lower in China than in the West? Our answer is that China players, like the West, have a high acceptance of sandbox games. In China, sandbox games have also experienced a long development time. In the early 1990s, clay word games brought great freedom to the players at that time. In the game, players can give instructions to the game characters in words. Because it was in the early days of online games, the administrator did not take filling content as the main operation means, and the interaction and exploration between players became one of the main tasks of early MUD games.
1996 The stand-alone game "The Legend of Jin Yong Heroes" is generally considered to be a stand-alone game with sandbox elements in the early days. The Legend of Jin Yong's Heroes is adapted from 14 martial arts novels written by Jin Yong. Players can take risks with some characters in Jin Yong's novels. The game has a high degree of freedom and the map is very open. Players can choose to do good or evil, so the plot direction and final outcome of the game will be very different. But after 2000, with the appearance of graphical online games, leveling, PK, guild, copy, task and so on. "Designed" gameplay has become the mainstream of online games.
Players are getting used to following the instructions of game operators. The demand for exploration began to wane. Domestic online game developers rarely set foot in sandbox games because of high R&D cost, insufficient R&D operation experience and unclear commercialization model. At present, there are very few self-developed sandbox games, and developers are eager for quick success and instant benefit, which leads to serious product homogeneity. However, the prevalence of automatic game mode "automatic pathfinding" in China makes sandbox games with "freedom" as the core ignored.
Many domestic gamers seem to be accustomed to the linear game mode and mindless automatic gameplay due to the influence of the big environment. However, with the development and progress of the market, the domestic game industry has gradually entered the stage of refined development, and game developers have begun to turn their attention to improving the quality of games and reducing the user churn rate. Improving the interest of games has naturally become an important goal of research and development, and sandbox games, especially sandbox online games, a unique game type with high degree of freedom, have attracted more and more attention. More and more domestic players have increasingly broadened their horizons and their sense of autonomy has gradually awakened. Some players have begun to have interest and expectation in foreign free and open games, and even tried their best to access foreign servers for the first time.
However, domestic powerful manufacturers naturally grasped the demand trend of players and introduced such games into China through agency, which also exposed domestic players to localized foreign sandbox works. At the same time, some domestic game developers have also begun to exert their efforts to add sandbox elements to their research works or let go of the gameplay. Perhaps these elements are not mature, or even just a conceptual change, but they are of groundbreaking significance to domestic game rice, and also open a brand-new page for the development of sandbox games with "freedom" as the core in China. However, it is undeniable that there is still a long way to go for domestic games to make works that truly fit the concept of sandbox games.
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The development of sandbox games has gone through a long process, from few in the early days to constant controversy, and then to today's blossoming. Until today, many people may not recognize this kind of game, but freedom and exploration are the eternal themes of virtual games. In this sense, sandbox game is the ultimate form of future game development. I believe that with the progress of science and technology, real sandbox games will come in the future.