Let's talk about survival sandbox games

[GIR]

Back when Doom first came out, a flood of copycats followed, and now we have the FPS genre. We’re seeing the same thing happen with Minecraft and its many imitators.

The thing about Minecraft, I think, is that many of its followers do a much better job fleshing out some of Minecraft’s admittedly cobbled-together mechanics. Factorio develops on Minecraft’s redstone automation system, and Terraria blows Minecraft out of the water when it comes to loot gathering and boss progression.

The cool thing is that I think we have yet to see the survival sandbox version of games like Half-life 2 or Halo, that see what makes a particular genre what it is and improves on it in every way.

Of course, it’s also possible that this genre is a fad, like the full motion video games from back in the mid 90s.

 

[HerCrazierHalf]

Survival sandbox games are a tricky thing. They seem to take a lot of time to develop. So much so that they are created by small companies over a long time using an early access/ongoing development model.

I myself like Space Engineers as it has a lot of promise. Unfortunately as an early access game it has been buggy for a long time.

 

[Jared2914]

It should be pretty easy to apply the idea to a FPS game. Minecraft is already in the first-person perspective. The only things needed would be better graphics and a focus on shooting weapons. I’m sure there will be a game like this eventually, but time will tell if its any good. There’s always a balancing act required to have meaningful gameplay without it being too complicated or too boring.

 

[GIR]

It should be pretty easy to apply the idea to a FPS game. Minecraft is already in the first-person perspective. The only things needed would be better graphics and a focus on shooting weapons. I’m sure there will be a game like this eventually, but time will tell if its any good. There’s always a balancing act required to have meaningful gameplay without it being too complicated or too boring.

I wasn’t literally talking about an FPS survival game, although those already exist. I was talking more about the time when these games cease being called “Minecraft clones” and start being seen as members of a distinct genre. Nobody compares every new FPS with the original Doom right out of the gate as they tend to do survival games with Minecraft.

The genre has its pitfalls. The stigma associated with early access games being one. I suppose the tendency to release these games in EA or as open betas is a way for the devs to get free testing, but the downside is that by the time the game is finished it’s also already reached saturation. Everyone who could possibly want to play the game has already played it and moved on.

 

[Jared2914]

I wasn’t literally talking about an FPS survival game, although those already exist. I was talking more about the time when these games cease being called “Minecraft clones” and start being seen as members of a distinct genre. Nobody compares every new FPS with the original Doom right out of the gate as they tend to do survival games with Minecraft.

The genre has its pitfalls. The stigma associated with early access games being one. I suppose the tendency to release these games in EA or as open betas is a way for the devs to get free testing, but the downside is that by the time the game is finished it’s also already reached saturation. Everyone who could possibly want to play the game has already played it and moved on.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I think the genre already exists. People that play games know the sandbox genre, and we can easily find tons of games with the “sandbox” tag on Steam. It’s only the “outsiders” (those who don’t play games like parents, journalists, etc.) that still call them Minecraft clones.