Raph Koster

SEPTEMBER 1, 2022

I just watched a couple of videos about sandbox vs themepark games (in particular one by NerdSlayer and another by Josh “Strife” Hayes )… One thing that struck me about the ways players often talk about this (because at this point the history is so old) is that people think of sandbox as the older version of MMOs, and themeparks as newer.

Sandbox 59

Sandbox Simulation Content Scripting 59

Deconstructor of Fun

NOVEMBER 4, 2024

The company has developed two mobile titles— Word Tiles Puzzle: Word Search and Restaurant Tycoon. The studio raised $25m in Oct’24 to develop a narrative sandbox game based on an original IP. While neither became widely popular, they generated around 1.4 million downloads collectively.

Mobile 52

Mobile Mobile Studios Mobile Gaming 52

Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 17, 2023

When looking at time spent in games, Creative Sandbox games such as Roblox and Minecraft dominate growth in many markets. Overall, in the key Western markets, MMORPGs, Roguelikes, Merge and Puzzle genres largely bucked the recession in terms of revenue. The lockdowns over 2020 and 2021 significantly increased time on a device.

Mobile Gaming 52

Mobile Gaming Mobile Mobile Sandbox 52

Grid Sage Games

JULY 17, 2022

While some players enjoy puzzling out creative ways to get ahead, at the extreme end it eventually devolves into optimal tedium which is overall harmful to the experience. Some concepts: More enemies could show up?

Beta 52

Beta Content Balance Mechanics 52