Grab your bucket and spade!
When you were a kid, “sandbox” meant “small plastic box, usually full of sand and ants, which lets you pretend you’re at the beach even though you’re in a nursery down the road from your parents’ workplace”. As an adult, “sandbox” either means “a game that lets you choose most of your goals” or “ant-filled nightmare that gets your child all gritty”, depending on whether or not you have kids.
Don’t worry. Today, we’re focusing on sandbox-as-in-video-game, a genre of entertainment in which most of the enjoyment is derived from setting your own targets. Sandboxes range from the no-direction-at-all end of the spectrum, like Garry’s Mod (a PC-only asset toybox), through the some-direction games like Minecraft and Astroneer, all the way to games that hold your hand or guide you a lot more towards goals, like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
