discussion Never really understood why devs make sandboxs, the concept is a failure yet they keep doing it.

[User_109578]

I Think Sandbox can be interesting, IF everytime you do something you get a different result, until the last time or so...
But often I see you need to do something more often to increase some fictive internal number, if you cannot see that number, sandbox gets irritating very fast.

Some kind of message, he you finished this here, go f somewhere else... Wouldn't be a bad idea.
So you don't have 3 or more woman that you constantly need to make drunk for some number to reach the point where they will do something. That gets irritating very fast...

And then we have the constant number of devs that give up on there games, so we never know...
I'm happy that most of those games are ren'py, so you can extract the .rpa files and look at the images to see if you missed something...

 

[elfieeven]

Bad Memories does this well actually.. its only really used for travelling though so you can skip events if you want. Also makes it a little more interactive which improves the feeling that you're in the game world.

 

[dereguedeixe]

Sandbox games that just make you walk around the house are great and really immersive, but the ones that make you travel 50 times around the world for a small chat with someone make it feel like a waste of time

 

[nerocic]

My opinion is that they are a failure and that they break immersion, point and click on the other hand are a very nice addition to visual novels.

The problem isn't the sandbox system itself, but that most developers don't know how to use it. For example, in "Being a DIK," there is a part where you LITERALLY HAVE TO WATER 14 PLANTS THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE HOUSE... just... what's the point of that?

 

[Melnik]

Sandbox can be seperated in: 1. It is lazy(like 98% of games) or 2. It is really good

 

[Ribaso]

Sandbox requires a built-in walkthrough, otherwise it's just pain in the rear end...and I didn't mention grinding even yet, it's a bigger pain.

 

[meiistheworst]

They keep showing up because theres a couple times its been done REALLY well, its rare as hell though I think

 

[Mrjayded]

I like earning my way to some sort of satisfaction. That's my favorite game. Doesn't need to be overly complex but should supply a system where I feel like I earned the booty

 

[USER_6969]

My opinion is that they are a failure and that they break immersion, point and click on the other hand are a very nice addition to visual novels.

Well your opinion is wrong, I have play lots of great sandbox games.

 

[Zack49]

It never ceases to amaze me, how many people on sites like this demand developers cater to their likes and dislikes!

Leaving aside the autors that make a game because they can, want and dont have any other goal ... well you need to have a public for a product, in this case a game, so to some extent you have to take into account what the people want, otherwise your product will fail, no matter how much effort or time you put in those, so post making points of what people want is something that will always happend as long as there is a free way to comment, or rather it surprises me more that you are amazed by this repetead pattern

 

[Zack49]

I guess because they need to make some "time" to make content whetever be animations, cg or the story itself, and what better way is that to have the search for the "hidden" content or farm the wharever points/currency, in the past where there was not a lot of games it was a welcome dinamic, because ... well there was no other game that you wanted to play or the like, now giving the saturation of games, honestly people cant be bothered to do this, since you could be reading another good story or searching one with good scenes, reason the mechanic fails to appeal, nonetheless the developers need to have time remains, so they keep implementing the unwelcome "gameplay".

 

[zclcr13]

Some games don't need to be sandbox.

 

[WigglyWorld84]

Where else you gonna shit?

 

[TheVampirate]

My opinion is that they are a failure and that they break immersion, point and click on the other hand are a very nice addition to visual novels.

Point and click are most often features of sandbox games less so for VN. Also most VN have very limited control of what your character does and that is a failure that breaks immersion too. The answer is to figure out how to make a system that matches your game/story and often sandbox is the way to do that best. Problems with overworld navigation and bloat are bad but so is a never ending skipfest that most VN turn into. Mall Creeps is a fairly good example of a game that blends VN and Sandbox elements but as time has gone on I feel like its starting to get more and more issues with the sandbox/point-and-click half of the game.

 

[Animal_OG]

My opinion is that they are a failure and that they break immersion, point and click on the other hand are a very nice addition to visual novels.

It's supply and demand though: If devs are getting paid for doing sandboxes they'll keep doing it.

 

[TheVampirate]

It's supply and demand though: If devs are getting paid for doing sandboxes they'll keep doing it.

Ya Sandboxes in general are much more complicated to program compared to just following a script but there's a ton of people who want a porn game and not a porn book/comic that has interactions every 15 minutes of reading.

 

[DrewA785]

Ya Sandboxes in general are much more complicated to program compared to just following a script but there's a ton of people who want a porn game and not a porn book/comic that has interactions every 15 minutes of reading.

Sandboxes are fine if they are done well. Too many devs use sandbox as a time killer to make their games seem longer than they are. You have to hunt for content and play a guessing game as to where it is.

Good Sandboxes give you direction to cultivate the kind of experience you want to play. Not be a time waster.

 

[TheVampirate]

Sandboxes are fine if they are done well. Too many devs use sandbox as a time killer to make their games seem longer than they are. You have to hunt for content and play a guessing game as to where it is.

Good Sandboxes give you direction to cultivate the kind of experience you want to play. Not be a time waster.

100% agree with everything you said. I find the idea that 'sandboxes are a failure' kind of insane when way more than half of the big successful games in this genre are sandbox games. There are some people who have made their mark by writing really good stories but in general i'd say that VN's are essentially failed concepts and I cant think of any Modern VN's that are very popular where you have minimal control over the story. Even the best VN's, Fate//Stay Night for example, have tons of branching paths and decisions and those kind of games are DEAD and the modern VN have become skip to next choice kind of games only pausing for a few renders when they involve the 1 or 2 characters I give a shit about.

 

[rikari]

It depends on the game. Some games have a good kind of grind and are very interesitng to play.

 

[JethroHatfield]

I look at it as they're trying to invent a better mousetrap. They see and acknowledge the failures and want to try to do it better, try to do it right. But in the end ultimately falling to the same pitfalls as those that came before