What makes a good adult Sandbox game?

[Synthetic Rush]

I remember reading a comment somewhere which described adult sandbox games as being "Porn Skinner boxes". All sandbox games have a few features in common, such as a semi-open world, or a time/money system. Some might get a little more complex and include mini-games and RPG mechanics.

In doing research for a potential future project, I've been wondering - what do you think makes these games enjoyable. Is it game mechanics? A compelling story? What do you think are the best/worst games in this genre?

 

[Danv]

VN mode

 

[Living In A Lewd World]

The headmaster is one of my favourites game and it has basically everything, I expect from a very good sandbox game:

• Interesting protagonists with conflicting, diverse and consistent characters/personalities
• Characters of Protagonist change based on meaningful events and not just because it seems useful.
• One or multiple plotlines that give the world meaning
• Rather a small but meaningful world (regarding places as well as time slots), that feels full of adventures than a big map and multiple time slots where you have to search for the one next step that is necessary to progess the plot
• If there is some complexity => a good walkthrough system, so that it is always easy to find the next step when one gets stuck – while the headmaster has a simple map system and a short daily cycle, where the majority of the events happen, it can nevertheless become complex, when you e.g. have to buy something in the ingame-onlineshop to progress the plot.
• Decent looking Images and good image and scene composition
  (I personally prefer semi-realistic 3D-images like HS or DAZ, but that's really a matter of personal taste, others would surely think different)

 

[Brosewood]

For the sandbox to have a point.

That's it. That's the big secret.

Don't give me a bunch of menus and crap just to have a linear story. Give me a reason to explore and go to locations. Make me engage with your world.

The other issues sandbox games have are too much grind and being overly delicate over timing. Whilst a little grind is fine, it's frustrating than having to do the same thing over and over and over for seemingly little result. Even worse is missing out on a love interest because you weren't at a specific place at a specific time, especially when you have numerous LIs.

I think a good example of sandbox done well is Course of Temptation. There is a genuine reason to engage with the world and there are so many paths to explore. You can become just about any mix of athlete, streamer, slut, party animal, nerd, etc.

 

[Synthetic Rush]

For the sandbox to have a point.

That's it. That's the big secret.

Don't give me a bunch of menus and crap just to have a linear story. Give me a reason to explore and go to locations. Make me engage with your world.

The other issues sandbox games have are too much grind and being overly delicate over timing. Whilst a little grind is fine, it's frustrating than having to do the same thing over and over and over for seemingly little result. Even worse is missing out on a love interest because you weren't at a specific place at a specific time, especially when you have numerous LIs.

I think a good example of sandbox done well is Course of Temptation. There is a genuine reason to engage with the world and there are so many paths to explore. You can become just about any mix of athlete, streamer, slut, party animal, nerd, etc.

Excessive grind is also a big gripe of mine. I haven't heard of Course of Temptation before, thanks for the recommendation!

 

[NeonSelf]

For me sandbox is when the game has replayability and immersion.

- Sex scenes are repeatable through gameplay, not gallery. Sometimes I return to playing sandbox games just to repeat some good scenes even after completing all the story lines. For example: inviting a specific girl to my dorm in rogue-like:evolution.

- Randomness. Every playthough is a bit different, because of random events and encounters. The simplest example: the imperial gatekeeper, where every day different random people pass through your checkpoint.

- Customization. I can change how my girls look or talk to me. Buy new clothes or work on relationship to change their behavior. One great example: Masters of RAANA. In this game you can capture a new slave, train her, change her outfit and role in the household.

- Gameplay loop. Core mechanic for all sandboxes. Usually its just living a normal day: wake up, work\study\explore, have a date with someone at the evening and go to sleep. That means infinite chances to succeed in any event. No problem if my stat check has failed or I had no money to proceed the date - I can try another day.

Sometimes I see a VN called 'sandbox' but its not, becuse it has no gameplay loop, just a fixed number of choices in predefined order. Its always a disappointing discovery, because I cant 'live' inside the game. It becomes a finite book with branching choices and fixed final scene.

Sandbox is great, because I dont need to complete it, while its also possible to keep playing after finishing all the quests.

 

[tooldev]

I can already see the typical confusion between open-world and sandbox here. Both can be part of a single game, but each is it's own genre.

Open-world simply means that the player gets more individual freedom to move around, less railing of the player in short. This does not mean that it is non-linear. Example: Fallout 4 seems to be open-world, but quest are still linear and require a sequence of steps.

Sandbox on the other hand means that the player is provided with a bunch of mechanics and it is up to the player to use and combine them in such a way, that they can achieve some form of goal. Typically this goal is not given by the game itself, but there are exceptions to this rule too. Same example: Fallout 4 offers vast possibilities to mod weapons, to build settlements, to modify equipment in general. The outcome of actions is changed heavily by those mechanics while the overall arc is still a linear quest in most cases. So these mechanics allow the player to sandbox its own environment, equipment etc.


With all of this out of the way:
A good adult sandbox game has proper and enjoyable mechanics. That can be something so simple as collection all the girls for a harem (makes completionists happy), the ability to cloth or modify them individually, the ability to form ones player character in many different ways via a deep skill or trait system (this can be applied to the 'sluts' as well). Mechanics - you need those and they have to be well done, can be repetitive but shouldnt be ending in a total grind. Good mechanics are usually those who combine stable calculations mixed with a good sense of randomness.

P.S. One of the best examples of a well made sandbox adult game is still Free Cities in my book. It has mechanics, it allows for a variety of goals for the player, it has all the lewd stuff one could imagine (add some mod and even age restrictions etc are gone). It uses tech that allows for 'relatively' simple modding as well.

 

[Spankymcspanky]

For me, it's all about how interesting the story maybe which will allow me to enjoy the sandbox side of it. If there is next to no story and just doing random shit over and over then it's a waste of time for me.

The original version of My New Life was probably the best I had experienced.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Well, the issue that all sandbox (as defined by tags) games have is to be released updates after updates.

Such games worth being played only if, and therefore when, there's content concurrently available in more than one location. Something that is difficult, but not impossible, to do when you release your game by updates. Either you add a worthy enough amount of content by update, and it will only interest a part of the players, or you release content that will interest all players, but then the update will be played really fast.
It's not an unavoidable fate, but it need to radically change your development process and, of course, it lead to more times between two updates.

A game that achieved to do it not too badly, while in the same time relying on a real sandbox mechanism, is Super Powered. There were too much grinding, but globally it have everything that is needed:

• Content available in most place;
• Place that were not always filled by the same character(s);
• Content that evolve through time;
• A variety of content;
• Most scenes that were renewed, depending on the previous actions.

But the flaws were also present:

• It needed 6 years to reach it final state, and the game is in fact not finished; it just have an acceptable closing scene;
• The game stopped to fell empty only after one and half year of development;
• The lewd content was mostly really limited in size, with many small scenes and only few big ones;
• The delay between two updates was relatively long (for its time);
• There's more than 200 hundred identified subtle bugs.

The rest have been addressed by the previous answers, so I'll stop here.

 

[Synthetic Rush]

Well, the issue that all sandbox (as defined by tags) games have is to be released updates after updates.

Such games worth being played only if, and therefore when, there's content concurrently available in more than one location. Something that is difficult, but not impossible, to do when you release your game by updates. Either you add a worthy enough amount of content by update, and it will only interest a part of the players, or you release content that will interest all players, but then the update will be played really fast.
It's not an unavoidable fate, but it need to radically change your development process and, of course, it lead to more times between two updates.

A game that achieved to do it not too badly, while in the same time relying on a real sandbox mechanism, is Super Powered. There were too much grinding, but globally it have everything that is needed:

• Content available in most place;
• Place that were not always filled by the same character(s);
• Content that evolve through time;
• A variety of content;
• Most scenes that were renewed, depending on the previous actions.

But the flaws were also present:

• It needed 6 years to reach it final state, and the game is in fact not finished; it just have an acceptable closing scene;
• The game stopped to fell empty only after one and half year of development;
• The lewd content was mostly really limited in size, with many small scenes and only few big ones;
• The delay between two updates was relatively long (for its time);
• There's more than 200 hundred identified subtle bugs.

The rest have been addressed by the previous answers, so I'll stop here.

Sounds like an issue of building a huge game world that teases many possible locations and paths, but not filling it with enough content fast enough. A more narrow focus (having the sandbox take place in a smaller area with fewer characters for example), might help prevent this.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Sounds like an issue of building a huge game world that teases many possible locations and paths, but not filling it with enough content fast enough. A more narrow focus (having the sandbox take place in a smaller area with fewer characters for example), might help prevent this.

For the amount of area, yes, but paradoxically the more characters you have, the better it will be, especially at first.
It's that number of characters compensate for the lack of actions in the few first updates. You can only talk with the characters, and will probably have only one or two topics for the discussions, but like the character at "this location" will change every time, it will feel less empty than it actually is.

The other key for a good "sandbox" (once again as defined by the tags) game is to delay the moment when you actually jump into the main story. You introduce it in the very first release, then mostly discard it until there's enough side content. That way, players will feel less frustrated to have to restart the game with each updates during the first, or two firsts, year(s) of development. Then, when you finally go back to the main story, there's enough side content for the "sandbox" part to not feel empty, even if there's only few new content on that part.
Because, in the end, the main complaint heard when it come to that kind of game is that feeling of emptiness. Many places, even when the number is limited, for near to no content; you pass more time searching for the content than actually playing it.

And, on a more practical side, devs who really want to make a "sandbox" game shouldn't be afraid to create more content than what they'll release in an update. It obviously depend on their capabilities and availability, but globally once they advance on the main story, a fourth of their time should be used to create content that will wait on their computer. That content being the said side content.
This way, all their updates feel consistent. When it's an update that advance in the main story, the player will feel that there's really something new. And when it's an update purely dedicated to the "sandbox" content, it will include everything they created but haven't released yet. Therefore, there will be new content for every girls, in every possible locations.

 

[Jaike]

A good reason that it is a sandbox in the first place. "I need enough grind to hide the lack of any content whatever" is a horrible reason, btw.

The core gameplay loop should be something that's fun to do.

Minigames should be fun or optional.

Enough "surprise" events (not stuff you do deliberately to advance the plot) to make the game feel alive. If they are repeatable events there should be enough variations.

No "you can only advance this plotline 1 timeslot in the week" events so you have to skip a week if you missed it.

(A good plot and good writing can't hurt either. At least if it's very VN-like.)

 

[Erosoft]

The chief aspect of a good sandbox is

You must be registered to see the links

.

The draw of a sandbox game is freedom. In a sandbox eroge, I don’t want to be railroaded into a handful of scripted interactions or predetermined paths. I want to experiment, push boundaries, see how the game world reacts. I want to craft my own unique story that's determined by how I play the game. Could be H-ing an NPC in a way the developers didn’t anticipate, discovering unexpected synergies between game systems, or creating completely new scenarios through problem-solving. The fun comes from the feeling of agency and discovery.

I personally believe the "sandbox" tag is incredibly overused. Oftentimes you will see rather linear games that slap the tag on just because they have an open world.