Buildy is a world-building sandbox game written for web browsers.
Single player:
http://playbuildy.com (probably read the bottom section of this post before trying this)
Multiplayer sandbox:
https://gw-v0.playbuildy.com/world?id=527d3c5ead155b31ed905cf0#x=0&y=0&z=0&s=8Or make your own sandbox at
http://playbuildy.com/world/new/creativeIt's currently at a playable pre-alpha stage. We know we have a long way to go. For now, think of it as a building sandbox with a light character simulation on top. Over time, we'll make the simulation deeper and more engaging.
What is this?Buildy is an HTML5 game about building a world. We want you to be able to make just about anything you can imagine. It's been under development for somewhere between one and two years, and we're really excited by how things are going now. Players have placed over two million objects total, and we see cool new stuff from them every day.
We take inspiration primarily from The Sims, Minecraft, Sim City, and LEGO, but the game has major differences with all of them. Scale-wise, Buildy is somewhere between The Sims and Sim City, and more building/creativity-oriented than both. It's is a sandbox like Minecraft, but you're more of a god than an inhabitant, and nothing is trying to kill you.
You should read this dev log if...- You want to give feedback about our game. At this stage, we’re prototyping in high fidelity. Things change a lot, and we’re always interested in criticism.
- You want to follow the design or technology evolution of a game in a unique position: HTML5, deeper than usual for the browser, tiny team, full time development.
- You’re interested in world-building sandbox games.
There are a couple of interesting blog posts from a year ago up at
http://blog.playbuildy.com.
RecapRemember Graffiti for Facebook? If not, I’ll explain: you could draw pictures on Facebook. People drew literally about 100 million pictures. Graffiti was made by a couple of Brandeis students named Mark and Tim, and Tim's brother Ted, and they all had this company called Graffiti Labs. At least, that’s all the information I keep in memory in my role as Employee #1. Or Employee #4, depending on how you look at it.
I’m Steve, and I joined a year ago. In the months before I joined, Graffiti Labs had decided to make a new product, had started working on the new product, and had decided to hire. Since I arrived in October of 2012, we’ve been through a multitude of design and technology changes, trying to build a game that both has widespread appeal and also unleashes players’ creativity.
How the game works right nowPlay the game here:
http://playbuildy.comThe game is set in a 2.5D world — 3D space, isometric viewpoint and perspective, 2D graphics. The world is composed of objects that are drawn by players or contractors. Each object has a 2D drawing and a 3D bounding box. You can build just about anything, though it won’t move.
Our single player game mode begins with a world covered in concrete, with a single character in their single house in a tiny green space. The player’s goal is to expand the livable world and build a community of tiny block-headed citizens. Each citizen has a basic simulation of happiness based on the existence of stuff they like.
You can take screenshots for the “Academy of Greatness,” and other players will vote up your screenshots if they look good. The more votes you get, the happier your citizens will be in that area.
We're currently in the midst of game design sessions to nail down the next round of gameplay changes. If you have a “Wouldn't it be cool if...”-style thought, I'd love to hear it.
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