This week, Digitalchumps was privy to a preview of The Sandbox’s Alpha Season Six upcoming gaming experiences. If you’re not familiar with The Sandbox, it is an online game that is driven by user content, and sometimes from existing IP. Think of a fancier, more well-thought-through Roblox, and you get the picture.
Anyway, during this preview for Alpha Season Six, the devs showed three specific games based on existing IPs, and they were quite the mix. The three different gaming experiences were based on King Kong of Skull Island, Peaky Blinders, and Love Island. Each brought its own personality and gameplay design to The Sandbox table while maintaining what made the IPs special.
Now, why did they choose these three very different IPs? Well, we asked that, and the devs’ response was:
“We’re always exploring new ways to work with IP and brand partners to create experiences that appeal to The Sandbox’s global player base while also piquing the curiosity of their fans, opening the platform to new audiences.
Many factors inform our decision to work with brands, including cultural relevance and popularity, their interest in bringing their IP onto a new platform—which requires brand adaptation and unlocks new possibilities not available in the real world—and whether the story or lore behind the IP creates a strong foundation for gameplay experiences.
We then mix and match different IPs each season, allowing us to offer a breadth of content over the course of the multi-week event that appeals to our global user base while ensuring the content still aligns with the macro theme.”
A fair and interesting response, and, at least on the business side of the tracks, makes complete sense for the sustainability of a gaming product designed like The Sandbox is built. Considering that most gamers have the attention span of a gnat these days, having an ever-evolving platform that plays off popular IPs constantly only bodes well for the future of the platform.
Speaking of IPs, let’s talk about them.
King Kong of Skull Island
The first game that The Sandbox folks dove into was King Kong of Skull Island. Rather than beginning the story of Kong in a typical 1920s or later setting, the gameplay was set in the pre-King Kong era in New York City. This meant early King Kong at his homestead, still ruling the roost on Skull Island. This allowed the devs to harken back to older ideas that were presented during the RKO days of the King Kong-mania, which fit nicely into an unrestricted adventure.
Anyway, the user plays as a pirate looking for treasure on Skull Island and must navigate hazards, such as puzzles and large killer lizards, as well as strategize and plan the snagging of said treasure from the giant, famous ape. The gameplay doesn’t push too hard back at the player, meaning you’re not going to be put through The Witness-like puzzles or have overly difficult enemies to go up against. That would be a survival horror experience, and this isn’t the place to have that.
Instead, the gameplay relies on a hefty amount of exploring, gathering, and crafting, which helps players get through all manner of obstacles. For example, your character can gather items to create a lizard repellent, which allows you to sneak by large and terrible raptor-esque lizards. By crafting such an item gathered by goodies found during exploration, the game makes the experience more about survival rather than conquering the land. It’s a solid theme considering the content because in the RKO, Universal Studios, and even the more recent takes of Kong and his cohorts, it was purely about surviving the environment.
To add more than just collecting, crafting, and survival, the game also features a good dose of mystery with notes left by unsuccessful pirates, and familiar moments from the King Kong brand, such as the Kong and T. rex fight in the jungle for dominance. The devs did a great job of putting in the right elements and going through the right steps to bring that King Kong action to life. In addition, they sprinkled in a hefty dose of drama and intensity, so much that being on that island seems to create a severe lack of player comfort. Again, it makes sense considering the content.
At the very least, it was a cool opening to a preview.
Peaky Blinders – Garrison Lane
In full transparency, this IP inclusion confused me the most. The Sandbox seems like it would be geared toward a younger audience, and if so, what younger audience watches Peaky Blinders? Great series? Heck, yeah. Made for kids? Heck, no. But in the devs’ defense, if you’re trying to expand your audience and demographic, sometimes you have to teeter on adult themes.
Thus, Peaky Blinders.
The game is set in post-season one Peaky Blinders, and you play as a character who is dying to do whatever it takes to be in the PB gang. The game puts the player into missions that involve moments like taking out a rival gang, avoiding the police at all costs, and fighting your way through moments to help build up your credibility and bank account.
The purpose of the game is to get accepted into the PB gang. To do this, players have to build up their reputations with the locals, gain money and spend it with local stores, and slowly but surely build out their PB wardrobe to become one of the members. While gambling was mentioned during the preview, everyone was reassured that it’s not encouraging such an act. No one needs to encourage that to a younger audience, but tiptoeing that line should be fine. Games do it all the time.
This portion of the preview reminded me of a far more innocent version of Grand Theft Auto, where the intentions of crime and ganghood exist, but there are no GTA actions to be found during the gameplay experience. It’s a solid trade considering the content and how it needed to be treated to fit nicely into The Sandbox theme.
You gotta love the effort. Speaking of love…
Love Island – Love Extravaganza
What should someone make of this IP? On television, I would avoid it like the plague. For The Sandbox gaming platform? It’s interesting because of its potential branching narrative. I’m a sucker for branching gaming.
Anyway, the game follows along with the television show. I learned during the preview that it was also an extension of a previous Sandbox season (four), with the same driven purpose – winning over someone’s heart.
If only it were that innocent on television.
Getting back to the game, the purpose of the game is to influence potential love interests through dialogue and actions. The dialogue is self-explanatory, as chatting with future loves means you get details about what interests they may have. This could include flowers they like, meals they enjoy, and basically anything that you should actually think about when you’re trying to date someone. It’s nice to get to know people.
Now, the gameplay items you shouldn’t use to date in real life…screwing someone over so that people will turn on them. Having information about people in the game means that you can use it against others to drum up a bad image of love rivals. That aspect is intriguing, as openly backstabbing someone in a game usually comes in droplets and not giant waves (see Skyrim for details).
Anyhoo, getting the upper hand through dialogue and clues in the game will mean that you have a greater chance of winning the person of your dream’s heart. And you will have to choose a person and hope your efforts to win them over were enough by the end of the experience. This portion of the preview seemed ridiculous and fun. All of it is supported by goofy environments and silly trials/missions. I have a feeling this one might be the most popular out of the trio.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this preview.
Until then
The Sandbox Alpha Season Six looks like it’s going to have a variety of interesting IPs made into potentially successful gaming experiences, at least the preview proved the well-thought-through gameplay structure for each IP. Hopefully, they’ll be complicated and fun enough to create some solid gameplay longevity.
We’ll see when they release in the next couple of months.
Until then, we’ll keep you posted.