Reviews - Fredashay

I've tried a bunch of game making software over the past week, and so far Sandbox is the only one that I've gotten as far into as being able to actually start creating a level. Some AAA commercial products crash upon starting or just won't start at all, or claim to have a free trial period but won't start at all unless you purchase a registration key.

With Sandbox, I was able to launch it and start altering the terrain and changing textures on it almost immediately. It's really fast and smooth, too. I was getting between 50 and 60 fps on my mid-range PC running around the first level I made in game mode.

But every silver lining has its cloud. Its user interface is downright user hostile. It's not intuitive from the splash screen how to load a map you created and saved the previous day (to save a map just click on SAVE AS, but to load a map you have to go into the console and type a command...it took watching several YT tutorial videos to be told about this). Also, the game I want to make is more of a simulator. But when you create a new map, you have to choose between FPS or a RPG, so your character runs around pointing a gun at everyone or has a big ugly HP and MP power bar at the bottom of the screen. I know there's a way to turn the HUD off altogether, but it's far from intuitive how, and I haven't come across the particular tutorial video on YT on how to do it yet. I know and expect that software as complex as this will have a steep learning curve, but these simple details like the UI not being able to load a saved map, and lacking a simple menu to select the HUD for the type of game you're making is a pretty obvious design oversight.

So I'm giving it an 8 simply because it works, is reliable, is fast, and is free, but docking it 2 for the user-hostile UI.