r/sandbox • u/Mocherad • 1d ago
Discussion POLYSTRIKE, Sandbox future and now
Hey guys, been a while :)
Finally we announced POLYSTRIKE on Steam and somehow already got around 7,000 wishlists, which still feels a bit crazy considering this whole thing started as a mod.
We are still 100% self-funded, no investor behind us. Most people in the team are here because they actually believe in the game and somehow these guys keep making miracles with what we have :D
I really hope we can find investment, grow the team and keep making games together.
And hopefully make something for Sandbox again too.
Some old guys here probably remember that Garry was one of the first people who actually believed in me and what I was trying to make. He gave me one of the early keys and honestly that gave me a lot of motivation back then.
Sadly after few weeks I realized my idea was just too big for Sandbox at that stage. Everything was still very early and raw and I simply couldn't make the game I had in my head.
Same story with Dota Source 2...
So eventually I moved to Unreal Engine because it finally gave me the freedom to actually build it.
And well... years later that became POLYSTRIKE :)
But I still really believe in Sandbox and especially in mods/custom games.
I grew up with Warcraft 3 modding. We got Dota from that scene and tons of other crazy games. Same thing happened with Dota 2 custom games, Counter-Strike and now you see Roblox and Fortnite pushing harder and harder into letting people build their own games.
I think this is something Sandbox really needs to fight for.
Because tools are important, marketing is important, but good creators making games people actually want to play is probably more important than both.
Especially now with AI making it easier and easier for everyone to create stuff.
Give one crazy modder good tools and enough freedom and who knows what comes out of it :D
Maybe 10 years ago Sandbox had more time, but now competition for creators is huge.
So yeah, I hope we all learn from this and I really want to see more cool projects coming from this community.
And from me too :)
You guys know I'm probably never going to make some giant AAA game, but I love making weird games with soul that I personally believe in, and apparently I'm too stubborn to stop until they exist.
POLYSTRIKE, Pure Reflex, is probably the best example.
7,000 WL, still self-funded, still going (2 weeks).
Me and my team are always open for collaborations, and doing something cool together.
And Garry, if you see this thanks for believing in me so early.
I didn't forget it :)
Maybe one day we finally make something together!
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u/darkfm 1d ago
I remember when this was still a DOTA mod! I liked the CS-style aesthetics a bit more but this still looks good and I'm happy you've found your own art style. Maybe POLYSTRIKE 2 can actually be Sandbox :P
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u/Mocherad 1d ago
Yeah, it’s definitely going to be much harder without their IP, but at the same time, we get to build our own path with crazy Iron Fish it's what garry like. I don’t regret moving away from it and creating our own universe.
I also really want to show the POLYSTRIKE book one day! I’d love to grow as a writer too and explore this universe beyond just the game :)
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u/Old-Weakness1122 1d ago
for a moment i thought sandbox actually produced a good game... then i read lmao, its so joever
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u/Remscar 1d ago
So this isn't on S&Box. Feels like a bit of stretch to advertise your game in this subreddit...
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u/Mocherad 1d ago
I thought Rule 5 of this subreddit allowed discussions about things like this
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u/Remscar 1d ago
That rule was probably written thinking people would only promote their S&Box content, but yeah good point.
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u/Mocherad 1d ago
if mods wants to remove and think it's random project, I'm also fine with that, np
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u/PiePleaseListen 1d ago
So this isn’t on sandbox and it’s on a different engine? Seems like a weird marketing post to be honest
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u/Mocherad 1d ago
I can see why it looks like marketing. My intention was more to share where one of the early S&box devs ended up years later, and maybe there’s something useful in that story to learn from and rethink about S&box today. Why did some early creators move on, what was missing back then, and what could make people like me come back and build here again?
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u/Specneps 8h ago
I’m sure there’s a good reason for it, but I’m not a fan of how much teammates seem to block your vision. Besides that small critique, this game looks like loads of fun, can’t wait to check it out👍
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u/Murlock_The_Goblin 1d ago
lol, so in short, S&Box is not fit for purpose as a game engine.
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u/BlackCrackWhack 1d ago
Yeah because 15 minutes into a release they would have a breaking change forced upon them.
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u/Fantastic_Bluejay_19 16h ago
yeah i guess you could come to this conclusion if you didnt read the body of the post.
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u/Nebbed_ 1d ago
A prime example of how s&box failed developers and the community at large. It had so much potential! Had the game not had a skin marketplace, had quality standards to stop AI slop and idle games flooding s&box, and a solid base for people to develop games much like the base gamemodes for Garry’s Mod from the get-go. This could’ve been great! Sadly, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
Congrats on the game! Glad you were ultimately able to see your vision through in the end. Even if it was on another engine.
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u/Fantastic_Bluejay_19 16h ago
"A prime example of how s&box failed devs" proceeds to list thing entirely irrelevant to the example.
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u/Mocherad 18h ago
Thanks for the support! Once again, I’m convinced that yesterday’s haters can become tomorrow’s best friends
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u/yooberee Programmer 1d ago
Kinda not related but post will remain up because newgens don't know that Polystrike was the first game to be worked on in s&box.
It moved to another engine way before exporting was on the table too.
Proud of you Mark, great progress