WorldBox

Submission 5,392

About

WorldBox is a god simulator sandbox video game in which the player is able to watch groups of humans socially and technologically evolve, explore and fight each other over periods of time, with the player setting only the initial parameters for their world and creatures in it. Originally a flash game released on Newgrounds in 2012, the game was released for mobile devices in 2018 and entered early access on Steam in 2021.

History

On September 24th, 2012, developer Maxim "Kendja" Karpenko released their prototype for a god simulator sandbox video game WorldBox on Newgrounds.^[1] The game was viewed over 337,000 times and favorited over 1,000 times in eleven years.

In 2017, Karpenko returned to the project, releasing the game for Android in September 2018 and iOS for December 16th, 2018.^[2] On January 3rd, 2021, the official trailer for the game was released on YouTube,^[3] where it accumulated over 14 million views in two years.

On December 2nd, 2021, the game was released in early access on Steam.^[4]

Gameplay and Features

WorldBox is a god simulator game in which player mainly exists as an observer of the events he sets in motion. Before the game starts, the player can customize the future world and its inhabitants, changing the geography and tweaking various parameters such as assigning traits to humans and other creatures. The player can direct the flow of the game by spawning various creatures and setting off natural disasters.

Reception

The game was met with positive reviews both on mobile platforms and on PC. On Android,^[5] the game was downloaded over 10 million times and maintained a rating of 4.7 with over 670,000 reviews as of August 2023. On iOS,^[6] the game had a rating over 4.7 with over 49,000 reviews. On Steam, the game had a "Very Positive" (94% approval) rating with over 22,300 user reviews.

Fandom

Since its release in 2018, WorldBox had amassed a significant following across Discord^[7] and Reddit. The subreddit /r/Worldbox^[8] had over 106,000 subscribers as of August 2023, with Redditors sharing memes, fan art and other fan labor dedicated to the game (examples shown below).

On YouTube, multiple videos in which players experimented with various setups, including scenarios in which civilizations had to survive for extended periods of time, went viral following the game's release on PC. For example, on January 20th, 2022, YouTube^[9] channel Let's Game It Out posted a Let's Play video that received over 10 million views in two years (shown below, left).