{"slug": "s-box", "name": "S&box", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 8, "warners": 1, "score": 3.464, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2025-11-26", "latest": "2026-07-24", "why": "", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "sbox.game", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://sbox.game", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["S&box", "s&box", "S&Box"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 784704336, "item_id": 49044021, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49044021", "by": "kidfiji", "date": "2026-07-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "That\u2019s kind of the goal of S&Box, no?", "excerpt": "That\u2019s kind of the goal of S&Box, no? https://sbox.game", "context": "", "use_case": "Game engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Half-Life 2 running natively on HaikuOS"}, {"id": 767908928, "item_id": 47994308, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47994308", "by": "Reubend", "date": "2026-05-03", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Wow, I love that realtime finance dashboard.", "excerpt": "Wow, I love that realtime finance dashboard. It's a bold move to share that all publicly.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Facepunch launches s&box, the highly anticipated successor to Garry's Mod"}, {"id": 764209921, "item_id": 47763120, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47763120", "by": "throwatdem12311", "date": "2026-04-14", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I will be checking out S&box", "excerpt": "My 6 year old likes to make basic obstacle course games and I help him with the coding. There is ZERO chance I\u2019m doing ID verification or paying a subscription. The entire reason we liked this platform was there was barely any friction. I will be checking out S&box by the creator of Garry\u2019s mod as an alternative: https://sbox.game/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Roblox devs now need a subscription to share their games freely"}, {"id": 736932576, "item_id": 46058286, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46058286", "by": "wvbdmp", "date": "2025-11-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Definitely seems like a very dope move, though.", "excerpt": "They call this \u201ca game engine built on Source 2\u201d, and their own C# code is MIT licensed here, but I\u2019m still not sure for what exactly this can be used? It\u2019s my understanding that S&box still has major Source 2 dependencies, right? Their docs say >S&box is coded in C#. Under the hood, it uses the Source 2 engine and some of its systems: rendering, resources, physics, and audio. https://sbox.game/dev/doc/ Surely one ca", "context": "", "use_case": "Game engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "S&Box"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 737013328, "item_id": 46063333, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46063333", "by": "qingcharles", "date": "2025-11-26", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I really feel like that name is going to cause them issues", "excerpt": "I really feel like that name is going to cause them issues with the other game builder with the same name: https://www.sandbox.game/en/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "S&box is now an open source game engine"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["game engine"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46061682", "title": "S&box is now an open source game engine", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47991005", "title": "Facepunch launches s&box, the highly anticipated successor to Garry's Mod", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49034868", "title": "Half-Life 2 running natively on HaikuOS", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47761825", "title": "Roblox devs now need a subscription to share their games freely", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46051478", "title": "S&Box", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 2, "warn": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 784704336, "item_id": 49044021, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49044021", "by": "kidfiji", "date": "2026-07-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "That\u2019s kind of the goal of S&Box, no?", "excerpt": "That\u2019s kind of the goal of S&Box, no? https://sbox.game", "context": "", "use_case": "Game engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Half-Life 2 running natively on HaikuOS"}, {"id": 767908928, "item_id": 47994308, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47994308", "by": "Reubend", "date": "2026-05-03", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Wow, I love that realtime finance dashboard.", "excerpt": "Wow, I love that realtime finance dashboard. It's a bold move to share that all publicly.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Facepunch launches s&box, the highly anticipated successor to Garry's Mod"}, {"id": 767856400, "item_id": 47991025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47991025", "by": "embedding-shape", "date": "2026-05-02", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "The game itself is open source (https://github.com/Facepunch/sbox-public)", "excerpt": "The game itself is open source (https://github.com/Facepunch/sbox-public) and been in development for quite some time, but finally \"launched\" ~1 week ago. You can even see their finances from the launch :) https://sbox.game/metrics/finance", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Facepunch launches s&box, the highly anticipated successor to Garry's Mod"}, {"id": 764209921, "item_id": 47763120, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47763120", "by": "throwatdem12311", "date": "2026-04-14", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I will be checking out S&box", "excerpt": "My 6 year old likes to make basic obstacle course games and I help him with the coding. There is ZERO chance I\u2019m doing ID verification or paying a subscription. The entire reason we liked this platform was there was barely any friction. I will be checking out S&box by the creator of Garry\u2019s mod as an alternative: https://sbox.game/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Roblox devs now need a subscription to share their games freely"}, {"id": 737013328, "item_id": 46063333, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46063333", "by": "qingcharles", "date": "2025-11-26", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I really feel like that name is going to cause them issues", "excerpt": "I really feel like that name is going to cause them issues with the other game builder with the same name: https://www.sandbox.game/en/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "S&box is now an open source game engine"}, {"id": 737008496, "item_id": 46063031, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46063031", "by": "adito", "date": "2025-11-26", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Oh, you mean Rust (the game[1]), not Rust (programming language[2]). [1]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/252490/Rust/ [2]: https://rust-lang.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "S&box is now an open source game engine"}, {"id": 736996720, "item_id": 46062295, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46062295", "by": "jsheard", "date": "2025-11-26", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "S&box being the sole exception", "excerpt": "That was then, in 2025 they don't have a public Source 2 SDK, nor do they generally license the engine to third parties, S&box being the sole exception. They barely have their toes in the middleware game anymore. Even when they were more open with their tech it was on the basis of \"you can play with the tools we used to make Half Life and if your idea is sufficiently Half Life shaped then it will probably work\", not ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "S&box is now an open source game engine"}, {"id": 736932576, "item_id": 46058286, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46058286", "by": "wvbdmp", "date": "2025-11-26", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Definitely seems like a very dope move, though.", "excerpt": "They call this \u201ca game engine built on Source 2\u201d, and their own C# code is MIT licensed here, but I\u2019m still not sure for what exactly this can be used? It\u2019s my understanding that S&box still has major Source 2 dependencies, right? Their docs say >S&box is coded in C#. Under the hood, it uses the Source 2 engine and some of its systems: rendering, resources, physics, and audio. https://sbox.game/dev/doc/ Surely one ca", "context": "", "use_case": "Game engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "S&Box"}]}