Garry Newman Weighs in on S&box Launch Hiccups and NFT Confusion

Hey gamers! It’s been a wild ride since the launch of S&box, the new platform from Facepunch Studios that aims to carry the torch from Garry’s Mod. With nearly 7,700 reviews on Steam, the feedback is a mixed bag, to say the least. The co-founder of Facepunch, Garry Newman, has taken to his studio’s blog to share his thoughts on the matter.

Newman kicked things off by admitting that the current reviews aren’t the best and acknowledged they sting a bit. “Our Steam reviews obviously aren’t great. They’re painful for us,” he wrote, emphasizing that the feedback highlights their missteps during the launch. One of the main points raised by players is the comparison to Garry’s Mod, with around 35% of reviews wishing S&box felt more like its predecessor. It seems many were hoping for an updated version rather than a completely new model.

While he gets where these expectations are coming from, it’s hard to ignore that S&box was billed as a “spiritual successor” to Garry’s Mod right from the get-go. Newman pointed out that this expectation game is something they can’t really win. “It’s going to be an expectation and preference thing,” he noted, but his hope is that players will eventually see the potential of the new platform for developers, leading to even better content.

Another hot topic in the reviews is the integration with Steam Workshop. Unlike Garry’s Mod, where players can easily subscribe to mods outside the game, S&box offers a system that allows you to download and spawn items directly. Newman acknowledged that they might need to revisit some of the functionality to make it more user-friendly, noting that while it seems like all content is built into the game, it’s actually user-generated.

When it comes to performance issues, Newman confirmed that this is indeed a valid concern, and they’re actively working to improve it. He even had a laugh about some players who grumbled yet log countless hours in the game, pointing out a particular reviewer who clocked in 280 hours before leaving a negative review!

But there’s even more confusion in the air—12% of reviews mentioned NFTs. Newman was quite baffled by this and made it clear: S&box does not incorporate any NFT or blockchain elements, and there are no plans to do so in the future. “I have no idea what this s**t is about,” he stated, clearly distancing the game from any NFT nonsense.

Lastly, the discussion turned to the issue of AI-generated content. Newman has been aware that this would be a concern and stressed that while S&box is a user-generated content platform, they have no intention of encouraging low-effort or trollish creations. “What we need to do is remove obvious trolls,” he said, determined to keep the quality up on the platform, which is still in its infancy compared to Garry’s Mod’s two decades of user-generated contributions.

In a nutshell, Newman is hopeful that S&box will grow into a powerful tool for creators, even if the launch wasn’t as smooth as everyone hoped. It’s a reminder that every new endeavor comes with its challenges, and a little patience might just yield some amazing results down the line!