Sandbox Drive

10 logs

Dev logs

Everything written about the game so far, newest first.

September 2026

  1. September: rotors, a volcano and far too much grassThe helicopters got rebuilt, Hachijō-Fuji got a lava lake, the grass got a whole library of species, the engines finally sound like their layout, and the game moved back to an island it left in July.Hachijō-Fuji crater rim · 2026-09-253min
  2. The bugs that didn't make a soundA rescue helicopter that fell 135 km, force feedback sent into the void, and a test suite that passed because it gave up halfway. The worst bugs in this project never crashed anything.2026-09-254min
  3. The car runs on the driver's computerIn multiplayer, a car's physics runs on the machine of whoever is behind the wheel. What that means when two players swap seats, what the cars going past are actually doing, and the six weeks when nobody could hear them.2026-09-254min
  4. Nobody writes the jobsThere's no job list in Sandbox Drive. Every haul exists because something on the island ran out of something. How that works, how pay is calculated, why fuel gets cheaper when it's delivered, and the sawmill that threw away its own planks.Kihachijō weaving works · 2026-09-255min
  5. The helicopter got deletedThe old helicopter flew on fake forces and aimed at the mouse cursor. In one week in September it was replaced by 24 little wings, a turbine, a governor and blades that snap off. How it works, and the ways it tried to kill its pilot.2026-09-256min
  6. Six tyre models laterThe long version of how the tyres work, with the real numbers. A brush in the contact patch, a carcass that winds up, rain, heat and mud, and the parked cars that wouldn't stay parked.2026-09-256min
  7. Simulate the parts, not the behaviourThe one idea behind all the physics in Sandbox Drive, and a quick tour of where it leads, from the tyres to the gearbox to the steering wheel in your hands.2026-09-253min
  8. Hachijō-jima at 1:1How a Japanese elevation survey, OpenStreetMap and a lot of aerial photos turn into a drivable island. Also, the case of the harbour that had no quays.Kaminato · 2026-09-253min
  9. It was supposed to be a shooterThe first commit was a design document for a top-down shooter. Two weeks later there was a gearbox. How a game about guns turned into a game about machines, and why most of it has been built twice.2026-09-253min
  10. A driving game on a volcanoWhat Sandbox Drive is, what already works, what very much doesn't yet, and why the map is a real island 290 km south of Tokyo.2026-09-253min
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