Agent-based Sandbox Games

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A genre spawned by Dwarf Fortress, the recipe has been migrated to many settings, mostly simpler games, with a more moderate learning curve. These games are different than 'God' games, as you don't directly control the world, different than 'city-builders', as the scale is much smaller, and different from RTS/strategy games, because in most cases, you don't directly control the agents.

There are a growing number of games that don't quite fit into the existing genres. This is a thread that tries to bring discussion of such games into a central place - although discussion on individual games can also be found in dedicated threads.

While Dwarf Fortress my be the biggest, most in-depth and possibly the Father of this type, many people find it hard to get into the game, work out the mechanics, or deal with the ascii nature. A number of 'clones' have sprung up, each taking a slightly different path.

A list games that mostly fit into this category:

Dwarf Fortress - GWJ Thread - Official Site

Gnomoria - GWJ Thread - Official Website - Steam link

Timber & Stone - GWJ Thread - Official Website - Kickstarter

Stonehearth - Official Site - Kickstarter - Steam Greenlight

Castle Story - GWJ Thread - Official Website - Kickstarter - Steam Link

Towns - GWJ Thread - Official Site - Steam Link - ABANDONED

DwarfCorp - Official Site - Kickstarter

RimWorld - Official Site - Steam Greenlight

Spacebase DF-9 - GWJ Thread - Official Site - Steam Link - DEVELOPMENT CEASED

Maia - Official Site - Steam Greenlight

A Game of Dwarves - GWJ Thread - Official Site - Steam Link - Possibly Disbanded?

Banished - GWJ Thread - Official Site - Steam Link

Prison Architect - GWJ Thread - Official Site - Steam Link

Clockwork Empires - GWJ Thread - Official Site - Steam Link

iubes - Official Site -

1849 - Official Site - Steam Greenlight - IndieGameStand Link - Steam Link

Folk Tale - Official Site - Steam Link -

The Spatials - Steam Greenlight - Official Site -

Older games that may still be worth a look:

Startopia - Steam Link - GOG Link -

Sims: Medieval - Steam Link - Origin Link -

Space Colony HD - GOG Link -

Evil Genius - Steam Link - GOG Link -

Feel free to query, question, comment, discuss, disagree with the above.

No dwarf fortress in the list?

--Edit--
Also, should A Game of Dwarves be in there?

Well, I thought that DF was big enough, and ugly enough that the main thread would be easily found.

EDIT: Added a Game of Dwarves. There's a few others I remember finding, but can't think of them just now.

I agree with MoonDragon. The list just feels incomplete without DF in it.

I bought Towns and Timber and Stone when they were in alpha and I haven't really gone back to them. I suppose I should.

I'm really waiting for Banished.

I believe Prison Architect should also be on the list.

I can't wait for Banished, only recently picked up Prison Architect. I wasn't sure if Banished fitted into this, or if it was more like the Tropico series. I'll get them added. Oh, and DF too

Does Children of the Nile fit the criteria? It's technically a city builder, but it's on the scale of individual agents. A bit more abstracted than Dwarf Fortress--but then, what isn't?

No. CotN is a classic city builder. Very similar to Tropico or SimCity.

I agree it is similar, though it is an agent-based one like the latest SimCity was supposed to be.

A couple missing GWJ thread links...

A Game of Dwarves: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

Towns: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

Spacebase DF-9: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

MoonDragon wrote:

No. CotN is a classic city builder. Very similar to Tropico or SimCity.

Probably on the edge. It's definitely not Dwarf Fortress descended. Though it was probably trying for some of the same ideas. There were several agent-based city sims (Tropico, Startopia, Children of the Nile) that are kind of precursors. If I had to draw the distinction, they were more building-based-with-agents, versus Dwarf-Fortress being primarily agent-based. I think the dream of a completely simulated fishbowl world driven by individual inhabitants has been around for a while. But it took Dwarf Fortress to actually jumpstart the genre, unless there's a missing link I'm not aware of.

So I just spotted a new (to me) thing on the Dwarf Fortress wiki: Masterwork Dwarf Fortress.

From the Wiki page:

☼Masterwork☼ Dwarf Fortress (MDF) is a mod package that makes Dwarf Fortress four times as big, but still keeps true to the original atmosphere of the game. It adds over 330 buildings, over 6000 reactions, over 1000 creatures and up to 35 races. It includes a selection of utilities and two playable race plugins (Orc Fortress and Kobold Camp).

The Masterwork mod uses a system of generic materials. For example, leather is only called leather (as opposed to "creature-name" leather). This also applies to silk, hair, milk, meat and blood, bones and wood. You won't have to scroll through 50 building materials in your list, but only 10. This is one of the few features of MDF that can't be turned on and off. Together with some other performance improving tweaks, Masterwork DF could increase your frame rate by about 25% from vanilla DF.

There are a wide range of tough enemies to up the challenge level, exotic materials, new industries; even threats from within the fortress like diseases and hostile cults. Religion, guns, mages and slaves. Runes, mithril, automatons and raptors. There are libraries, garrisons and guildhalls to skill up your dwarves. In version 3f, a magic system was added. Add only the parts that appeal to you; most settings can be customized by the player with the included Settings.exe user interface. You can enable and disable parts of the mod just by pressing a button and generating a new world.

There are lots of new materials — iron, silver and steel weapons are just the beginning.

I just downloaded it, haven't fired it up yet.

Sounds really neat, haven't paid much attention to DF in a long time...

I know Toady was rather wary of modding and how it could wrestle control of the game's direction away from him. But it looks like it's really starting to take off, for better or worse I guess.

I just unpacked it and read some of the docs, and offhand, it seems like it's adding a ridiculous amount of complexity, without adding much that looks like fun.

Grumpicus wrote:

A couple missing GWJ thread links...

A Game of Dwarves: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

Towns: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

Spacebase DF-9: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

Thanks, added.

What about Dungeon Keeper? One of the core innovations of that game was that the monsters were agents with hierarchies of behavior.

What about Majesty? Does that one count here?

Majesty is interesting since it is not really a city-building type game. The agents are incented to go do what you want them to but you cannot directly tell them to go do something. They will if they feel like it (mostly when you put enough of a bounty on something).

That being said, since we have defined this "genre" as being agent-based sandbox games, and removed the building part of the definition, I think it does. Also, what a great game.

Dungeon Keeper I think absolutely fits here and it fits my tighter definition of these types of games. I think having agents build stuff is a primary prerequisite for these types of games, when I care to categorize, which I really don't like to do.

tboon wrote:

Majesty is interesting since it is not really a city-building type game. The agents are incented to go do what you want them to but you cannot directly tell them to go do something. They will if they feel like it (mostly when you put enough of a bounty on something).

That being said, since we have defined this "genre" as being agent-based sandbox games, and removed the building part of the definition, I think it does. Also, what a great game.

Dungeon Keeper I think absolutely fits here and it fits my tighter definition of these types of games. I think having agents build stuff is a primary prerequisite for these types of games, when I care to categorize, which I really don't like to do.

I'm not sold that DK fits. It's much more of an RTS than it is a Dwarf Fortress type game. You've got a lot of control over the actions of your denizens, and there's not a lot of building done by them either. The imps dig out everything, but you're the one building the dungeon (and doing so is instantaneous).The trolls and demons do build the traps and doors, but that's their function, not a job you task them with. The identifying aspect of these games tends to be culture/community management, which DK doesn't have. There's very little agency, and no sandbox element. Dungeon Keeper has very specific goals for each map, and completing them means you win. You can't win Dwarf Fortress, except in the sense that you haven't lost unless all your dwarves are dead.

Stengah wrote:

The identifying aspect of these games tends to be culture/community management, which DK doesn't have. There's very little agency, and no sandbox element. Dungeon Keeper has very specific goals for each map, and completing them means you win. You can't win Dwarf Fortress, except in the sense that you haven't lost unless all your dwarves are dead.

I think you're close to something here. Per the ongoing discussion of agency around here, I'd quibble on that particular terminology. I'd rather use expressiveness and emergent systems.

Dungeon Keeper does not have an emergent system as the foundational layer. SimCity, Dwarf Fortress, and Civilization have an open emergent system governing your journey through the game. With Dungeon Keeper, Pharaoh, and so on, while they have an emergent system as a core part of the gameplay, they add a progression structure that dictates the checkpoints you need to hit to reach the next map.

Expressiveness is my term for, roughly, how much of a personal spin you can put on the solution. SimCity, with few hard constraints, is very expressive; Pharaoh, with mission goals and somewhat fiddly road-walker rules is less expressive; a puzzle game is not very expressive at all. The games we're talking about here tend to be very expressive.

I'm not sure that the emergent part is the primary distinction of this agent-based genre, but the expressive community management part seems close.

Stengah wrote:
tboon wrote:

Majesty is interesting since it is not really a city-building type game. The agents are incented to go do what you want them to but you cannot directly tell them to go do something. They will if they feel like it (mostly when you put enough of a bounty on something).

That being said, since we have defined this "genre" as being agent-based sandbox games, and removed the building part of the definition, I think it does. Also, what a great game.

Dungeon Keeper I think absolutely fits here and it fits my tighter definition of these types of games. I think having agents build stuff is a primary prerequisite for these types of games, when I care to categorize, which I really don't like to do.

I'm not sold that DK fits. It's much more of an RTS than it is a Dwarf Fortress type game. You've got a lot of control over the actions of your denizens, and there's not a lot of building done by them either. The imps dig out everything, but you're the one building the dungeon (and doing so is instantaneous).The trolls and demons do build the traps and doors, but that's their function, not a job you task them with. The identifying aspect of these games tends to be culture/community management, which DK doesn't have. There's very little agency, and no sandbox element. Dungeon Keeper has very specific goals for each map, and completing them means you win. You can't win Dwarf Fortress, except in the sense that you haven't lost unless all your dwarves are dead.

I am not with you on the building part of your argument. In DK, you decide what will be dug out and agents dig it out. You decide what the space will be of course but this is no different from Gnomoria where you decide what each dug out space is going to be used for.

I am with you on the goal-based play. It is only (relatively) recently that videogame designers trusted us players enough to give us the tools and let us make our own fun (there are old examples of course but they tend to be the exceptrion rather than the rule, I think). But I don't think that precludes some of these old games from the "genre", even if they are only viewed as precursors. Unless the definition tightens up to remove goals from the equation.

PS. I hate you guys for making me think about this stuff.

MoonDragon wrote:

No. CotN is a classic city builder. Very similar to Tropico or SimCity.

Well now, Tropico (3 and 4 at least) is not really much like SimCity. Just about everything built in Tropico has to wait for your lazy-ass builders. They're too busy going to church or sleeping or eating. If the build site is too far away and they can't get a ride, they'll walk, make it half way, then turn back and go home to eat or sleep.

Unlike SimCity, every person is individually modeled, each has its own priorities and preferences and faction affiliations. I've never had an armed rebellion in SimCity.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
MoonDragon wrote:

No. CotN is a classic city builder. Very similar to Tropico or SimCity.

Well now, Tropico (3 and 4 at least) is not really much like SimCity. Just about everything built in Tropico has to wait for your lazy-ass builders. They're too busy going to church or sleeping or eating. If the build site is too far away and they can't get a ride, they'll walk, make it half way, then turn back and go home to eat or sleep.

Unlike SimCity, every person is individually modeled, each has its own priorities and preferences and faction affiliations. I've never had an armed rebellion in SimCity. :D

Tropico 1 and 2 are the same way.

SimCity (the first 4, anyway) is a zone-and-radius based simulation. The player designates zones where the population builds and places buildings that affect the surrounding tiles. Caesar 1 and 2 used similar zoning, but Caesar 3 introduced the focus on walkers, as far as I know making it the first walker-based sim. While walkers are individual agents, they're tied to the buildings and don't have an independent existence. SimCity 2000's traffic simulation technically uses a slightly similar model, though with less focus on the agents and better pathfinding.

Tropico is something else again. Every individual citizen in Tropico is independent, and will continue to exist even if they don't have housing or work--and likely become even more of a problem.
Majesty similarly has independent agents running the game, though they don't really form a community, so it's more of an RTS. Evil Genius is even closer to the agent-based genre, but it's also got the whole Sims-style furniture-driven gameplay, so it's not quite there: your mooks are more disposable than Dwarf Fortress dwarfs are. I think Dungeon Keeper is along the same lines.

If I was drawing up a definition, along the lines of the roguelike definition, I'd list these features as being representative:
* Individual Agents: the focus is on individual agents.
* Independent: the agents have a continuing existence in themselves, living their own lives. They're not representatives of an abstract process like walkers, or have limited focus like the hero characters in Majesty.
* Community: the agents exist within a community, and the agents are part of its operation.
I'm sure there's a couple more that I haven't thought of yet. I'm not sure yet how to draw the line between Tropico, Dwarf Fortress, and Children of the Nile.

Okay, here's a thought on why Dungeon Keeper might not qualify: you can pick the agents up directly, and put them where you want them, so you can control what jobs they do, or who they fight.

That seems sufficient to me to exclude it, the fact that you have too much control, and that the agents aren't really independent. But it does strike me as a fairly grey area.

And I'd definitely say that SimCity doesn't count, because while it has 'agents', they're recreated from scratch every day, based on a generic population count. And most of the other city builders don't even use agents to that degree: they think in terms of buildings, not people.

Tropico seems like it would qualify, though: you can control *one* agent, representing "you", but you can't directly give orders to anyone else, and you can't teleport anyone, even "yourself".

tboon wrote:

I am not with you on the building part of your argument. In DK, you decide what will be dug out and agents dig it out. You decide what the space will be of course but this is no different from Gnomoria where you decide what each dug out space is going to be used for.

You designate, but they do the actual work in Gnomoria. They have to harvest the raw materials, shape it however it needs to be shaped, and then build the actual building themselves. At any point in this process they can get distracted by their individual wants and needs, meaning it gets done on their schedule, not yours. In DK the imps don't have needs that they have to satisfy before they get to work, and the only thing that will distract them from their task is being attacked by enemies. You're the one creating the rooms. It's instantaneous and they're fully furnished. The only prerequisite is having the gold to pay for them. DK is close, and it certainly has elements of the genre (i.e. the way traps and doors are handled, keeping track of hunger, sleep, and happiness for most creatures), but not enough to be included in it.

Malor wrote:

Okay, here's a thought on why Dungeon Keeper might not qualify: you can pick the agents up directly, and put them where you want them, so you can control what jobs they do, or who they fight.

That seems sufficient to me to exclude it, the fact that you have too much control, and that the agents aren't really independent. But it does strike me as a fairly grey area.

You're limited in what jobs you can have them do, too. You cannot make a troll work in the library, or have a skeleton pick up a pickaxe and start mining. So you've got too much control when it comes to personal interaction, but not enough when assigning jobs. Let's also not forget that you can possess your minions, and take direct control of their actions.

I think Gremlin's list does a good job of defining the requirements for the genre. I'd add

  • Management: You do nothing (or almost nothing) yourself, but task your agents with accomplishing what you want done.

After some thought, maybe a simpler way to look at it: is the game about the agents, or is the game about you, the player?

Dungeon Keeper is about you. So is Simcity, to the point that the agents are mostly fiction.

Dwarf Fortress, however, is pretty clearly about the dwarves.

The upcoming Clockwork Empires should definitely be included in the list.

Yes! Thanks for bringing that back to my mind. I'll add it to the list, and also check out how far along they are with it now. It was pretty early on last time I looked.

Looks like it was just added to the Steam DB too

Stonehearth have announced that the first Alpha release will be available to backers on Dec 30th. Their Humble Store entry is already up and going so you can ensure that you can claim your purchase (even though the actual download isn't there yet). Steam Keys will be available at a later date.

Anybody else back this? I think with the Alpha/Beta access tier ($30) you also get a gift key for the full game on final release that you can give to someone. Not sure what state the first alpha will be in, but their recent Graphics Tests that they released look pretty good. Looking forward to it.

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