According to the PRs, it appears that Linux is getting game and editor support natively once matt merges his branch. It should be available sometime this week or next week. Thank you to everyone who participated in testing the community linux branch!

Giving my best,

Doctor Law

You can hold ALT to align the rotation with the ground like in the video, otherwise it will function by just moving it.

whats the point of buying this when roblox is free?

(preface: I'm aware i'll get downvoted by the gmod stans, I'm fine with that)

So, I'm not a gmod player. Played a little bit of it a loooooooong time ago. But as a game developer for over a decade (and currently working on several projects for S&Box), how is literally ANY game engine NOT a "spiritual successor" to what is GMod? ESPECIALLY SBox Editor?

I'm coming from the perspective of someone that sees gmod as the following: A creative platform where you make "game modes" or "mods". Those are just games. You're making video games. Sure they may depend on other things made by people you've never met, but it's videogames. It's game creation but with limitation.

How is Unity/Unreal/Godot/SBox NOT a "Spiritual" successor when they are also creative game making platforms yet with even LESS limitation? I'm not talking about a TRUE successor, but a SPIRITUAL one.

Add to the fact that SBox offers the BEST online multiplayer developer experience out of ALL the game engines out that (which was a big part of gmod).

---

Genuinely, I don't understand most of the haters. I SOMEWHAT understand those that wanted GMOD 2 (and NOT a spiritual one), but do you feel like Garry and/or FacePunch owe you that? I would understand if he publicly stated he's working on actual literal "GMOD 2". Now, IF that's the case, I too would remain hurt, until a public follow-up statement apologizing and stating the reason for the pivot into "spiritual successor".
Has any of that happened?

---

tl;dr

- A spiritual successor is defined as something that takes a SPIRITUAL definition of a thing, and then extrapolates on that.

- The spirit of gmod was: an online place to be creative with your friends, w/ a kick of retro IPs

- A successor to that spirit would be: an online place, but a larger platform, that allows even more creativity, without sacrificing access to retro IPs.

Does S&Box not satisfy that? Is my definition of the spirit of GMOD not to your liking?

Let's talk :)

>

p.s. While, as an online-multiplayer engineer coming from Photon and Unity, I mean it when I say that SBox has the best experience for devs like myself. So while I am a fan of what FacePunch is doing, I am by no means a "stan". Like, first of all, do we REALLY need the word "bullshit" glowing on the sbox.game homepage? What are we, an edgy sixteen yr old boy?

EDIT::

Thank you u/TheWinningHit and u/ZweiProbleme , I think I have a super solid understanding of the problem and the source of the drama.

1. There HAS been reasonable implication to believe, earlier on, that this WAS going to be GMOD2. And ample clarity on the direction change was either lacking or nonexistent. (This is still open to debate, but just parroting the below convo so far)

2. GMod barrier to entry, despite this new age of LLMs, was and is still vastly lower in terms of "making something". Even if that "something" was cloning an existing thing and changing a single variable. That was easier via GMod than anything offered at that time.

3. SBox can still hugely benefit from making something like #2 available. A "Clone into Editor" button plus a server browser showing game versions.

4. "Spiritual Successor" is just simply too non-definite. Especially for a community as diverse as the GMOD one.

TL;DR

Two things for s&box, both MIT, either usable alone.

• AI Skill: 17 markdown reference files that teach a coding agent the real s&box API, so it stops writing Unity code into your Source 2 project. Any agent that can read a file.
• MCP Server: 18 tools on the editor's own MCP server, for when you edit a file and the editor never notices. Install fobiat.sbox_mcp_server from Project Settings, or drop two C# files in Editor/.
• Built against engine 26.08.05. Every API traceable to a line in sbox-public.
• Package: https://sbox.game/fobiat/sbox_mcp_server/
• Repo: https://github.com/fobiat/sbox-skill
• Write-up: https://fobiat.dev/blog/the-skill-came-out-of-the-game/

Long version below.

Ask any coding agent for something that moves in s&box and you get this:

public class Mover : MonoBehaviour        // does not exist
{
    void Update()                         // never runs
    {
        transform.position += Vector3.forward * Time.deltaTime;   // none of this is real
        Debug.Log( "moving" );            // not a thing
    }
}

Four lines, four inventions, zero warnings until much later. s&box borrows GameObject and Component from Unity and then diverges nearly everywhere after that: different lifecycle, different networking model, Z-up instead of Y-up, Razor for UI, a restricted subset of .NET. The resemblance is close enough to be dangerous.

Here it is correct:

public sealed class Mover : Component
{
    [Property] public float Speed { get; set; } = 200f;

    protected override void OnUpdate()
    {
        if ( IsProxy ) return;
        WorldPosition += Vector3.Forward * Speed * Time.Delta;   // Forward is (1,0,0), Z-up
    }
}

I got tired of correcting the first one, so I built two things. Either is usable on its own.

The five that will cost you an afternoon

Every one of these compiles. Every one looks right in review.

• void Update() is never called. The lifecycle method is protected override void OnUpdate(), and yours is just a method nobody invokes.
• NetworkSpawn() gives ownership to whoever called it, not the host. A world object now belongs to one random client.
• [Sync] on a scene object does not live-replicate, because NetworkMode.Snapshot is the default. RPCs keep working perfectly, which is what makes it so hard to spot.
• A client writing [Sync(SyncFlags.FromHost)] has the write discarded before it reaches the backing field. No exception, and the read-back on the next line already shows the authoritative value.
• Model.Load( "typo/path.vmdl" ) does not return null. A path that resolves to nothing comes back as the engine's error model, non-null with IsError set, so the null check everyone writes is a branch that can never fire, and the world ships orange with a clean console.

None of these are exotic. They're all first-week code.

The AI Agent Skill

17 markdown reference files that teach an agent the real API. Plain markdown, no runtime, no dependencies, so it works with any agent that can open a file. Claude Code, Cursor, or three lines in your own instructions file.

The entry point is a router rather than one flat document, deliberately. A flat API reference gets skimmed, and a skimmed API reference is exactly how an invented API gets through. Making the reader open a second file puts real signatures in front of them before they write any.

Every API in it is traceable to engine source at a named version, 26.08.05. One file is a different kind of claim from the other sixteen: it records what was observed to happen in a live editor session, with dates. That isn't the same as "this compiles", and the distance between the two is where most of the pain lives.

The MCP Server

18 tools that register into the MCP server s&box already ships inside the editor, on 127.0.0.1:7269. It solves a different silent failure: the editor not noticing you changed anything.

Six ways that happens, and not one of them raises an error:

• .sbproj is read once at editor boot and never watched.
• ProjectSettings/*.config is cached on first read and never invalidated.
• A .cs file stops reaching the compiler once the file watchers go stale, which happens when the compilers are recreated in-process.
• A content path gives you the error model rather than null, so your guard never fires.
• Nothing, you pulled a branch. The process serves whatever assembly it loaded at boot.
• A package installed over MCP. install_package mounts it for the session and writes nothing, so it isn't there next boot.

Each one leaves you having edited a file, seen no error, and concluding the edit was wrong. It usually wasn't. It never arrived. project_source_changes splits "my code is wrong" from "my edit never reached the compiler" in a single call, and from the console those two look identical.

The other group asks the running engine directly: does this type exist, what are its real members, what input actions does the project define. That inverts the skill's own rule. Instead of "if it's in none of the reference files it doesn't exist", you ask the engine, and that answer can't go stale.

Getting it

The MCP server installs as a package reference, fobiat.sbox_mcp_server in Project Settings, or as two C# files dropped into Editor/. The file drop is kept as a first-class option on purpose. Editor/ is compiled unsandboxed, which is what lets the toolset reach engine internals at all, and reading files like that before they compile into your project is a reasonable thing to want.

The skill is a folder of markdown. Copy it, submodule it, or install the repo as a Claude Code plugin marketplace.

• Package: https://sbox.game/fobiat/sbox_mcp_server/
• Repo: https://github.com/fobiat/sbox-skill
• Write-up: https://fobiat.dev/blog/the-skill-came-out-of-the-game/

MIT, built against engine 26.08.05. If you find a reference file that has drifted from the engine, the issue template asks for the one thing that matters: where you confirmed the truth. Stale guidance is worse than none.

Journey through the mountain to try and find the mythical starfish god to be granted one wish 😇

After 2 months of work, i am happy to announce that i have finished my backrooms game on the s&box platform!

No AI generated content was used to create this game. I hope you guys will playtest it to uncover the unique story the game has and ofcourse find some bugs. The map is quite huge and empty, as the backrooks normally are but you guys should be fine!

The game is best played with friends or solo! Have fun :)

Game name: Idiots in the backrooms

https://sbox.game/vgproductions/backrooms

Check out my youtube for more videos! Comment what you think pls!
https://www.youtube.com/@user-nu5uy4nv7j