Foxhole is a massively multiplayer war game by Clapfoot studios with “emergent” gameplay and unique sandbox features, it was released on July 27th 2017.
A sandbox style game or a game with “sandbox features” means there are minimal character limitations placed on the player, allowing the player to choose what, when, and how they want to approach the available choices in content as opposed to other traditionally structured video games that have a more linear structure to their gameplay. In contrast to a progression-style game, a sandbox game encourages roaming and allows a gamer to select their own tasks.
Video games with open or free-roaming worlds usually have minimal, if any, invisible walls and loading screens that are common in more linear game style designs. Generally, because of technical limitations or in-game limitations, open-world games still have many restrictions in the games environment.
The pre-alpha version of Foxhole has already been live for over a year with over 200,000 players. Pre-alpha versions of games that are run with a live audience are very good for helping developers get to know how players use the game, what players want, and the kind of gameplay mechanics they should include to help give players that smooth responsive gameplay. The developers had said that they want to keep improving Foxhole to give players an even better experience.
In Foxhole every individual soldier in the game is a player that can contribute to the war effort through base building, logistics, combat and much more. Players can team up with hundreds of other players to help change the outcome of a constantly changing online war with each action having a powerful effect on your chosen factions progression. Some maps will also be designed for a faster paced gameplay.
Developers have also said “it took us about a year of pre-alpha testing with a live audience before we felt the game was ready for an Early Access release. It's reasonable to estimate that it will take about this much time to complete Early Access.”
