The best sandbox games have long been a way to indulge in your creativity, from the creative playgrounds of Terraria and Minecraft to the intricacies of Satisfactory and the chaos of Teardown. One of my favorite trends in recent times, however, is the free-form sandbox building game that strips back goals or objects in favor of pure creation. Following in the footsteps of the fantastic Summerhouse and Tiny Glade comes Dystopika, a cyberpunk game out now on Steam that invites you to “the darker side of cozy.”
“Dystopika is a small city builder inspired by cyberpunk and the wanderlust of cities that never sleep,” solo developer Mat Marshall of Voids Within explains. It’s a perfect match – the neon-drenched highrise jungles of Cyberpunk 2077 and Cloudpunk promise wonder and intrigue at every turn. Giving you the tools to make your very own such sprawl is an appealing prospect, and that’s just what this futuristic building game does.
There’s no city management to worry about here, just the freedom to create your own stunning cityscape. Place down your buildings, sculpt and shape the horizon to your desires. As you expand your world, you can paint dynamic lighting across the towers to bring them to life, and place down giant digital billboards with the ability to load in your own images if you want to bring a personal touch to proceedings.
Once you’re satisfied with your creation, you can turn to the game’s built-in photo mode to find the perfect shots. With plenty of filter options at your disposal and more features planned for the future, you’ll be able to showcase your new world exactly as you imagined it.
“When I was growing up I always played city-builders and simulators with cheat codes on, just creating the cities I wanted to and taking in the soundtrack, nothing more,” Marshall says. “I wanted to capture that experience for other builders like me who love to create epic horizons and not fiddle with city budgets or citizen happiness meters.“ It’s also very affordable, coming in at a price Marshall notes is “less than a bowl of ramen.”
Dystopika is out now on Steam, priced at $6.99 / £5.89. You can head here to get your copy. That’s not the end, however – Marshall says new props and quality-of-life updates are planned to arrive by August, with an enhanced photo mode set to land by October and a bigger content update featuring more districts, megastructures, and mod features scheduled for the end of 2024.
Alternatively, there are plenty more of the best sandbox games offering all manner of ways to exercise your creativity. Or, if you’d rather step into a ready-made world and simply explore what it has to offer, take a stroll through the best cyberpunk games to do just that.
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