Installation

Get s&box on your machine — download from Steam or build the engine from source.

There are two ways to get s&box: download the editor directly from Steam, or clone the repository and build the engine yourself.

Steam

Steam is the recommended path for anyone who wants to create games. You get automatic updates and a fully pre-built editor.

1. Request access

   Visit sbox.game/give-me-that and request access to the s&box beta. Once approved, the game appears in your Steam library.

2. Install from Steam

   Open Steam, find s&box in your library, and click Install. Steam downloads and installs the editor and all required binaries automatically.

3. Launch the editor

   Click Play in Steam to open the s&box editor. On first launch you will be prompted to set a working directory where your projects will be stored.

You can launch directly into a specific game project by passing its ident as a launch argument, for example sbox.exe +game facepunch.sandbox.

Build from source

Building from source is intended for contributors who want to modify or extend the engine itself. Most game developers should use the Steam install.

Source builds are for contributors to the engine. If you want to make games, use the Steam version instead — it is easier to set up and stays up to date automatically.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, install the following:

• Git
• Visual Studio 2022 or later, with the .NET desktop development workload
• .NET 10 SDK

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/Facepunch/sbox-public.git
   
2. Run Bootstrap.bat

   From the repository root, run Bootstrap.bat. This script uses the SboxBuild tool to compile the engine, build shaders, and package content:

   Bootstrap.bat
   

   The script runs three build steps in sequence: build, build-shaders, and build-content. Allow several minutes for the initial compile.

3. Run the editor

   Once the build completes, the game and editor binaries are placed in the game/ folder. Run the executable from there to launch s&box.

Next steps

Your first project

Create a scene, add a component, and run your game for the first time.

Building from source

Full contributor guide for cloning, compiling, and opening the engine solution.