Physics sandbox games, sorted out

Five games, one idea: a physics engine, a spawn menu, and nothing telling you what to do. This site covers where to get each one, what runs on your device, and how the mods work.

Updated 2026-09-07

Sandbox games with ragdoll physics have turned into their own genre. Garry's Mod started it on PC in 2006. People Playground stripped it down to 2D and added chemistry and electricity. Melon Playground put that on phones and became one of the most downloaded games on iOS and Android. GoreBox brought it back to 3D and made it free on Android. Teardown took the destruction part and built a whole engine around it. They share players, they share search terms, and they get confused with each other constantly, so this site covers all five.

The five games

GoreBox

A free first-person sandbox from F²Games with vehicles, weapons, ragdoll GoreDolls and a Reality Crusher gravity gun. Ten million Android downloads, a paid Steam version, no iOS. The GoreBox APK question comes up more than any other on this site, and the answer is that Google Play already has it for free. Guides: the hub, PC, iOS, mods, commands, crash fixes, multiplayer, v16.

Melon Playground (Melon Sandbox)

The 2D ragdoll game with 150 million downloads, renamed Melon Sandbox in 2023 and still called Melon Playground by everyone who plays it. Free on iPhone and Android, playable in a browser, no Steam version. Its Workshop has around 90,000 mods. Guides: the hub, PC and browser, iOS.

People Playground

The PC sandbox that Melon and GoreBox borrowed from. $9.99 on Steam, 2D, and under the stick figures there's wiring, temperature, liquids and gravity. Total-conversion mods like Beyond Nowhere are a game in themselves. There is no mobile version. Guides: the hub, PC, mobile.

Teardown

Different from the other four: no ragdolls, no gore, and a campaign. Every voxel in the world can be broken, and the game is about planning a route through a building and then wrecking it. $29.99 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series, with free multiplayer added in 2026. Guides: the hub, PC, mobile.

Garry's Mod

The original. Twenty years old, $9.99 on Steam, still busy every day thanks to game modes like Trouble in Terrorist Town and Prop Hunt, and now with a successor in s&box. PC only; the Android apps using its name are clones. Guides: the hub, PC, Android.

Which sandbox game should you play?

• On a phone and want it free: Melon Sandbox for 2D, GoreBox for 3D (Android only).
• On an iPhone: Melon Sandbox. It's the only one of the five with a real iOS version.
• On a PC with $10: People Playground for simulation depth, Garry's Mod for multiplayer and game modes.
• Want destruction rather than ragdolls, or a game with an ending: Teardown.
• Playing with friends: Garry's Mod or Teardown. GoreBox's multiplayer is friends-only through Photon now; People Playground and Melon have none.

What this site does and doesn't do

Every page links to the official store for the game and, where it applies, to Uptodown and Aptoide for the unmodified Android app. We don't host APKs, IPAs or cracks, we don't link to mod menus, and we don't recommend the clone apps that borrow these games' names. When something changes, like GoreBox losing its servers or People Playground's Workshop going down, the relevant page gets updated with a date at the top.

Common questions