What
s&box is a game creation platform built on Valve's Source 2 engine, developed by Facepunch Studios. It's the spiritual successor to Garry's Mod: letting players play, create, and share games using powerful modern tooling. I've been working here as a programmer since 2022.
My Responsibilities
- Creating features: designing and implementing new engine and platform features across C# and C++
- Fixing bugs: investigating and resolving issues across the engine, tooling, and game layer
- Code reviews: reviewing team contributions to maintain quality, consistency, and correctness
- Dev blog leadership: writing and coordinating developer blog posts to communicate progress to the community
- Patch deployment: preparing and shipping regular platform updates
- Hotfixes: diagnosing and deploying rapid fixes for critical live issues
- Self management: independently identified and assigned my own tasks, managed my time, and prioritised work without day-to-day direction
Systems I worked on
UI Drag & Drop
Added UI drag and drop support, enabling games and tools to implement draggable UI elements with full event callbacks.
Steam Workshop
Added support for publishing cosmetics to the Steam Workshop, allowing creators to submit items for approval and sale through Steam's marketplace.
Serverside Code
Secure server-critical code execution. Game logic that must run authoritatively on the server is isolated and protected, preventing client-side tampering.
Battlefield 2 Mount
Made a Battlefield 2 mount that streams original BF2 models, textures, and maps directly into s&box.
Json Upgraders
Added the ability to attach upgraders to serialized JSON, allowing saved data to be migrated forward across schema changes without breaking existing files.
Input Action System
Abstraction layer for inputs across keyboard, mouse, and all gamepads. Game code binds to named actions rather than raw input: making remapping and multi-device support trivial.
Embedded Resources
Embed entire asset resources inside other resources: runtime textures, primitives, sounds and more: without needing separate files. Inspired by Godot's sub-resource system.
Editor Splash Screen
Added a new splash screen for the editor in s&box, enhancing the user experience during startup.
Dedicated Server Console
Added an overlay for the dedicated server console for measuring server performance at a glance.
Game Controllers
Added support for game controllers in s&box, including input mapping and UI navigation.
Games
VR Toolkit
2026VR toolkit and game sample. Physics-based.
Theme Park
2025Theme park simulation game built in weeks.
Sandbox
2025 – 2026Garry's Mod successor built in s&box.
Cardinal
20251v1 card-powered fast movement dueller.
Opium
2024A gritty singleplayer narrative game.
Nicked
2024Tactical multiplayer shooter built in 1 week.
Deathmatch
2024Classic FPS deathmatch, varied weapons.
Cogwheel
2024Voxel survival game built in 1 week.
Table Tennis VR
2023VR table tennis with physics and multiplayer.