Creators of Besiege React to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's Innovative Sandbox Mechanics

Nine years after its inception, the creators of my much-loved indie sandbox game express delight in witnessing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom introduce novel elements to the genre.

Back in 2015, Spiderling Studios unveiled Besiege, a game centered around constructing medieval siege engines to solve combat-based puzzles. Fast forward almost ten years since its debut in early access, and Besiege introduces The Splintered Sea, a marine expansion aiming to elevate the siege engineering talents of its community.

In a discussion with Stefan Metaxas, the publishing director, and Toby Hawkins, the principal producer, I delved into their perceptions of having their sandbox game concept highlighted globally by the recent Zelda installment. Tears of the Kingdom offers gameplay mechanics that closely mirror the creative freedom found in Besiege, and although the implementation leans heavily into Nintendo's narrative, the parallel is striking.

"It's thrilling to witness individuals adopt that framework, enhance upon it, and inject innovation," comments Hawkins. Sandbox concepts have been around for a while, yet integrating these into a fully open world remains relatively uncommon. Metaxas adds to the excitement, noting, "The only limitation is one's creativity, which makes exploring in Tears of the Kingdom exhilarating. Observing how its elements resonate with those in Besiege was genuinely enjoyable."

The presence of a tank in Tears of the Kingdom hints at a convergence with Besiege that may be more pronounced than initially assumed.