Freebuild

Freebuild: The Builder's Game is a multiplayer computer game built upon the Torque Game Engine, in which players use LEGO-like bricks to build stuctures. It's currently being worked on by two main developers, Thomas "ElfPrince" Dickerson, and Wyatt "CyberPrime" Gorman. There are multiple artists and contributors as well, including Christopher "KermMartian" Mitchell, who is a dedicated developer, and runs the community website. Freebuild has been developed over a number of years by a variety of people, with a long awaited release being realized on New Year's Day, 2010.
Development
Freebuild itself has been in development since 2007, with a handful of releases since that time. It was started as a new engine for "The Builder's Mod"(later known as "The Better Mod" or just "TBM"), an early modification for Blockland, in which most(but not all) of Freebuild's developers were involved. It was later decided that it should be a fresh start from the mod it originated from, and although it currently still retains much of it's predecessor's content, new systems are being developed, and old ones done away with as they become obsolete. One such development, which when finished will replace almost all of TBM's legacy content, is the integration of the LDraw Parts Library, which will greatly expand the amount of bricks players can use, as well as open up the possibility of creating vehicle meshes in-game. Though technically not a real release, the SVN server on which the game is being developed was opened to the public on New Years Day, 2010.
Gameplay
Freebuild is a sandbox-type, open ended building game in which players are given a set of starting bricks, and can use those bricks to create structures and a variety of things. You can use a variety of tools to manipulate bricks, and add effects like particle emitters and light emitters to these bricks.
Online Integration
Freebuild is being designed to have a tight connection with the online aspect of the game, Cemetech. It already has a semi-mandatory login for players, and without logging in they have limited functionality. This allows for higher degrees of security.
Freebuild is also being integrated with the SAX chat, which is a backbone piece of Cemetech and other TI graphing calculator programming community websites. Eventually it's planned to be used as an IRC replacement.
Modification System
A system is in place which allows players to download mods, or add-ons, which allow for extended functionality, third party maps, weapons, game modes, etc. The mods are packaged in .zip files with a clear folder hierarchy, and added to the Cemetech Archives as to be available to other community members. Players are then able to turn on and off downloaded mods at will, in-game. It has no set limits or parameters on what can and cannot be created or changed, and all core scripts and functions(including the modification system itself) can be completely overwritten and replaced if need be.
Criticism
Although still in early development, Freebuild has been criticized, most notably by players of Blockland, for being a clone of that game and it's ideas. Critics have also cited poor graphics, and questioned the developers credibility based on the past behaviors of other developers involved in a previous project, despite the fact that the Freebuild developers did not work on said game directly. These critisisms, by and large, have been disputed by the Freebuild development team, and real evidence of these problems has yet to be submitted.
Also See
*Roblox - a similar brick building game.
*Lego Universe - a LEGO endorsed brick-type game.
*Blockland - a similar brick building game.

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