Skip to main content
Monetization is a core part of s&box. There are two distinct paths for creators to earn revenue, and you can pursue both simultaneously.

​
Path 1: Cosmetic items

Design and sell clothing items worn by players on the Citizen character. Each approved item goes on sale in the s&box store. Every time a player buys your item, you receive a cut of the sale through Steam Workshop.

​
How it works

1

Design your clothing item

Build a clothing asset following the platform’s quality guidelines — correct topology, LODs, texture sizes, skinning to twist bones, and a human variation. See the Clothing page for the full process.
2

Set up the .clothing file

Create a .clothing definition file in your addon project, assign your VMDL files, configure body slots, and generate an icon.
3

Publish to sbox.game

Publish your .clothing file through the in-editor publish dialog. The asset goes live on your organization’s page on sbox.game.
4

Submit for review

Facepunch reviews submitted items against the quality bar. Items that pass are added to the s&box store for purchase.
5

Earn revenue

When players buy your item, you receive a percentage of the sale via Steam Workshop revenue sharing.
Browse approved items at https://sbox.game/ugc/clothing?sort=thumbsup to understand what passes review.

​
What gets your item declined

Facepunch declines items that fail on any of the following:
  • Unreasonably high triangle count for the item type
  • Poor topology that deforms badly during animation
  • Skinning to limb bones instead of twist bones
  • Missing LOD meshes
  • Aggressive clipping with common Layer 1 or Layer 2 items
  • Missing human variation
  • More than two materials without a compelling reason

​
Path 2: Games and the playfund

If you build and publish a game on s&box, you earn a share of the playfund — a pool of money distributed to game creators based on how much time players spend in their games.

​
How the playfund works

The playfund is a revenue pool that Facepunch allocates to game creators. Your share is calculated based on player engagement — primarily playtime — in your game relative to all other games on the platform.
Games that attract more playtime and engagement earn a larger proportion of the pool. Building a game that keeps players coming back increases your earnings.
Revenue from the playfund is distributed through the platform. Publishing your game on sbox.game makes it eligible automatically.
For more detail on the playfund, see: https://sbox.game/dev/doc/about/getting-started/monetization/

​
Platform policies

s&box deliberately avoids pay-to-win mechanics. The platform is designed to let creators charge for what they create, but not to let money buy in-game advantages that affect gameplay fairness.
  • You can sell cosmetic items (clothing, skins) that are purely visual.
  • Games earn revenue through the playfund based on engagement.
  • Direct in-game purchases (selling gameplay advantages to players inside your game) are not a supported monetization model on the current platform.

​
Combining both paths

Nothing prevents you from doing both. You can publish a game to earn playfund revenue while also designing and selling clothing items. Creators who build popular games attract players who are more likely to buy cosmetics, so the two paths reinforce each other.

Clothing guide

Full walkthrough for creating and submitting cosmetic clothing items.

Ready-to-use assets

Built-in assets you can use in your games without building them yourself.