It's fair to say that Grounded has evolved quite a bit over the years, especially in the run up to its big 1.0 launch just over a year ago. While Obsidian has continued to add to and improve the title since, the team's upcoming 1.3 update might be its most transformative yet.
Basically, the Grounded developer is adding a Halo Forge-like building toolset to the game - a toolset that will allow players to almost "build a whole new game" within Grounded itself. It sounds like a huge addition from Obsidian, and here's a bit more about what you can expect to create with Grounded's 'Playgrounds' feature:
"With the brand-new Playgrounds mode, you can craft your own levels from the ground up, with a suite of design tools at your disposal. Using either the pre-existing backyard or an empty sandbox as a starting point, you can craft buildings, place obstacles, furniture, and even creature spawners that’ll drop enemies whenever you’d like them to be.
Create puzzles, mini-games, battle arenas – whatever you can dream up."
We'll have to see how versatile this 'Playgrounds' toolset is, but it sounds pretty in-depth going off Xbox Wire's introduction to the mode. Obsidian says it's been a long-time coming too, and that the team has been keen to "extend the lifetime" of Grounded for some time.
"This feature has been on the backlog for a very long time,
Giving people the opportunity to extend the lifetime of the games they enjoy is always really cool, which was very important to us. We’ve always wanted to see what the community can make with these tools."
You can expect this feature to drop imminently as the Grounded dev team gears up to drop its 1.3 update across Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and of course, Xbox Game Pass.