Garry Newman Adds Necks to s&box Characters Because Players Keep Complaining About Them

The citizens of s&box now have necks, and Garry Newman is not happy about it. The creator of Garry’s Mod and founder of Facepunch Studios has updated the default characters in his game creation platform, giving them a default neck. The change comes after years of players complaining that the citizens looked like bobble-headed dolls.

Neckless Citizens

For a long time, s&box characters had no necks. Their heads sat atop their torsos like marionettes, which made them instantly recognizable but also drew a steady stream of complaints. Newman has acknowledged the feedback.

“I love the citizen, I love how he looks, I love that he has no neck,” Newman told reporters. “But the feedback we’ve consistently got is that people hate them. They hate everything about them.”

The Slider Fix

Newman is not abandoning the look entirely. He has added sliders to the character customization tools, allowing users to shrink the neck back down to nothing if they prefer the old style. The sliders cover the chest, waist, neck, and nose size, plus eye color.

“If you liked having no neck, you can bring that back with a slider,” Newman said.

The Consistent Complaint

The move is not a fix for everything wrong with s&box. Newman described it as a targeted response to a specific complaint that shows up repeatedly in player reviews. The absence of necks “comes up consistently in our many many many negative reviews,” he said.

“So we’re going to fidget around and change things to see if we can change that,” Newman added.

Reading the Patch Notes

Players can read the full patch notes themselves. Newman has promised to update the article with any new neck-related developments as they emerge.

Games With Necks

The comparison is simple. Many popular games feature fully anatomical humans, while s&box’s default look has now changed.

A Compromise Position

Newman is in a classic position. He loves a design choice that players uniformly dislike. The sliders offer a compromise: keep the look he prefers while letting the crowd have what it wants.

It is a small change, but it addresses a persistent pain point. Newman’s willingness to acknowledge the criticism is the more notable part.

What Players Get

The citizens now have a default neck, but the old look is preserved through customization. That means players who want the bobble-head aesthetic can keep it, while those who want a more conventional human shape have an option.

The Bottom Line

The change is modest, but it is a direct response to what players have been saying for years. Newman has rolled with the punches, and the citizens are the better for it.

Newman’s admission that the absence of necks “comes up consistently in our many many many negative reviews” is a rare kind of honesty from a creator.

Source material: “Garry Newman adds necks to his neckless characters because the lack of necks 'comes up consistently in our many many many negative reviews',” PC Gamer.

Facepunch · game design · gaming news · Garry Newman · s&box