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Grounded's Make It or Break It update lets you build backyards from scratch

And it's out later this month.

Promotional art for Grounded's Make It or Break It update showing a player character clambering over an assortment of objects in the garden with a spanner in their hand.
Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment/Microsoft

If you've already explored Grounded's garden to the fullest (I haven't, despite my best efforts, because it turns out I don't entirely love man-sized spiders bearing down on me without warning), here's a little something you might be interested in: developer Obisdian is releasing a free update on 13th November giving players the creative tools to build backyards of their own.

Make It or Break It, as the new update is known, introduces a new Playgrounds mode where players can either muck around with the backyard featured in the story campaign or create one from the ground up, using an empty sandbox as a starting point.

Make It or Break It's suite of tools promises a considerable amount of creative freedom. Players can craft buildings and fill them with furniture, place obstacles, spawn creatures and bosses, even trigger ambient sounds and music. Obsidian says the majority of the campaign's assets - including art props, gameplay items, and harvestables, right down to individual blades of grass - will available for use, with no limit on the number of objects that can be placed.

Grounded's Make It or Break It update teaser trailer.Watch on YouTube

Additionally, the update introduces special Gadgets and Gizmos used to build and incorporate different mechanics into custom spaces, including - as per a developer interview on Xbox Wire - puzzles, mini-games, and even battle arenas. It'll also apparently be possible to share creations with other players, but Obsidian hasn't detailed that process yet.

Grounded's Make It or Break It update launches Monday, 13th November, on Xbox and PC, and will also include a number of additions for the story campaign. New challenges have been added to Burgle quests, for instance, and new base pieces will be made available to builders. Obsidian also points to combat adjustments and a handy tweak that'll mean the dandelion glider no longer takes up a trinket slot.

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