Melon Playground

The 2D ragdoll sandbox that got renamed Melon Sandbox. Same game, 150 million downloads, and a mod scene bigger than the game itself.

By Usman Shafqat · Updated 2026-10-20

Melon Playground vs Melon Sandbox

Melon Playground and Melon Sandbox are the same game. Melon Playground launched in 2022, was pulled from Google Play in December of that year, and came back in 2023 under the name Melon Sandbox to avoid a repeat. The App Store listing reads "Melon: Sandbox", the community still says Melon Playground, and every mod, template and tutorial works for both names. This site uses both because players search for both.

What the game is

Melon Sandbox is a 2D physics sandbox. You get a flat map, a spawn menu full of melons (the ragdoll people, named for their round heads), weapons, vehicles, syringes, liquids and props, and you set up whatever you want to happen. There is no objective. Most sessions are experiments: what does the liquid duplicator do to melon juice, what happens if a car hits a stack of barrels, how many ropes can one melon hold.

It was made by a solo developer, Sliz, and is now run by Studio 27 and publisher PlayDucky. It is free with ads and a coin shop. The ads are frequent enough that the no-ads pass is the first thing many people buy.

Where to download Melon Playground

The App Store and Google Play listings are the official ones from PlayDucky and Studio 27. The browser version is the same game running in a web page. SandboxAPK does not store game files.

The Android file itself, older versions and install steps are on the Melon Playground APK page. There is no Steam version and no official PC installer. The "Melon Playground PC" you see in search results is either the browser version or the Android app in an emulator. Both are covered on the PC page. There is a real iOS version, unlike most games in this genre, and the iOS page covers it.

Mods

Mods are the reason Melon Sandbox is as big as it is. Full guide on the mods page; characters and templates on the characters page; coins on the coins and achievements page; current build on the latest version page. The in-game Workshop hosts around 90,000 creations from about 35,000 makers, and PlayDucky reports paying creators more than a million dollars in 2025 through the marketplace (source: PlayDucky's creator-programme announcement and the App Store listing, checked September 2026). You install mods from inside the game: Workshop → search → Get. Popular categories are skins, weapon packs, FNAF and Sonic character packs, and full map packs.

Everything in the current build, listed with its guide, is on the Melon Playground wiki page; the worlds are on the maps page. You can also make your own. The game ships with a mod maker, and character templates (the flat PNG layouts people draw on) are shared on Discord and the wiki. A "melon playground template" is just that image file; you draw a skin onto it and import it through the editor. The textures page explains the layout.

Mod APKs and mod menus are a different thing. They are repacked copies of the Android app with coins or skins unlocked. They break on every update, they can't reach the real Workshop, and they are the main way people end up with adware from this game. The official Workshop already gives you thousands of free mods.

Coins, achievements and unlockables

• Melon coins buy skins and marketplace mods. You earn them by watching ads, completing achievements and daily logins. There is no working hack for free coins; the "free coins 2026" videos are surveys or fakes.
• Achievements are listed in the pause menu. Most are discovery tasks: embalm a melon, mix two liquids, use every rope type, put a melon in a car.
• Unlockables like the Ducky character and holiday items rotate with events.

Things players keep asking

Melon Playground mods

Around 90,000 mods on the in-game Workshop, a built-in mod maker, and a scripting system. This is how to use all three.

Mods are most of what people do in Melon Sandbox. The base game gives you melons, weapons, vehicles and liquids; the Workshop gives you everything else, from Sprunki and FNAF character packs to full maps and working machines. Since version 36 there's also Lua scripting through Chips, which turned the mod scene from skins into actual mechanics. This section covers installing, making, and the mod APK question.

Installing mods from the Workshop

Same steps on iPhone, Android and the emulator. There's nothing to sideload.

1. Main menu → Workshop.
2. Browse the tabs (Characters, Weapons, Vehicles, Maps, Packs) or search by name.
3. Tap a mod → Get. Free mods install instantly; marketplace mods cost melon coins.
4. Open a map. Installed mods appear in the spawn menu under a Workshop tab, or inside the category they belong to.

Mods are tied to your account. Log in on another device and they follow you. If a mod vanishes after an update, the creator hasn't updated it for the new version yet; check the Workshop page for a note.

The browser version on Playhop and Playgama has a smaller Workshop. If a mod you want is missing there, it's usually in the mobile app.

The best mod categories

• Character packs. The most downloaded category by a distance. Sprunki, FNAF, Poppy Playtime, anime sets, and thousands of original melons. Search the character's name.
• Weapon packs. Realistic gun sets, sci-fi sets, and joke weapons. Look for packs that list "37.x" in the description; older ones may have broken reload animations.
• Maps and worlds. Cities, arenas, obstacle courses, and recreations. The 36.0 update added new stock worlds (The Crawler, Flippy, Blocks, Table Tennis), and Workshop maps built on them are common now.
• Machines and contraptions. Since Chips arrived, working elevators, turrets, and vehicles with real logic. These are the ones worth browsing even if you don't use them, to see what the scripting can do.
• Cloth and outerwear. Cloaks, flags and fireproof clothing came in 36.0; the Workshop filled up with custom versions within weeks.

Making your own mods

Skins and characters (no code)

Every melon is a flat PNG drawn onto a template. Download a character template from the Workshop or the community wiki, open it in any drawing app (Ibis Paint and Procreate on phone, anything on PC), paint your design, and import it through the in-game editor. Keep the transparent areas transparent, and don't move the joints, or the ragdoll will bend wrong. The characters page has more on templates.

Items and weapons

The in-game mod maker lets you build items from parts: pick a base (melee, firearm, throwable, vehicle), set the sprite, adjust damage, weight and sound, and save. No code. Upload to the Workshop from the same screen.

Chips (Lua scripting)

Added in 36.0. A Chip is an item you attach to something, with a Lua script inside that reacts to events: a button pressed, an object entering a zone, a timer. This is how the working machines are built. The official scripting reference is on the Melon Sandbox Discord, and the Fandom wiki has a growing list of examples. If you've written any Lua (Roblox scripting counts), you can read the examples in an afternoon.

Mod menus and mod APKs

"Melon Playground mod menu" and "mod apk" searches lead to repackaged Android builds with coins, skins or the no-ads pass unlocked, sometimes with a floating menu that spawns anything. What they cost you:

• They can't connect to the real Workshop, so the 90,000 mods above are gone.
• They break on every update, and Melon updates roughly every three weeks.
• The no-ads and coin unlocks are the same thing the game sells; the ad-free pass is a one-time purchase.
• A large share of the adware complaints on Reddit and the Play Store reviews trace back to these files.

There's no equivalent on iOS at all. Anything calling itself a Melon Playground mod IPA is a fake.

Melon Playground characters and templates

What the character types are, what the template is, and how to draw a melon that doesn't fall apart.

A Melon Playground character (a "living", in the game's own term) is something with a ragdoll, health, and reactions. The stock set is small and the Workshop set is enormous, and both run on the same template system, which is why a fourteen-year-old with a drawing app can make a character that works exactly like the ones the developers ship.

Stock characters

The character template

A template is a PNG with the character laid out flat: head, torso, upper and lower arms, upper and lower legs, each in its own spot. The game slices that image into limbs and attaches physics joints at fixed points. That's why:

• You can draw anything you want, as long as it stays inside each limb's area.
• Transparent pixels must stay transparent, or the game treats them as solid limb.
• Moving a limb's position on the sheet breaks the joint alignment and the character folds in on itself.

Templates are free. Get one from the Workshop (search "template"), the Discord's resources channel, or the wiki. There are variants for tall characters, four-legged ones and bigger heads.

Drawing your own skin

1. Open the template in a drawing app. Ibis Paint X and Procreate on mobile, Krita or Photoshop on desktop.
2. Draw on a new layer above the template so the guide stays visible. Match the limb outlines; don't resize.
3. Hide the template layer, export as PNG with transparency.
4. In Melon Sandbox: Workshop → Create → Character → import the PNG. Name it, set health and skin type if you want, save.
5. Test it in a map. If a limb spins or detaches, a joint is off; go back and check that limb's placement.

Upload to the Workshop from the same screen if you want to share it.

Popular character mods

These are the searches that lead people to this section, and all of them are on the Workshop as fan-made packs:

• Sprunki: dozens of packs, the "Incredibox" style ones most downloaded.
• FNAF: full animatronic rosters, several with custom sizes.
• Poppy Playtime, Garten of Banban, Skibidi Toilet, and whatever's current on YouTube that month.
• Anime and game characters: search the name.
• "Realistic human" packs that replace the round head.

None of these are official. PlayDucky doesn't licence characters; the Workshop is user content and packs come and go when creators delete them.

Unlockables

Outside the Workshop, the game has its own unlockable skins and items: anniversary gifts, holiday sets, achievement rewards, and coin-shop items. The coins and achievements page lists how each is earned.

Melon Playground textures and the head template

Every melon is a flat image. This is how the template is laid out and how to draw your own.

Melon Playground textures are the flat images the game wraps onto a ragdoll. Every character, stock or Workshop, is a PNG laid out on a template: the head in one region, the torso in another, each limb in its own slot. Change the image and you change the character. That's why a texture pack can turn every melon into something else, and why "melon playground head" is a common search: the head is the part people redraw first.

The template

• Head: a circle region, front-facing. Eyes and mouth go here; the game doesn't animate them.
• Torso, upper and lower arms, upper and lower legs: each in a fixed spot. The game slices along those boundaries and attaches physics joints at set points.
• Transparent areas must stay transparent. Painted-over transparency becomes solid limb.
• Don't move or resize any region. A shifted limb breaks the joint and the character folds.

Templates are free: Workshop (search "template"), the Discord's resources channel, or the community wiki. Tall, four-legged and big-head variants exist for non-melon characters.

Drawing and importing

1. Open the template in a drawing app. Ibis Paint X or Procreate on a phone; Krita or Photoshop on PC.
2. Draw on a layer above the template, then hide the template and export as PNG with transparency.
3. In game: Workshop → Create → Character → import the PNG. Name it, set health and skin type, save.
4. Test in a map. A limb that spins or detaches means a region was moved.

The characters page has more on character types; the mods page covers uploading to the Workshop.

Texture packs

A texture pack replaces many textures at once: every melon, or every weapon, or the whole spawn menu. They're on the Workshop under Packs and install like any mod. Packs from before 36.0 may not include the cloth items added then.

Melon Playground character packs: FNAF, Sonic and others

Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, Sonic, Tails, Shadow and the rest, as Workshop packs. How to find the good ones, install them, and tell a skin from a scripted character.

Character packs are the most downloaded kind of Melon Playground mod, and FNAF and Sonic are the two franchises people search for most. FNAF packs bring full animatronic rosters, the security guard, the office and pizzeria items, and Sprunki-style crossovers. Sonic packs bring Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Metal Sonic, Eggman, and in the bigger sets the Chaos Emeralds, rings and Green Hill props. None of it is official; the characters are fan-made here, which is why packs come and go when creators delete them. This section covers FNAF first, then Sonic, then the general rules that apply to any character pack.

FNAF packs

Finding them

1. Main menu → Workshop → Characters.
2. Search "FNAF", "Freddy" or a specific animatronic. Sort by popular; the top results have been rebuilt for the current version.
3. Check the description for the version it targets. Packs from before 36.0 can have broken ragdoll joints after the cloth-physics update.
4. Tap Get. Characters appear in the spawn menu under Workshop.

Same on iPhone and Android; the mods page covers the Workshop in general.

What's in the good FNAF packs

• The original four plus Golden Freddy, with the withered and toy versions from the second game.
• Springtrap, the Nightmare set, and Security Breach characters in the larger packs.
• Props: the office desk, doors, cameras, the pizzeria stage, party hats.
• Some packs script behaviour with Chips (since 36.0), so animatronics move toward the player. Those are the ones worth the coins if a pack charges.

Sonic packs

1. Workshop → Characters → search "Sonic".
2. Sort by popular. "Ultimate Sonic" style packs bundle the whole cast; single-character packs are smaller and load faster.
3. Get → the characters appear in the spawn menu under Workshop.

Skins versus scripted packs

Most Sonic packs are skins: a melon that looks like Sonic and ragdolls like a melon. Since 36.0 added Chips (Lua scripting), some packs script speed, a spin-dash, or ring collection. Those are the ones worth looking for if you want the character to behave like Sonic rather than look like him. The pack description says whether it uses Chips. The same split applies to FNAF packs: the ones that script animatronics to move toward the player are the ones worth coins if a pack charges.

Other popular packs

The same search-sort-get routine finds the rest of the Workshop's big franchises: Sprunki, Poppy Playtime, Undertale, Minecraft and anime casts all have multi-character sets near the top of the popular sort. Check the version a pack targets before installing; packs from before 36.0 can have broken ragdoll joints after the cloth-physics update.

Making your own

Each character is a drawing on the character template. The characters page explains the template; the FNAF community on the game's Discord shares reference sheets sized for it.

Melon Playground coins and achievements

Coins buy marketplace mods and skins. Every way to earn them that works, and what the rest of the internet is selling you.

Melon coins are the game's currency. They buy marketplace mods on the Workshop, shop skins, and a few items that aren't sold for real money. You can buy them, and you can earn them, and the earning side is enough for most players if you know where it comes from.

Every way to earn melon coins

"Free coins" and coin hacks

Searches for free Melon Playground coins lead to three things: survey sites that never pay out, videos of mod APKs with a coin counter set to 999999, and "generator" websites that ask for your username. The first two are wasted time and the third is a phishing form. Coins are stored on PlayDucky's servers against your account, so a local edit doesn't change them, and the mod APK coins don't work on the real Workshop, which is the only place coins are useful.

Achievements

Achievements are in the pause menu under a trophy icon. They're discovery tasks: use every type of rope, embalm a melon, mix two liquids, put a melon in every vehicle, kill a zombie with a specific weapon, find a secret living. Each one pays coins and some unlock a skin.

The quickest early ones:

• Spawn one of each rope type and attach them to a melon.
• Use the embalming syringe, then the freezing one, on the same melon.
• Drive a car into water and get out.
• Duplicate a liquid with the duplicator.
• Open the anniversary Gift Box (while the event is live).

The community wiki keeps a complete list with the exact trigger for each; the in-game descriptions are sometimes vague on purpose.

Unlockables

• Ducky. Playable mascot, unlocked through an event or purchase depending on when you started.
• Anniversary items. 37.0's Gift Box contains eight items (Party Popper, Glue Gun, Hookshot, Speargun, Sticky Gun, Flare Gun, Wasteland Gift, Jetpack). Open the box in a map to get them.
• Secret livings. Spider Cake and earlier secrets, each with a trigger. Not sold, only found.
• Holiday sets. Rotate in and out; if you miss one, it usually returns the following year.

When was Melon Playground made?

2022, by one developer. What happened between then and 150 million downloads.

Melon Playground was made in 2022 by a solo developer known as Sliz. It was a 2D take on People Playground, built for phones, and it spread through YouTube within months. Today it's developed by Studio 27, published by PlayDucky, called Melon Sandbox on the stores, and past 150 million downloads. This section is the short version of how it got here.

Timeline

Who makes it

• Sliz: creator and original developer.
• Studio 27: the development studio now; the Android package name still carries it (com.studio27.MelonPlayground).
• PlayDucky: publisher, and the name on the App Store listing. Ducky, the mascot, is a playable character.

Why the name changed

After the 2022 removal the game came back as Melon Sandbox so a listing takedown would be harder to repeat. The community never adopted it; players, mods and this site say Melon Playground. Both names mean the same app; the hub explains the split.

Melon Playground wiki (version 37.1.1)

The reference layer: what exists in the current Melon Sandbox build, listed, with the guide for each thing linked.

This is a reference page rather than a guide: what exists in Melon Playground as of 37.1.1 (checked October 2026 against the iOS and Android builds and PlayDucky's release notes), grouped the way the spawn menu groups it. Where a topic has its own page on this site it's linked. The community Fandom wiki holds per-item detail this section doesn't repeat.

Livings

• Melons in several colours and outfits; the default ragdoll with bleeding, bruising and limb damage.
• Variants: watermelon, android (no blood), zombie (chases).
• Ducky: the PlayDucky mascot, playable.
• Secret livings: unlocked by triggers; Spider Cake (37.0) is the newest.
• Workshop characters: drawn on the template; see characters and textures.

Syringes

Weapons and tools

Melee, firearms, explosives, syringes, and the anniversary set from 37.0: Party Popper, Glue Gun, Hookshot, Speargun, Sticky Gun, Flare Gun, Wasteland Gift, Jetpack. Workshop weapon packs extend all of it.

Vehicles, liquids and ropes

• Vehicles: cars, bikes, boats, the banana vehicles from 36.0, rubber vehicles that burst (37.0).
• Liquids: water, blood, acid, lava and more, with the duplicator to multiply them.
• Ropes: standard, elastic, chain, wire and spring, each different under load.
• Cloth: cloaks, flags, outerwear and fireproof clothing since 36.0, moved by wind.

Worlds

The stock set plus The Crawler, Flippy, Blocks and Table Tennis from 36.0, and the Workshop. Full list on the maps page.

Chips (scripting)

Lua scripts attached to objects, added in 36.0. They react to buttons, zones and timers and are how working machines and scripted characters are built. Explained on the mods page.

Coins, achievements and unlockables

Coins buy marketplace mods and skins; achievements are discovery tasks; unlockables rotate with events. All on the coins and achievements page.

Versions

37.1.1 is current (August 2026). The latest version page tracks it and the history page covers the game's past, including the two Play Store removals.

Where else to look

• The Melon Sandbox Fandom wiki: per-item stats, secret-living triggers, the versions category.
• The PlayDucky Discord: release notes first, template files, the scripting reference.
• This site: the Melon Playground hub links every guide.

Melon Playground latest version: 37.1.1

Updated every time PlayDucky ships a build. The current Melon Sandbox version, what's in it, and how to get it.

What's in 37.1.1

The latest Melon Playground version, 37.1.1, is a fixes build on top of 37.0, the fifth-anniversary update. If you're on any 37.x you have the anniversary content; 37.1.1 tidies up crashes and Gift Box bugs from the first days of the event.

37.0: the 5th anniversary update

• New Misc category: Gifts, with the Gift Box.
• Eight items inside the box: Party Popper, Glue Gun, Hookshot, Speargun, Sticky Gun, Flare Gun, Wasteland Gift, Jetpack.
• Glue script and Sound Source script for the editor.
• New secret living: Spider Cake (see characters).
• Bulk collision disabling, a new "walk around" animation for livings, rubber vehicles that burst, flags removable from flagpoles.
• 94 bug fixes and a new app icon.

36.0: the cloth update (June 2026)

• Cloth physics: cloaks, flags, outerwear, fireproof clothes, and a wind mechanic that moves all of it.
• Chips: Lua scripting for building mechanisms. The biggest change to modding since the Workshop.
• Banana vehicles, coral items, electronics.
• Four new worlds: The Crawler, Flippy, Blocks, Table Tennis.
• Hard skin now stacks; water and mechanism breakage improved.

Download the latest version

How to update

• iPhone: App Store → profile icon → scroll to Available Updates. iOS usually gets each version two to four days before Android.
• Android: Google Play → profile → Manage apps and device → Update. Rollouts take a few days; if it isn't offered yet, it will be.
• Browser (Playhop, Playgama, see the PC page): nothing to do, but the web build lags the app by one or two versions. If a Workshop item is missing there, that's why.

Recent versions

The full list back to 2021 is on the community wiki's Versions category.