Not gonna lie, I think this should be turned into a true singleplayer game. I already have published a fork to make ITB singleplayer-ready and make installation pain-free <
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=28183> <
https://codeberg.org/Wuzzy/Inside_The_Box_SE>. Especially, I ripped out external dependencies like sqlite3 and I re-implemented the db mod to use only Minetest stuff. It works, but there are still no boxes in it yet, and I am not a builder.
I would love if boxes of the server could be moved into the singleplayer version, but I can't because of legal reasons / I do not have permission from anyone. I don't have the files anyway. Legally, it seems ALL boxes right now are fully copyrighted.
I think there is a strong case for a singleplayer version now. IIRC, the original reason why this was turned into a server, rather than a real singleplayer game, was to collect boxes from builders first. But we now have 240 boxes, so the goal has been more than reached. And the number of boxes has stagnated since a good time now; last year did not see a lot of additions. It seems the builder's creativity has run dry. I'm not complaining, 240 is an impresive number. :D Also, the server is quite old now. The fact that ITB is only playable online is and always was my biggest criticism. ITB is a classic singleplayer game that had forced multiplayer mode into it due to strategic reasons, and those strategic reasons no longer apply.
I think a singleplayer version also has the benefit that it can be more curated. Currently, the 240 boxes might be well-curated by quality (which is good), but they are not sorted or categorized in any useful way (which is bad). It's all shoehorned into the "New" series.