The Sandbox is a user-generated, virtual-gaming world where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experience. It has taken off significantly, and the recent Alpha Season 3 (AS3) has only increased the caliber of designers building metaverses on the platform. This latest series of seasons will span ten weeks to give players plenty of opportunities to explore the metaverse.Â
2022 has seen significant celebrities investing in metaverse real estate. Snoop Dogg also recently released his music video, “House I Built,” filmed within the Sandbox metaverse. The video shows his “Snoopverse,” a virtual world he’s been working on within the Sandbox. Players can join Snoop Dog in his Land and immerse themselves in events and all things Snoop. Â
As The Sandbox continues to set the stage for democratizing the metaverse, we will explore its future.
As we dive beneath the sand, how deep can it go?Â
Let’s Play Like Children
The Sandbox was a 2012 mobile game with over 40 million global installs on mobile devices. It was in January of 2018 that the developers began to see the game’s potential for growth and developed a 3D multiplayer platform using Ethereum blockchain technology to offer a virtual world where players could build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences.
The Sandbox is a decentralized virtual world built with similar aesthetics to voxel games. Minecraft, one of the most popular voxel games, has sold over 228 million copies worldwide. As an open-world metaverse platform of interconnected games, experiences, and virtual spaces, The Sandbox is one of the top web3 spaces, and the roadmap won’t slow down any time soon.
“And we have a very busy roadmap,” Borget said. “There’s no other place in the world where you see Carebears alongside Snoop Dogg.”– Borget
It’s entirely bizarre, combining genres and blurring the lines between the real world and digital reality. And that’s why it’s so fun!
In 2002:
- Sandbox has partnered with Gravity to bring the classic game Ragnarok into the metaverse.
- Sandbox will launch alpha pass season 3, free to all users, on 24 August 2022. Players can get SAND as a reward for testing this event as well.
- On 12 July 2022, all users on Sandbox can publish and create their sandbox assets on the Marketplace.
- The partnership between the Sandbox and Warner Music Group will create a music-themed world in the metaverse. There is a rumor that The Sandbox will launch its first virtual concert in the third quarter of 2022.
Alpha Season Three
Alpha season three (AS3)Â will launch 90 metaverse experiences with 100 hours of gameplay available for its new season. The lego-like aesthetic and funky-themed worlds had caught the attention of four million users who had used its wallets, up from two million in March when the company unveiled Alpha Season 2 (AS2).
The Sandbox co-founder SĂ©bastien Borget said:
“The quality of users we’re seeing is definitely higher because those are people who are really interested in participating and in creating, beyond being curious.”
“You really have to go and explore, solve puzzles, talk to characters and learn about the stories of those worlds and characters to fully immerse yourself” – Blockworks.Â
As The Sandbox continues to develop, rolling out each alpha phase show how owners and players are expanding their properties as if they were all making rides in a theme park. Each season lasts ten weeks and is a way to introduce players to emerging trends gradually. Players can create or choose their avatars, buy skins, and take them across experiences that include music, art, architecture, gaming, fashion, and entertainment.
Sandbox Metaverse Land
The Sandbox is a decentralized virtual world launched by Pixowl in 2011 and, as mentioned above, holds NFTs at its core. Each asset purchased, sold, or exchanged on the Marketplace has its NFT with its unique identification kept on the blockchain. The technology introduced the “Play to Earn” concept to the game, enabling earning.
The process for getting started in The Sandbox is pretty simple. The process includes specific protocols to follow, such as:
- To begin with, users have to register on the Sandbox official website. For registration, having a crypto wallet is a must, as Sandbox supports crypto transactions using SAND as its digital currency. Players who do not have a wallet can easily make one using MetaMask.
- The next step is to create an avatar with different body attires. How players customize your Avatar is entirely up to them, there are various customization options, from facial features to eye colors, body shapes, and much more.
- After creating the Avatar, the Sandbox metaverse will be oriented as per maps.
- You may view all of the digital land plots in the game and select the one that interests you.
- The metaverse has many different levels created by other players, not developers. It showcases the sense of user ownership, where the platform fosters a user creation-based mindset.
- By investing their time in playing, they can earn rewards to purchase an asset on the Marketplace. There is no monetary investment required.
- If a player decides to buy something off the Marketplace, players should do plenty of research beforehand to avoid making a bad investment decision.
Players need to get KYC’d to join the raffle and gain an Alpha Pass to discourage cheating and multi-account usage.
Rapping The Way Into Metaverse Real Estate
“More than 75% of our land owners are actually building”– Borget
It isn’t only Snoop Dog gamifying experiences and social hubs. The Sandbox promotes avatar-centric experiences with brands like The Walking Dead, Deadmau5, Warner Music Group, and Ubisoft’s Rabbids. AS2 saw 325,000 players. Now, the target is 500,000 users for AS3. 22 brands are opening experiences in Season 3, and fans can interact with their favorite metaverse brands and create their own branded user-generated content.
The metaverse property website describes the real estate opportunities in The Sandbox as:
“From conference or commercial spaces, to art galleries, to family homes and hangout spots, Metaverse Properties offers land in premium locations in Sandbox for individuals, enterprises and institutions.” – Metaverse Property
Sandcastles With Value
Players need plenty of $SAND, the in-game currency, and some ETH to cover the Ethereum blockchain’s gas fees to buy Land. Users will visit the official The Sandbox LAND sales on the Map of The Sandbox website to purchase Land. The site announces these sales in advance to give potential buyers time to prepare.Â
It’s also possible to purchase LAND second-hand on some third-party NFT exchanges, such as OpenSea and Rarible, but players will pay a hefty price. Second-hand LAND bought on secondary markets, such as OpenSea or Rarible, will show in the inventory on The Sandbox website, as long as the LAND is in the same third-party wallet that users connected to their Sandbox account when they registered.
VoxEdit And NFT Opportunities
VoxEdit is an NFT creator tool and software used to create, rig, and animate voxel-based NFTs. Creators can sell their NFTs on The Sandbox marketplace and keep 100% of the proceeds. The site claims it empowers artists, creators, and players to build the platform they always envisioned by providing the means to unleash their creativity.
Artists can create assets and avatars, offering creators opportunities to animate their designs. By enabling players to design the game actively, The Sandbox creates a new layer of opportunity in the metaverse. Where its competitors provide pre-designed NFTs held by the core developers, The Sandbox enables a metaverse of infinite possibility as creatives all over the world can invent any NFT they have the power to imagine.
Players can monetize their designs, build portfolios, and indulge in pure creativity.
Sand Into Money
P2E Diary writer Stela Gineva recently reported that Animoca Brands, The Sandbox’s creator, invested $1.5 billion in crypto and blockchain gaming earlier this year. Players can make money by creating games in the metaverse, uploading their creations, and inviting players to participate. The creator can then charge them rent and earn $SAND.
Players can also make $SAND from the digital assets they create through VoxEdit by selling them on the Marketplace. Players simply:
- Install VoxEdit (free).
- Create any Digital Asset.
- Export the Avatar you created directly into The Sandbox Marketplace.
From NFTs to real estate, players can buy and sell virtual Land. However, it isn’t easy to purchase Land, as players need to follow a sale process and buy Land on specific dates. If a player is fortunate enough to purchase Land at a sale price, they can make decent profits by reselling it at a higher price.
An alternative to selling is renting. Players who own land parcels in the virtual world can rent them out and charge a rate. If players want to attract more renters, they can decorate their Land by visiting the Marketplace and purchasing attractive assets.
The best investments in the crypto market right now include $SAND. As the stock and crypto markets have crashed, the price of $SAND has fallen, which makes it an excellent time to buy.
If a buyer holds $SAND at the current price, they can potentially make a marginal profit in the next Bullrun.
Flash Your Style With An Avatar
Avatars are physical manifestations of the self in the metaverse – think of that film, Avatar, that went on for about an entire lifetime on its own. Players need an avatar to get about, party with Snoop Dog, and indulge in the magic of gameplay. Users can design your metaverse persona to be the wizard, vampire, alien mutant robot (did I just reference Doctor Who?) you’ve always imagined yourself to be. The metaworld is your oyster, baby!
There are a few steps you need to follow up to have your very own Avatar in Sandbox:
- Go to google and type sandbox.games. A website will be open to account creation options and also login options. If you don’t have an account, create one. If you do have an account, please log onto your account.
- Select the home page and on the extreme left corner is an option to create.
- Click on create on the Avatar. Now you will have a page having the option of avatar creation.
- There will be various free-to-use avatars that you can customize as per preference. You can customize outfits, skin color, hair color, hairstyle, and more.
- After customization, click on save changes to store your work on your Avatar.
- Now you are ready to enter the game with your virtual Avatar and can explore the metaverse.
It is critical to remember that a sandbox metaverse avatar is the property of its creator. It’s theirs, ‘blockchained’ to their identity. Players may retain management and economic possession of an avatar while utilizing it for business purposes.
Music Meets The Metaverse
The Sandbox has partnered with Warner Music Group (WMG) to create the first music-themed world in The Sandbox gaming metaverse. A combination of musical theme park and concert venue, the Warner Music Group LAND in The Sandbox will feature concerts and musical experiences featuring WMG’s leading roster of artists.
This exciting development will introduce innovative music experiences on the WMG LAND. These immersive experiences will empower Warner Music artists to engage with their fans and reach the global Sandbox community while generating new revenue streams and forms of virtual entertainment.
“Our partnership with The Sandbox adds a new layer of possibility in the metaverse, with the ownership of virtual real estate,” said Oana Ruxandra, Chief Digital Officer & EVP, Business Development at Warner Music Group. “As a first-mover, Warner Music has secured the equivalent of beachfront property in the metaverse. On the LAND, we’ll develop persistent, immersive social music experiences that defy real-world limitations and allow our artists and their fans to engage like never before.” – Warner Music Group
Players can enjoy a complete musical experience in the metaverse and transcend the likes of Spotify and Youtube. Players can enjoy a bespoke WMG LAND with their favorite musicians.
Investing In Future Gamemakers
Not only is The Sandbox encouraging creatives to share and sell their work, but they have also introduced The Game Maker Fund to support game designers. The fund aims to reward and incentivize those with proven game design or digital world design skills to help them produce and publish excellent games and experiences for players.
Developers hoping to access the fund must apply and submit a proposal for their project. Applicants will need:Â
- A list of required ASSETs.
- A list of necessary features.
- A well-presented document (i.e., written with Microsoft Word, Google Drive, etc.) describing the game, including what the player would need to do, what the game would include and involve, and what the game’s objective is.
- Mock-ups, images, storyboards, and so on help us get a vision of your proposed game.
- Clarify whether the application is for a solo designer or a team of designers.
- An applicant description and necessary experiences in game design or digital world design- including links to proof and a portfolio.
- Prove an estimate of how many months it will likely take to complete the project, including a series of milestones.
- LAND needed for the project.
-The Sandbox
This is definitely a fund worth winning for those seeking a career in game development!
Conclusion…
The Sandbox is flying high and doesn’t look set to crash down to earth anytime soon. Players can enjoy an infinite number of worlds and design their own should they be so inclined. Democratized, decentralized, and harnessing the power of community creativity. The Sandbox is a truly exciting metaverse, and we’re optimistic that the future holds even more exciting developments.
Whether you’re a music buff, designer, fantasy fanatic, or focused on earning from Land, there really does seem to be something for everyone in this metaverse. It’s also a clever methodology, offering ambitious gamers an opportunity to develop their skills and throw their creative energies into the public eye. Creators always seek new opportunities to demonstrate their skills and explore exciting new possibilities. The Sandbox offers both a platform to perform and to observe, feeding into an ecosystem of future developers. Many developers will likely hone their craft in creating worlds in the Sandbox metaverse.
“The platform offers the exciting option of building your 3D games and creating assets using their VoxEdit builder, which makes it a great choice! We hope this article from The Metaverse Insider has fully explained the limitless potential of this metaverse.” – The Metaverse Insider.Â
It’s almost reminiscent of Terry Pratchett’s Disc World, where stories unroll in a single universe but stand independently. Each ‘Land’ has its own character, each Avatar its own history in the game. It’s an exciting time to be in the metaverse, and with every new Sandbox season, a new range of brands and possibilities emerge.
We can’t wait to see what’s coming next!
