The Sandbox is a decentralized virtual world where you may construct and own 3D digital objects in the form of NFT to build and play in the vast metaverse. The project plans to utilize a play-to-earn (P2E) model to help artists, game makers, and players express and monetize their creativity through voxel art.
The Sandbox originated as two mobile games developed by Pixowl, The Sandbox (2012) and The Sandbox Evolution (2016). Both games are 2D sandbox games similar to Terraria.
In early 2018, the developer announced its acquisition by Animoca Brands and revealed its ambitions to create a new blockchain-based, multiplayer, cross-platform 3D sandbox game. They hoped to revolutionize the sandbox gaming industry and disrupt major sandbox games such as Roblox and Minecraft with their NFT and Play-to-Earn model.
What Makes The Sandbox Special?
1) A Metaverse To Unleash Your Creativity
The Sandbox aims to enable players to unleash their creativity by creating their own digital assets, gaming experiences, and eventually the entire metaverse they envision.
Because the game is blockchain-based, players can choose to turn their unique creations into NFTs and immutably record them on the blockchain to be stored or exchanged.
2) You Would Have Fun Building With Voxels
The building blocks of The Sandbox are known as voxels, small lego-like cubes that can be stacked together to form digital items in various shapes and forms. These kinds of building blocks aren't native to The Sandbox, but what makes The Sandbox’s voxels unique and far superior is that the game supports voxels in smaller sizes compared to other similar games like Minecraft and Roblox, allowing for more possibilities in an artwork.
Players may use The Sandbox's VoxEdit program to design and animate their own digital items and transform their creations into NFTs to sell them on the marketplace.
3) The Sandbox’s Promising Development Progress
Unlike other blockchain-based metaverses that continue to sell NFTs and digital land but fail to provide a thorough scope into actual game development, The Sandbox is doing an excellent job constructing its metaverse.
The Sandbox hosted its Alpha Season 1 in November 2021, allowing players to explore The Sandbox metaverse for the first time through 18 experiences produced by its teams. The alpha was open to all users for free, allowing them to enjoy a multiplayer experience that exhibited a variety of locations and objectives.
At the time of writing, the team has hinted that Alpha Season 2 would be released very soon. However, the actual date has yet to be announced.
4) Metaverse Is The Next Big Thing
Meta’s “Social In The Metaverse” Trailer Scene
Metaverses are being explored by prominent tech companies such as Meta, Microsoft, and Apple, as well as major gaming studios like Epic Games and Roblox. According to JP Morgan, the metaverse will penetrate every industry in some form in the next few years, with a business opportunity valued at more than $1 trillion annually.
The Sandbox is widely considered one of the industry leaders, with its native cryptocurrency SAND having a market valuation of approximately $5 billion. The company also has a first-mover advantage that enables it to build significant brand recognition and product loyalty ahead of competitive market entrants.
The Sandbox’s LAND sales have been phenomenal. LAND is the metaverse’s digital real estate that allows owners to create and build experiences on top of them. Since the metaverse became a mainstream topic, The Sandbox has consistently seen over 300 LANDs traded per day. The floor price of a single parcel of LAND is currently sitting at 3.7 ETH on OpenSea.
If you wish to learn more about the metaverse, check out our "What is the Metaverse and Who's Building it?" article.
5) The Sandbox Has Secured Over 200 Partnerships
The Sandbox has secured over 200 partnerships, including Adidas, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, The Smurfs, Care Bears, Atari, CryptoKitties, Shaun the Sheep, to provide a fun and expansive gaming experience.
In addition, The Sandbox has also teamed up with Warner Music Group (WMG) to develop a concert theme park in the metaverse. WMG believes that the blockchain sector will significantly impact the music industry in the future. With so many metaverses in the space, The Sandbox was picked as the partner, further reinforcing the developer’s strengths.
Since the term metaverse started gaining traction, businesses have begun to acquire The Sandbox's LAND. Companies such as PwC and Gucci announced their LAND acquisitions in early 2022 to expand their presence in the metaverse.
6) The Sandbox’s $50M Metaverse Accelerator Program
The Sandbox has invested $50 million in collaboration with Brinc to expand its open metaverse. Over a three-year period, the initiative intends to accelerate 30 to 40 startups every year.
The program's main goal is to help new startups get started so they can contribute to the growth and development of The Sandbox ecosystem by creating unique experiences and populating the platform with new innovation and content.
7) The Sandbox Gets Greener
The blockchain industry's carbon impact has been an ongoing topic of concern recently. As of December 2021, the carbon footprint of a single Ethereum transaction was 102.38 kilos of CO2, which is equivalent to the carbon footprint of 226,910 VISA transactions or 17,063 hours of YouTube viewing. As a result, many people and businesses have refused to adopt blockchain.
To tackle these challenges, The Sandbox has announced that it will transition to Polygon to reduce the carbon impact of its platform by up to 99%. Their team is also collaborating with Offsetra and Nori on carbon offsets, as well as WeForest on worldwide replanting programs. The Sandbox intends to make its metaverse more accessible and affordable to all players worldwide while being environmentally conscious.
What Can I Do Now?
Although the game is still in its alpha stage and has not yet been completely launched, those interested in exploring some aspects of the metaverse may try out its creator software for free.
1) VoxEdit
VoxEdit is a software that allows you to create, rig, and animate your own voxel items, which may then be converted into NFTs and sold on The Sandbox's marketplace. I personally attempted to build a CoinGecko mascot using a pre-made human model in order to test out the software. Overall, the app is quite smooth and simple to use, but it is not flawless since some features are somewhat difficult to control. After all, the software is still in its beta stage.
You can download VoxEdit on the software’s official website. If you want to learn more about using the software, read this technical guide.
2) Game Maker
The Game Maker, or The Sandbox Maker, allows players to develop games for the metaverse without coding experience. Yes, you can literally create your own game! Players can contribute to the vast metaverse by building amazing 3D games using voxel models created by the community via VoxEdit.
I’ve spent some time exploring several user-created games in the Game Maker. My experience so far has been pleasant, and the graphic looks pretty decent.
You may download the Game Maker here.
Conclusion
Overall, The Sandbox appears promising compared to the other metaverses in development, owing to its appealing graphics and competent metaverse-building software. The game is expected to grow and expand further with its Metaverse Accelerator Program.
Lately, crypto gaming enthusiasts seem to be frustrated by the pump-and-dump economy, which is detrimental to the long-term sustainability of the segment. As such, the future of The Sandbox largely depends on how the team will roll out its decentralization and play-to-earn model, instead of being just a cash grab.
Also, like any other blockchain game, The Sandbox is inextricably linked to the cryptocurrency market. Therefore, any movement in the cryptocurrency market may affect the development progress of the game, particularly the price of SAND.
In closing, do your own research if you decide to invest in the game.
The Sandbox Gitbook: https://sandboxgame.gitbook.io/the-sandbox/
The Sandbox Roadmap: https://www.sandbox.game/en/roadmap/
The Sandbox Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/thesandboxgame
The Sandbox Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/TheSandboxGame
Yi Hong is a market research intern at CoinGecko. He is a finance student who is learning more about blockchain technology.
Or check it out in the app stores
