With the introduction of crypto gaming, the metaverse and NFTs, projects such as the Sandbox have started to gain attention after years of development. From monetizing creativity to a whole new set of Multiverses, here is our complete guide to the Sandbox game.
What Is Sandbox?
The Sandbox project is part of the recent crypto gaming explosion, basing itself as a blockchain-based virtual world run on the Ethereum blockchain, integrating gaming with decentralised finance, blockchain technology and the metaverse.
In the Sandbox game, players buy, sell and trade digital assets through their marketplaces such as Land, decorations, character customization and more. Each asset bought, sold or traded on the marketplace is its own NFT (Non-fungible token) stored on the blockchain with its own unique identifier. Having each item as its own NFT means if SAND was to ever shut down, users would still own their assets. You can view all items for sale here.
Sandbox is its own metaverse, allowing user-owned NFTs to come to life, perfectly shown in their trailer. The Sandbox metaverse is the project's own virtual world made up of 166,464 pieces of ownable land, which can be populated by assets and UGCs (User-Generated content)
What Is Digital Land?
Digital land is at the core of the Sandbox ecosystem with each of the 166,464 total pieces of land taking up 96 square metres of in-game land.
Each piece of LAND is its own NFT (ERC-721 Token).
Estates, which are several pieces of land combined together, are used in the Sandbox metaverse for teams of creators to work on. Estates can then be made into DISTRICTs if owned by several people.
Estate Sizes throughout Sandbox, reaching up to 576 LANDS
LAND owners in Sandbox can deploy their experience, stake their tokens and show off their amazing art. The game developers suggest positioning your LAND close to large estates to attract maximum attention towards your own LAND.
LAND owners also have the opportunity to rent their land to other creators, where their unique experiences can be deployed.
Premium LANDs
LAND which is close to social hubs or spawn points throughout the metaverse is considered premium as it will experience far greater player traffic than regular LAND.
More traffic means more potential rewards from staking, pay-to-play games, and even advertising. Premium land is a lot more expensive.
Different Tokens Within the Ecosystem
Metaverse games such as the Sandbox will have their own native token, such as SAND, and others to facilitate trade and activity within the ecosystem. There are four distinct types of tokens used throughout the game.
*GEMs and CATALYSTs are used within the VoxEditor to help construct assets.
- SAND(ERC-20 Token)
The SAND token is the game's utility token, being used for key functions throughout the game such as acquiring ASSETs and LAND, trading SAND for unique NFTs on their marketplace.
SAND is also a requirement to participate in their governance protocols.
- GAME (ERC-1155 Token)
GAME tokens each represent a unique experience which has been created by a user, made in Game Maker.
The GAME token will be combined with a LAND token, creating an experience.
- LAND(ERC-721 Token)
LAND tokens in the Sandbox game each represent a unique NFT representing one of the 166,464 pieces of total land throughout the metaverse.
- ASSETS (ERC-1155 Token)
ASSET tokens are also unique NFTs, created in VoxEdit by independent users. Each ASSET can be sold, traded or bought on the marketplace, ranging from animals to house decorations. ASSETs are what fill the Sandbox game and make it feel alive.
There are four different types of assets: Entities, Equipment, Wearable and Art, each being its own unique NFT.
Three Distinct Sandbox Products
The Sandbox metaverse is made possible through its three main products which help to create, edit and market UGC and your favourite NFTs.
1. Game Maker
Game Maker is what makes Sandbox come alive. Users, with no prior coding experience, can jump into Game Maker and create 3D games for their friends and the entire Sandbox community. The software utilises real assets within Sandbox, allowing them to be swiftly added to the multiverse.
Once the experience or game has been created, users must have access to LAND within the Sandbox game for it to become fully functional.
2. Marketplace
The marketplace is Sandbox’s hub of trade for players selling and buying ASSETs to use throughout the metaverse. Players can put their LAND up for sale or advertise it for rent. All transactions are done through the utility token SAND.
Users can utilise the + feature to view assets in the Game Maker before purchasing, useful for wearable items and decorations.
Here we can see a piece of land, represented by the small orange tile, being sold for 2.74 Ethereum, around $8,000 at current market values. Most land is sold via OpenSea, where NFTs such as LAND are stored in the user's wallet.
Surrounding LANDs and ESTATEs can be seen around the land for sale, to determine whether the land is close to hubs or large estates such as RSS3 in this example.
All marketplace transactions receive a 5% additional fee to fund new creators creating new NFTs.
3. VoxEdit
Users utilise VoxEdit to create voxel assets, then converted into NFTs and uploaded onto the marketplace. ASSETs created through VoxEdit vary from experience to collectables.
Using VoxEdit for asset design allows swift integration of the asset into the main game for character customization, NPCs and even hostile enemies. VoxEdit also boasts zero coding experience needed to create beautiful digital assets to sell on their marketplace encouraging
GEMs AND CATALYSTs
GEMs and CATALYSTs interact with ASSETs to determine specific attributes and scarcity.
GEMs
Burnt on usage, GEMs interact with ASSETs to grant unique attributes to them, up to a maximum of four gems, with each GEM providing 25 attribute points (For a maximum of 100). ASSETS with better and more attributes will provide more value inside the Sandbox game, and can be seen as levelling your asset, as you would do in an MMORPG.
GEMs are acquired through the marketplace, or by staking SAND on LAND.
CATALYSTs
Also interacting with ASSETs and burnt on usage, CATALYSTs determine the scarcity and tier of the ASSET. These tiers are Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary. Each tier will require an additional CATALYST to be added.
Playing the Sandbox
To get started in the Sandbox game, head to the official website. To register a Sandbox account, a cryptocurrency wallet is required, as the game utilises cryptocurrency instead of fiat currency for any in-game transactions.
The developers recommended choosing any of these wallets:
- MetaMask
- Bitski
- Venly
Connect your chosen wallet to their account creation screen.
After creating an account, head to play now to play instantly on the web. Alternatively, you can download their game client for macOS or Windows for a better gaming experience.
Earning Within Sandbox
Unboutdbly, many users are flocking to cryptocurrency games for the opportunity to earn extra income, and you can’t blame them. Many early adopters have been able to make huge returns on LAND sales or simply the creation of digital assets through VoxEdit. Let’s break down some of the ways players can make money through the Sandbox game.
- Digital Asset Creation
Firstly, Sandbox’s Game Maker application allows for pay-to-earn game creation which can be executed on owned or rented LAND. Extra digital assets, which can be bought or created through VoxEdit, can be added to enhance the user experience. Ultimately once deployed, users can be charged to play your game or experience.
Secondly, ASSETs can be created through the VoxEdit program, monetizing your creativity, and sold on the Sandbox marketplace as NFTs.
- Renting Your LAND
If you’re lucky enough to own digital land in the Sandbox Metaverse, you can rent it out to creators wanting to deploy their experiences or games. Depending on the location and traffic of your LAND, it’s a great opportunity to earn passive income without selling your LAND.
- Staking
Sandbox recently released a new staking protocol, allowing SAND owners to directly stake their SAND on the Polygon network, leveraging zero-fee transactions. Rewards will be distributed weekly and is a great way to earn passive income on your SAND without owning any digital assets in the game.
To find out how to safely stake SAND through Polygon, see their recent article here.
Partners with Sandbox
Large celebrities such as Snoop Dogg have already entered the Sandbox Metaverse with 10,000 unique playable Snoop Dogg characters. All 10,000 doggies were sold out quickly and now are traded on OpenSea, which has shown the celebrity integration and large player base actively seeking out new opportunities, being a testament to the game's ability to capture celebrity interest and form great partnerships.
Many other brands and partnerships have already integrated their way into the Metaverse, not exclusive to Adidas, the walking dead and Atari. Large partnerships which offer exclusive access to unique experiences such as a live Snoop Dogg concert within the Snoopverse also incentivize players to buy new and upcoming releases.
Will The Metaverse Continue to Take Off?
Crypto gaming and the Metaverse have a recent explosion in popularity and investment, with the Sandbox utility token pumping over 10x from $0.60 to over $6 in late 2021. The historic rise came from a multitude of factors with other metaverse and crypto gaming projects realising similar gains, granting Sandbox a spot in the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Currently, most metaverse tokens are experiencing a downward trend, both in player base and price action, but this may just be a case of higher lows before they truly take off.
Many believe the Metaverse to be the future with virtual and augmented reality already becoming a large sector, outside of cryptocurrency. Examples include the change from Facebook to Meta, with Mark Zuckerburg heavily endorsing the metaverse and the change it can make in our lives, such as virtual meetings and games like we see today.
The metaverse will definitely not run our lives in the next few years, but we may see more mainstream adoption as the technology becomes more economically attainable and more diverse. Time will tell if the Metaverse will continue to gain traction across the western world and onward.
Conclusion
Games such as Sandbox demonstrate the combination of groundbreaking technology working seamlessly together, allowing users to fully own their virtual assets and utilise them in a virtual and reality, some even profiting off of it.
Sandbox is the industry leader in crypto gaming and metaverse games and will continue to spearhead through into unknown land. However, successful games come from a loyal player base with constant attention from the developers, of which Sandbox is yet to prove. Try it out for yourself, or simply be a speculative investor helping aid the Sandbox economy.
