Learn all about one of the largest virtual worlds in the Metaverse
The Metaverse changes the way we perceive gaming, and at the forefront of this new generation of games is the virtual world, The Sandbox.
Have you ever thought about being part of a Metaverse to receive financial rewards for playing and building gaming experiences? With The Sandbox, that is possible. In this article, we’ll explore what The Sandbox is and everything you need to know to get started.
Table of Contents
- What is The Sandbox?
- How to play The Sandbox?
- Can I play The Sandbox for free?
- How to buy assets and land in The Sandbox?
- What is the difference between The Sandbox and Minecraft?
- Is The Sandbox worth playing?
- What are The Sandbox Metaverse alternatives?
- What’s next in The Sandbox Alpha
- Keep tracking The Sandbox with DappRadar
What is The Sandbox?
The Sandbox is a virtual world powered by the Polygon blockchain where you can create, experiment, and play with 3D voxel assets. The game allows for full asset ownership and monetization through its integrated marketplace.
Moreover, The Sandbox also has its own cryptocurrency called SAND, which the community can use to purchase assets, land, and games within the platform.
But before we proceed, here are a few questions that you may want answers to.
What is a Metaverse?
A Metaverse is a shared virtual space where people can interact with each other and create experiences. The Metaverse is the next natural step in the evolution of the internet, where users will have their own avatars and be able to move around freely.
What is a blockchain?
A blockchain is a digital ledger that records all cryptocurrency transactions. It is a decentralized database that is spread across a network of computers. Blockchains are secure because they use cryptography to validate each transaction.
How does the game work?
The Sandbox game is based on voxels, which are 3D cubes that make up the environment and assets within the game. This is somewhat comparable to Minecraft.
Players can create their own assets using The Sandbox’s VoxEdit tool, or purchase assets from the in-game marketplace.
Once you have your assets, you can use them to create games and experiences within The Sandbox Game Maker. The Game Maker is also available for free.
These games can then be played by other players, and if they’re popular, you can earn SAND tokens from them. Pretty cool, huh?
How does the Sandbox game economy work?
Play-to-earn games are often underestimated by traditional gamers, but The Sandbox game economy is actually quite sophisticated. In-game assets have real value because they can be sold or traded on the marketplace. Moreover, players can earn revenue from the games they create.
Get to know The Sandbox tokens
The in-game currency is called SAND (an ERC-20 token), which is used to purchase assets and land within the platform.
It’s the main utility token of the game, and you can earn it by playing games, participating in the community, or selling assets.
Watch the video below for a full explanation:
Furthermore, there are also non-fungible tokens in The Sandbox Metaverse:
- LAND (ERC-721 token): represents each piece of land in this Metaverse;
- GAME (ERC-1155 Token): represents a unique user-generated experience;
- ASSET (ERC-1155 Token): represents a user-generated asset to be used in the game.
Each token plays an important role in the game economy, and they can all be used to improve your gameplay.
How to play The Sandbox?
If you’re interested in playing The Sandbox, the first thing you need to do is visit their official website. You also need to know that The Sandbox is still in its early development phase.
For Alpha Season 3, anybody can play for 10 weeks, but earnings mechanics are only available to those holding certain NFTs.
- Learn more about how to play The Sandbox Season 3 with our latest game review.
Create your Avatar
You can start by creating your Avatar and making it look just like you – or whatever version you would like to see in this virtual world.
The Sandbox also allows you to purchase assets like clothes and accessories to make your Avatar look the way you want.
If you want to go even further, you can get celebrity Avatars and play as them! Steve Aoki and Snoop Dogg are some famous people that have joined The Sandbox Metaverse.
Another cool thing about Avatars in The Sandbox is that you can use your NFTs from outside the game there as well. For example, holding a World of Women NFT or Metakrew NFT character will allow you to use it in The Sandbox, simply by holding that particular asset in your wallet.
Connect your wallet to sign in
Then, you can go ahead and connect your web3 wallet to the game. This is when you can get a bit confused if you aren’t used to playing blockchain games. But it’s quite a simple process, and you can watch our video What is a web3 wallet for some insights on them.
The Sandbox connects to different wallet services, and you can choose between MetaMask, Bitski, WalletConnect, and Coinbase Wallet.
Download the Game Maker and start exploring
Once you’re all signed in and your Avatar is ready, you can start playing The Sandbox. The next step is to download the Game Maker app, where all the magic happens.
The game is available on desktop for Windows and macOS, and it’s quite simple to understand.
Once you finish installing the game, you can create your own world or play on someone else’s creation. Here, the sky’s the limit. There are thousands of different virtual worlds in The Sandbox with different gameplay, where you can interact with your friends.
If you are feeling creative and want to try something new, you can also make your world from scratch or use one of the templates. But to do so, you need to own Land.
What does The Sandbox look like?
The game map extends now for 15,000 virtual square kilometers, making it the largest Metaverse real estate in existence.
It is made of small, big, and huge squares (166,464 parcels of LAND in total), each playable, purchasable, or rented out by players. Each of these squares is called LAND.
You’ll recognize very familiar logos, to which the respective LAND belongs. Each brand there has been building its own experience, missions, perks, and shows.
It is up to the player which one to start with based on affinity or simply enter one of the many portals and join an “independent” experience.
What experiences can you find in The Sandbox?
With diverse LANDs come also very diverse experiences. During our gameplay, every 45 minutes or so we would play through very different puzzles and quests (find, kill, solve, visit). The diversity makes playing engaging, although not everyone is a fan of the sharp yet pixelated (voxel) graphics.
Also, given a lot of experiences and quests are likely not done by professional game developers, expect some of them to be harder than anticipated, or not completely well designed.
How do you climb up the game leaderboard?
The more and the faster you’ll complete quests within each area, the higher your position on the game leaderboard, which rewards the most performant players with $SAND (the in-game currency), used to purchase game assets, customize your avatar or play specific experiences.
Remember that quests in each area must all be finished in one playing session. Otherwise, you’ll have to restart them all, while you can replay them to rank up on the leaderboard (upon account verification).
Moreover, all the quests we tried on The Sandbox are Free-to-play, but individual creators are allowed to place a “paywall” to be able to play on their LAND.
How can gamers create ASSETs in The Sandbox?
The Sandbox is the most advanced open Metaverse supporting the creator economy and decentralizing its revenue. The voxels-based graphics and tools allow for a no-code building experience, enabling even beginner creators to contribute and monetize their efforts.
There are three main tools to create, sell and monetize game ASSETs and experiences:
VoxEdit
A free-to-use 3D modeling and animation program designed for creating voxel-based assets for The Sandbox.
The Game Maker
A simple and easy-to-use tool that allows you to design, test, and share experiences, such as games, within The Sandbox’s Metaverse.
The Game Maker is an interface and a fund that rewards those who have proven game design/digital world design skills to help them produce and publish excellent games and experiences for players of The Sandbox to play.
The Marketplace
Here you can monetize voxel ASSETs created in VoxEdit, and buy LAND. It allows the trading of player-owned or created ASSETs, which are interoperable between different games and different platforms (for example, you can purchase avatars by Snoop Dog, BAYC, Moonbirds, and many others).
Can I play The Sandbox for free?
Yes, you can experience The Sandbox for free and explore other people’s creations with a free Avatar.
However, if you want to create your own experiences, you need to buy Land. And while you can also make assets for free, you need some Gems (purchasable tokens) to mint them. So, everything regarding the play-to-earn aspect requires a prior investment.
If you only want to play for fun, you can enjoy The Sandbox for free. How the earning mechanics will work exactly is still to be determined. But, judging by the Alpha test seasons, it’s likely that certain NFTs can boost the earning potential of players.
How to buy assets and land in The Sandbox?
You can find these NFTs for sale on The Sandbox official marketplace, but also on decentralized exchanges like OpenSea.
The Sandbox Metaverse is made up of 166,446 lands, and you can do whatever you want with it. You can build your own game, a social gathering spot, a private mansion, or create an experience for other players to enjoy.
But before you choose any land to purchase, consider checking out its location on the map. You may end up being Snoop Dogg’s neighbor, for example.
Keep track of their prices using the DappRadar NFT Collections Explorer and find out how to value The Sandbox’s lands in our report.
What is the difference between The Sandbox and Minecraft?
Both The Sandbox and Minecraft rely on user-generated content, but only one of them can reward players and creators for their contribution. Thanks to the implementation of NFTs and crypto coins, The Sandbox has already attracted online communities, corporations, and big brands.
What’s more, in The Sandbox, players can earn revenue from the experiences they create, while in Minecraft, they cannot.
It’s true that The Sandbox was inspired by games like Minecraft and Roblox, but it took the user-generated content concept to a whole new level by rewarding participants.
Is The Sandbox worth playing?
If you’re interested in user-generated content and earning revenue from your creations, then The Sandbox may be worth a try.
However, deciding whether or not to play a game is a personal choice, so you’re the only one who can know if it’s worth it for you.
What are The Sandbox Metaverse alternatives?
Besides The Sandbox, there are a few other interesting Metaverse virtual worlds with land NFTs, such as:
Some offer more features than others and also are more advanced in their roadmap. It’s worth remembering that this type of game belongs to quite a revolutionary era where things are changing fast.
So, if you’re interested in joining the Metaverse and playing in web3, be prepared to have everything you know about gaming questioned. It’s a fun ride!
What’s next in The Sandbox Alpha
In order to promote the creations and gameplay in the Metaverse, The Sandbox created public events called Alpha. The first Alpha season took place in December 2021, the second in March 2022, and the third and biggest of all will take place this summer.
Alpha season 3 remained true to its trailer, bringing plenty of new content and fresh earning mechanics for its community.
The Alpha Season 3 is a 10-week event open to everyone, with over 90 gaming experiences created by players, brands, and studios.
To join, you must register for free and level up to win one of the 10,000 Alpha Passes – with a chance to earn up to 500 SAND reaching level 5, with extra rewards for players holding Land, Avatars, or NFTs.
As more details will be announced shortly, you do well to follow the project’s official Twitter for updates.
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Keep tracking The Sandbox with DappRadar
As gamers, we found The Sandbox Alpha to be not only an engaging, varied, and ever-evolving Metaverse experience but especially a platform of content consumers and creators where we can play an active role.
We found an impressive number of renowned brands and gamers that believed in the project and keep supporting it.Whether you’re looking for the next worthwhile blockchain game or just a good opportunity, it’s worth keeping up to date on The Sandbox.
Through the NFT Explorer, you get to see all the latest sales, while The Sandbox dapp page gives you additional information.
DappRadar will continue to follow the path of the Metaverse and bring you the best data and content. Then make sure to follow our blog and Twitter, and join our Discord server.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your own research.
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