Trading land is the foundation, but The Sandbox will bring a lot more in 2021.
2021 is a moment everybody involved in The Sandbox has been waiting for, the virtual gaming world will finally open up for users to play and have fun. However, playing is just one part of the universe presented by The Sandbox. Those who get involved can earn SAND, buy and commercialize LAND and do a whole lot more. Let’s take a look at what 2021 has in store for The Sandbox.
Best thought of as ‘Roblox-on-the-blockchain’, user-generated content platform The Sandbox had a stellar 2020. They managed to sell over $2 million worth of its NFT land plots.
These LAND sales will continue in 2021, of course, with the next 1,209 plots up for sale on 11 February. This first public land sale is done in conjunction with Binance-owned CoinMarketCap. To date, over 40% of the total 166,464 LAND NFTs have been sold so there’s plenty more left. It’s important to note that Binance is a big supporter of the project, itself owning 4,012 land plots.
There’s quite some demand for virtual land in The Sandbox. On a daily basis approximately one hundred NFTs change hands on average, this can be land parcels or game items. The limited supply of land, the collectability of items and the increasing value of cryptocurrencies, pushes the value up.
But land is only the foundation of The Sandbox, which started life as a 2D pixel-based mobile game in 2012. Since then, there have been three versions, which gained 40 million downloads. The concepts of these mobile games resulted in the current version of The Sandbox.
In 2021 The Sandbox takes the action into a 3D world. In addition it adds blockchain as an economic layer for creators and players to share in the financial value generated. Later this year players can earn SAND through in-game activities, or by creating content and participating in the game’s economy.
How to use The Sandbox
There are multiple ways to interact with The Sandbox.
Expert artists can use the VoxEdit package to create and animate in-game items such as characters, buildings, or vehicles. Once created, these are then minted onto the blockchain, defined in terms of their rarity, scarcity, and attributes. Creators can make their NFTs available for other players to buy via the game’s marketplace.
All this economic activity is carried out using SAND, which is the game’s payment system. SAND is a cryptocurrency, secured by the Ethereum blockchain, and underpins activity in The Sandbox, including being given away as rewards.
Making and sharing your own games
For many players, a key element of the game will be the Game Maker package. This enables them to create their own mini-games or playful environments they can share with their friends, or open up for everyone to enjoy.
These levels are crafted using simple block building tools and then populated with items and characters acquired from the marketplace. Players can also set up simple gameplay logic in terms of missions and victory conditions.
Once completed, these are then uploaded to the Ethereum blockchain and made available via a LAND plot. This would require the player to own at least one LAND NFT. This is how these environments connect to the blockchain and are made available to other players.
Of course, all this makes The Sandbox a complex project, and it’s one that remains firmly still in development.
First chance to play
Later this month, The Sandbox will release the first set of mini-games that have been created by the community. Labeled ‘Season 0’, players will have two weeks to play through these games, earning SAND tokens by completing them all.
As well as testing the platform, and rewarding its early community, this campaign will be the first opportunity for The Sandbox to reach out to people who don’t really understand its blockchain components in an intuitive manner.
