Minecraft is currently one of the most popular games in the world, with over 2.5 million players on a daily basis. There isn’t a single person who hasn’t heard of the game and its delightful, box-based gameplay. Sandbox.
However, an unlikely candidate- The Sandbox- has recently disrupted Minecraft’s market share. The Sandbox is a mobile-first game in which players can use the Ethereum blockchain to construct their own gaming experience. In addition to having full ownership of each block they place, players can monetise the material they generate.
Today, we’ll look at how the Sandbox grabbed the globe by storm, how far the “sandbox” video-game experience may be taken in the Metaverse, and another game that could steal Sandbox’s market share as Minecraft did.
What Is The Sandbox, Exactly?
The Sandbox is a blockchain gaming platform that allows players to design and control their own games. The Sandbox is divided into three sections, each of which allows users to generate their own material within the game. These are the following:VoxEdit is a simple 3D voxel (like one Minecraft block) modeling and NFT creation toolset that lets players to create and animate 3D objects. After an item has been constructed, it can be exported to the next phase.
The Marketplace: Objects can be sent to the marketplace to become NFTs once they’ve been made. Users can upload, publish, and sell all of their VoxEdit NFTs here.
The Game Designer: The Sandbox’s true meat is the Game Maker. Players can design and create their own 3D gaming experiences here. This is a no-code tool that allows players to write complex scripts that come together to generate a game.
So, where are all of these user-created games being played? Users can place their material on 166,464 units of “LAND” in the game. Each LAND is 96 x 96 meters in size and can be purchased individually.
If this quantity of room isn’t adequate for some complicated, team-based activities, users can instead purchase an ESTATE. An ESTATE is just a collection of numerous lands on which your assets and games can be placed.
The allure of games in which the player has complete control cannot be overstated. Since the release of its second alpha in 2020, the Sandbox has amassed a total of 2 million users. With the growing popularity of blockchain games in general, it’s probable that The Sandbox will continue to expand in the future.
Why Are Blockchain Games Getting So Much Attention?
Since CryptoKittens first demonstrated that blockchain gaming might be profitable, the industry has exploded. There are a variety of reasons why these games continue to perform well and attract devoted fan bases.
To begin with, gamers enjoy having ownership of some aspects of their games. It’s a nice feeling to be able to truly own the NFTs utilized in the games and know that they can’t be taken away from you.
The notions of “play-to-earn,” “play-to-own,” and “play-for-cause” provide additional motivation for gamers to play the game. Players can own and sell their in-game assets for real money using the play-to-earn and play-to-own models. Play-for-cause, on the other hand, donates the fees and money invested in the game to charity causes.
Finally, there’s the in-game economy to consider. A marketplace is present in almost all multiplayer games. Game markets, on the other hand, are famously volatile. Blockchain games, on the other hand, solve this problem by linking the in-game economy to real money. All purchases and governance choices at The Sandbox, for example, are made with $SAND tokens.
Governance tokens also give players a way to communicate with the developers of their game and have a say in how it develops. This ensures a happy player base, and developers won’t confront major user dissatisfaction following improvements because they’ll already be aware of the community’s thoughts.
What Would A Real-Life Sandbox Experience Be Like?
Sandbox games, at their essence, are games in which the player base is free to utilize their imagination to generate content within the game world. However, many metaverse experiences that promise sandbox gameplay fall short of expectations. Players in games like Ember Sword, Blankos, and others are severely constrained in what they can do within the game world.
Because of how much we as players may influence the game world, the sandbox style of gaming appeals to a large number of gamers. Within the gaming environment, we can create lasting memories and collaborate with friends to create unique structures and experiences.
While The Sandbox provides a high-quality sandbox experience, it appears that REALM is eating away at its own market share. REALM addresses the most common criticism of The Sandbox, namely that it isn’t very scalable.
The Sandbox, on the other hand, has a rather strict technology that will either require a redesign or a significant increase in the number of servers it runs on. REALM can be scaled indefinitely. The game’s makers have created a really novel experience with a crew full of prior tech founders.
They allow you to customize your avatar and the gaming world to your heart’s content. Instead of using simple voxel-based graphics, the game uses complex 3D models to present a lifelike scene to its players.
On the 21st and 22nd of June, there will be an exclusive preview of the game REALM, which was created in collaboration with Oseanworld.
Overall, sandbox blockchain games are in a terrific spot right now, and we’re interested to see which of the current hits, if any, will remain at the top in a few years.
