Published on: 11/10/2021
The Sandbox Game
The aptly named Sandbox game is, well, a sandbox. Specifically, a community-focused platform that allows users to create and host their own content within the game’s framework. Similar to games like CryptoVoxels and Decentraland, it makes a strong effort to become the first full functional metaverse out there.
On the way there, it presents itself as a pretty comprehensive online experience where creators build and share their stuff as they like. It’s successful too – The Sandbox has managed to sign some huge partnerships with brands like Atari, Hell’s Kitchen, Deadmau5, CareBears and crypto brands like Klaytn, Matic, Dapp, VoxoDeus, BoredApeYachtClub and over a dozen more.
What is the Sandbox game?
As a cryptocurrency-based game, it relies heavily on SAND – that’s the token or currency it uses. In order to fulfill transactions and interactions, SAND tokens are needed. SAND itself is one of many ERC-20 standard tokens built on the popular Ethereum blockchain. As is often the case, SAND is a finite resource – no more than 3 billion sand will ever exist, no matter how high the demand. This is in part done to ensure value stability, and also to fight off potential attacks on the game itself, as well as the potential forced devaluation of assets.
The other important aspect of the Sandbox is Land. The entire Sandbox game online world is made up of land plots – a total of 166464 exists, and no more will ever be added. That means that land is quite a valuable commodity – and players who have it can use it to create their own little part of paradise, exactly how they want it. It can be used for all sorts of stuff – to host games, interact with friends, as a more traditional virtual house, or any sort of social hangout space, really. Other players can visit and interact with these spaces, and it’s also where creators show off their works.
At the same time, land can also be viewed as a financial investment – not only does it have a real-money valuation to go with it, it can be monetized by the owners as well. With it come voxel editors that are used to create their own voxel elements, as the game features 16-bit like voxel graphics.
How can you play the game?
By definition, the Sandbox game allows anyone to play around in it – and people are definitely going for it. While the game itself is still in pre-alpha right now, users can register in order to get early access when it comes out. For the time being, players can get involved in the Sandbox game by downloading the Game Maker, where they can craft and create a ton of content without any coding knowledge needed.
Creating is free, and users can build, share and edit just about everything that interests them. When the game goes live, what users can do with their content will change as well, in that they’ll be able to host games on the land they may own. NFT-based content like lands and creations can be bought and sold on the related marketplace for SAND. These creations include all sorts of items – from decorations and pets to entire human characters!
