The Sandbox is a name you’ve undoubtedly run into if you’ve followed the metaverse space’s development for any time. A wide range of NFT creators have joined the game, hosting projects and, occasionally, elaborate concert presentations.

But what exactly is The Sandbox? Is the game a “play to earn” (P2E) one? A virtual environment, Exactly, a virtual sandbox? Try each of the aforementioned suggestions. Additionally, a number of notable companies and IPs have set their claims in its realm, including Shaun the Sheep, Warner Music Group, and The Walking Dead.

Time to answer the question, “Why Sandbox?”

The delight of creating the “Sandbox”

As soon as Animoca Brands purchased the naming rights to the same-named 2D sandbox game in 2018, they set out to create one of the most ambitious ventures in the still-emerging blockchain gaming industry. The Web3-enhanced edition of The Sandbox was released in November 2021, giving blockchain gamers a brand-new universe to explore, construct, and create in. If the premise seems familiar, it’s because The Sandbox was advertised as a Web3 update to Minecraft, and it even had voxel-based graphics that looked similar.

In July 2022, when Minecraft outlawed the use of all blockchain technology, including NFTs, on its platform, projects like NFT Worlds were left with an impossible task: creating a Web3-compatible rival to one of the most popular video games ever created.

What makes The Sandbox so unique, then? Its striking voxel-based graphics aren’t just for show, to start. Additionally, they assist in making the variety of imaginative tools accessible to gamers easier to use, so they can turn the time they spend playing the game into money. The most important tool in Sandbox’s arsenal is VoxEdit, which enables users to create animated voxel-based models that can be used as assets for both the core Sandbox game and other games that are hosted in Sandbox’s virtual environment. If everything there seems too wonderful to be true, you can anticipate paying a high fee to enter The Sandbox. We’re happy to inform you that The Sandbox is completely free, which is a very low price indeed. However, the amount of money you spend on the game is entirely up to you.

Also, read – How Sandbox (SAND)& Decentraland (MANA) are changing the Metaverse

A game inside of a game

Within the boundaries of The Sandbox, users can develop completely original games. A code-free, straightforward environment makes it possible for aspiring game creators to make their first impressions in the industry.

Not only is this tool easily accessible to Sandbox users, but The Sandbox also promotes users’ continued game production by establishing The Game Maker Fund to support full-time game development on the Sandbox platform. As of this writing, around $1 billion worth of $SAND has been allocated to give fund awardees whatever they need to realize their vision for a Sandbox game.

The Sandbox‘s development team has made monetization a top priority ever since the game’s November 2021 release. A corresponding in-game reward is present at nearly all game-related points of interaction. This typically takes the form of $SAND, the official coin, and cryptocurrency of The Sandbox. In-game objects created on VoxelEdit are referred to in-game as ASSETs (in-game items) or LANDs, and players can gain additional SAND by trading or selling these products. These particular terms aren’t merely a marketing ploy, either. These phrases are encoded into the game’s user interface (UI) to make it clear to players that these products are fully-fledged transferable NFTs, given The Sandbox’s position as a blockchain game.

Looking around the virtual world

The Sandbox gives players a chance to own virtual plots of land within the game, similar to most other metaverse experiences developed within the blockchain gaming industry. The procedure is very simple if you’re interested in purchasing land in The Sandbox.

Playboy, Sports Land, Forbes in The Sandbox – @KamiSawZe and @LukusIsRight are diving into the Metaverse https://t.co/IeNJRQzpKl

— The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) December 14, 2022

You must first confirm that you have enough $SAND to fund the intended purchase. Whether it involves LAND or ASSETs, every transaction within the Sandbox requires $SAND. The next step after getting your $SAND prepared is to keep an eye out for LAND sales, which can be located on The Sandbox’s map on its official website. Weeks in advance, these LAND sales are normally announced, so you should have plenty of time to plan. If nothing on the official website appeals to you, you can instead choose to purchase virtual land parcels on auxiliary NFT marketplaces like OpenSea.

Now that you have some virtual land on The Sandbox, what exactly can you plan to do? I guess just about anything.

After immersing yourself in The Sandbox’s extensive collection of artistic tools, you’ll finally begin to see how and why user-generated content may ultimately drive the future of gaming. When you first enter The Sandbox, there’s a strong likelihood that almost everything you see will be assets, environments, and characters that its player population has individually created. As the name implies, anything goes, and a player’s ingenuity is the only restriction on how much fun they may have there.