SandboxAn immersive metaverse platform and a split Animoka Brandsannounced it Voxel Games Program To partner with indie game developers across multiple platforms.
By Voxel Games, Sandbox It will expand the boundaries of its ecosystem by partnering with well-known indie developers and studios to create widely available games in its unique voxel style. Sandbox is like a variant on Minecraft, only using blockchain technology. It has so far been largely embraced by individual creators and brands, but now The Sandbox is reaching professional developers at indie game studios across multiple platforms.
“We now have over six million users with accounts. We continue to announce key brands and partnerships. Attack on Titan happened last July,” said Sebastien Borget, COO of The Sandbox, in an interview with me at DevCom/GamesCom. “We have over 1,300 live experiences from user-generated content creators on the map. We distributed over 3 million SAND tokens to creators during Builder Challenges One and Two. So that’s a key driver for increasing the attraction for creators on The Sandbox.”
Reaching out to new developers
The company has more than a dozen game jams around the world to stimulate more creators for the platform. Nicola Sebastiani, Chief Content Officer and Head of US, has led the development of the Voxel Games program.
“We’re starting to work with third-party developers and studios to create games that use the voxel style and use content for games made with Unity or Unreal or other engines,” Borget said. “So it’s not just the “no code” game maker tools we’ve had on The Sandbox until now.”
Included are Sandbox’s studio partners at launch Frag Games And Devhouse AgencyMore will be announced in the coming months.
With this announcement, the Sandbox ecosystem is now better equipped to support more creators, Borget said. By existing creation tools like VoxEdit And Game makerFirst-time creators are able to create voxel-based assets, games and experiences without any coding experience.
Thanks to the Voxel Games Program, professional game studios and indie developers can now enjoy the same creative freedom to develop voxel-style games using Unity, Unreal, HTML5, or any other game engine of their choice outside of The Sandbox’s no-code creation tools. These games can also be made available to play on other stores and platforms.
By inviting its partners to create voxel-style games outside of its platform, The Sandbox furthers its mission of enabling an open metaverse. The initiative marks a new era of interoperability and growth for both The Sandbox platform and its user base, Borget said.
Additionally, it provides gamers with a simple and alternative bridge to Web3, without the complexity of blockchain development and onboarding. This program will drive the ecosystem of creators in The Sandbox and support them by providing access to the wider gaming world.
Expansion to new platforms
While all games will stay true to the platform’s avatar-centric gameplay focus, the Voxel Games program will push projects across a range of devices, including mobile, web and PC, expanding distribution possibilities on traditional platforms, Borget said.
Expanding beyond Web3 means The Sandbox will continue to grow and experiment to get its content in front of more people, Borget said.
“We came here with a very different value proposition. We don’t force people to build a new chain and wait for that chain to be adopted,” Borget said. “Sandbox is amazing at abstracting the complexity of the blockchain in that people have avatars, or earn something, and they don’t interact with smart contracts at any point. And we want to keep that philosophy while we reach out to the spectrum of games, developers and creators.
Game projects will use traditional game monetization mechanics, including free-to-play, microtransactions, in-app purchases, and advertising, while also incorporating The Sandbox’s blockchain components such as accepting its SAND utility token and its player-owned digital assets, such as Avatar, Land and Voxel assets as NFTs.
“This is an exciting opportunity to realize our vision of Metaverse, where players can acquire, own and use their digital assets across multiple games and platforms – beyond The Sandbox,” said Borget. said. “Engaging with indie developers and experienced game studios brings new ideas or proven gameplay to the table and helps us drive wider adoption of Web3 through voxel-style games.”
The Voxel Games program will allow indie studios to develop games using the underlying technology and game engine of their choice while being able to leverage and benefit from Sandbox’s significant existing communities and ecosystem, including: ● With 4.8 million+ crypto wallets 6 million+ user accounts ● 25,000+ land token owners ● 55,000+ avatar owners and ● 290,000+ sand holders.
This, in turn, presents an opportunity to increase the symbiosis of utility and adoption of the SAND token beyond the current The Sandbox platform, which is already a top 10 gaming token by market capitalization according to CoinMarketCap at the time of publication, Borget said.
Sandbox has 170,000 voxel asset owners and 1.7 million assets already created. Through the Voxel Games program, projects will gain exposure to 400+ partner brands, providing studios with access to valuable intellectual property.
Existing users of The Sandbox will benefit from being able to use their assets in a new portfolio of games, furthering The Sandbox’s vision where players can connect their wallets and access their owned and branded digital assets—avatars, equipment, wearables and more. . Multiple platforms and games.
Expanding beyond Web3 means The Sandbox will continue to grow and experiment to get its content in front of more people, Borget said.
“We came here with a very different value proposition. We don’t force people to build a new chain and wait for that chain to be adopted,” Borget said. “Sandbox is amazing at abstracting the complexity of the blockchain in that people have avatars, or earn something, and they don’t interact with smart contracts at any point. And we want to keep that philosophy while we reach out to the spectrum of games, developers and creators.
“Games developed by external studios can benefit from and leverage The Sandbox, such as our user base, our IPs, 25,000 land owners or 60,000 avatar holders, to integrate the digital assets we have in The Sandbox. “said Borget. “In a way, it’s expanding what Sandbox is because the brand is strong. Open Metaverse’s vision is to let players use their digital assets across multiple games and platforms. It’s a “no code” game creator on The Sandbox. started with, and it now continues to expand, starting with select studios into other games across all platforms.”
He noted that players can start on other platforms without Web3 functionality and then connect their wallets later if they want to connect to NFTs and SAND tokens.
“Today, we’re starting to accept external development partners who can create games that bridge the two worlds,” Borget said.
Sebastiani said the company has spoken with several game studios about the program opportunity and has begun reviewing 50 submissions. He noted that two have been announced and three more are coming in the next few months. Titles include survival games, dungeon crawlers and more. It’s very different from the mash-up genre content that The Sandbox is known for, Sebastiani said.
For players, the benefits are obvious.
“In the past, they could only play in experiences on a sandbox platform with a game creator,” Sebastiani said. “Now, as a player, I can start using my Snoop Dogg avatar and other avatars to play games on those other platforms. It could create something unique, like taking my digital identity across all the different games. And it lets developers create gameplay that brings together multiple IPs.”
“This is one of the strengths of the sandbox,” Borget added. It is very recognizable in the industry, where content is created on The Sandbox and voxel games thanks to Minecraft. Another benefit of this program is that developers can take advantage of our library of 100,000 assets.”
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