The Sandbox

What is The Sandbox?

The Sandbox is a blockchain-based virtual world in which players create, own and monetise their own gaming experiences, rather than progressing through a single fixed game. The environments, characters and objects that populate the world are made by its users, and those assets are recorded on-chain, which establishes verifiable ownership and scarcity. Virtual LAND parcels use the ERC-721 token standard and creator-made assets can be minted as ERC-1155 tokens; the project runs on Ethereum, while reward distribution for SAND, LAND and CATALYST is handled on the Polygon network. It is listed under the casual, free-to-play, multiplayer, NFT adventure, NFT metaverse and NFT MMORPG categories. The official site is sandbox.game.

How to play The Sandbox

Three programs share a single account login. VoxEdit is free no-code modelling software used to build terrain blocks and entities such as decorations, interactable objects, NPCs, hostile enemies and avatar equipment, with rigging and animation supported; in its scale one metre equals 32x32x32 voxels and a human avatar stands two metres tall. Game Maker assembles those assets into Experiences using plug-and-play logic, so building does not require coding, and any number of Experiences can be created and shared for free. The Game Client is where players explore Experiences made by others, attend virtual events and take part in the wider multiplayer world. Publishing an Experience to the Map requires owning LAND; creators without LAND can still publish a free Experience Page describing their project.

The Sandbox tokenomics & earning

SAND is the ecosystem currency. It is used across the Marketplace, where players, creators and LAND owners buy, sell and trade assets, equipment, avatars and virtual LAND, and players can also earn SAND through Play & Earn activity. Two limits are worth knowing before planning income: selling assets on the Marketplace is currently restricted to the Sandbox team, approved creators and partners, and there is no built-in method to charge SAND for transferring an Experience. Assets used on your own LAND do not need to be minted as NFTs at all. As with any token-based economy, the value of SAND and of individual assets depends on market demand rather than a fixed rate.