The Sandbox
An introduction to The Sandbox
The Sandbox is one of the best known virtual worlds, with its unique voxel design style and partnerships with some of the worlds largest banks, including HSBC and Standard Chartered.
Animoca Brand’s flag ship product hit the mainstream in 2021, riding the Metaverse hype created by Facebook’s rebrand to Meta, The Sandbox has been positioned as one of the premier Blockchain enabled virtual worlds, with a market cap peak of $6.8bn for their native currency $Sand at a price of $8.40 per unit. As of the 10th of October 2022, the price for $Sand is $0.73
Design
Taking inspiration from Minecraft’s infamous “blocky” style, The Sandbox also uses a voxel design style. Players can create their world using the Game Maker tool created by Animoca. Using a simple drag & drop interface, non coders can also create their very own world, assuming they own a plot of land, sold as an ERC-721 NFT. Creators can choose from a wide range of blocks to add to their scene, allowing them to create an immersive experience in a barren wasteland, a lush forest or even build a city in the sky. Using the Minecraft import tool, existing worlds can be imported into Sandbox with minimal headache.
Who’s building?
Already many well known brands & artists have created their own presence, including iconic game maker Atari, Hong Kong based newspaper SCMP and even the premier NFT collection Bored Apes Yacht Club, who are due to release their own virtual world The Otherside.
The Sandbox is currently in Alpha v3 stage, with a limited number of games playable, it is not currently known when a full launch will come
Review
Design: 5/10
By using a Voxel design the potential for brands to enter The Sandbox are rather limited, although simple to build a scene, brands will find it difficult to build their own identity.
Number of users: 4/10
39,000 daily users is modest number for such a well known product, but it is still in alpha stage so we anticipate many more players in the future
Features: 7/10
Animoca have invested a lot into design and build tools allowing anyone without design or coding experience to express themselves in the Metaverse
Accessibility & ease of use: 5/10
As The Sandbox is still in Alpha stage, we cannot be too critical, but usability across platforms still leaves a lot to be desired, especially with Mac fans
Long term potential: 6/10
The partnerships Animoca has already shows a lot of interest from international brands who wish to build in the Metaverse. However, the voxel design and game based nature of The Sandbox could be off putting in the long run
Funding: 8/10
Animoca is not going away, having raised $110 million in their latest stage, it’s clear they’re here for the long haul
System requirements:
64-bit processor. OS: Windows 7, Processor: Dual Core 2GHz, Memory: 4 GB RAM, Graphics: 512MB, VRAM DirectX: Version 11, Storage: 2 GB available space
Overall ranking: 5.8
The Sandbox has a bright future ahead, but the voxel design choice may prove to be their downfall. Many brands we talk to want to retain their own unique identity, unfortunately Sandbox makes this very difficult to achieve. The inherent game like nature of the platform may also be off putting for brands who want to use the Metaverse as a neo-website rather than a platform for their customers to hack ‘n’ slash each other