In the upcoming Game Maker software for the virtual world of The Sandbox, game developers and creatives aren't restricted to a certain camera perspective. Based on the game they are creating, they can force players to play the game from a top-down, third-person or first-person perspective. An alpha version of The Sandbox Game Maker will be released for free this month.
The Sandbox is a virtual world in which land owners can create all kinds of mini-games and virtual experiences. Based on the freedom in camera perspective developers will be able to recreate top-down games like Frogger or the classic Grand Theft Auto. At the same time the first person perspective allows for a new take on classic shooters like Doom.
The Game Maker alpha launch will enable creators to get familiar with an early version of the software. They can use assets created in VoxEdit or in their portfolio. The Game Maker has all kinds of features and behaviors to incorporate in a game, like for example victory conditions, health bars, and dialog options for more role playing experiences.
Depending on the game developer's wishes, a game experience can be enjoyed by multiple players at the same time. The game world loads as an instance that could allow for multiple players to collaborate or work against each other. The same game can exist across multiple instances.
The experience of moving through The Sandbox isn't like an open world game. For example, it's impossible to see from one location into the other. However, the way gamers will traverse between the different land parcels, is still under development. Perhaps there will be doors, a Google Map-inspired world map, or roads.
Two weeks ago The Sandbox announced a new mechanic that will define attributes for player-owned game assets. User-generated content that’s stored on the blockchain through non-fungible tokens is getting five characteristics; power, defense, speed, magic and luck. Each asset gets to apply a maximum of four points, creating usability within the metaverse.
Gems and Catalysts are the tokens that will define the tier, scarcity and attributes of each tokenized asset. Creators will need these ERC-20 tokens in order to create defined utilities within the Sandbox metaverse.
When you use a catalyst token, you'll burn it. Creators can use this token to define the scarcity of their created object. For example, the more rare an asset is, the less copies there are and the more powerful the item is.
Together with the Catalysts, there are also Gems. These are also ERC-20 tokens that you'll burn upon usage. Gems define an asset’s attributes, which are basically the main stats for that game asset within The Sandbox. The more attributes an asset has, the better players can use it.
The Sandbox is one of the blockchain-powered virtual worlds currently in development. This particular virtual world is supposed to launch its beta test this summer, but before that time there will be one more pre-sale. During this pre-sale gamers, businesses and investors can buy virtual land with a discount. You can now register, to make sure you’re not missing out.
Its first land sale sold out within a few hours, while the second one took 48 hours. The last one took place in March and sold out within a day. It was the biggest land sale so far, offering ten percent of the world up for sale.
The virtual world of The Sandbox consists out of lands, and voxels fill up each of those lands. Visually it will remind many gamers of Minecraft, as both games have this Lego-inspired look to them. However, players are able to buy virtual land and implement any form of monetization. These virtual lands can become mini-games, adventures, virtual shops, extensions of actual webshops, a space for social gatherings, and so on.
