No one can deny the ever-increasing popularity of crypto-based video games. While the overall crypto market is down the drain as of writing this review, overall, the reception towards crypto games is still positive. The major reason for this is that crypto-based games offer something that the conventional gaming industry wouldn’t even dare to think about; the ability for the average player to earn real money just by playing the game.
While each crypto game has its unique approach to implementing this model, the game we will be looking at today is one of those that might succeed in its ambitions. The game we will be reviewing today is called The SandBox. Yes, just simply the sandbox and it is already making waves in the gaming community because of the support it has garnered from influential personalities and large institutions.
This review will be both looking at the gameplay as well as the earn-to-play potential of the game. Because if an earn-to-play game isn’t fun, it just becomes a job with more steps.
Early Start
Unlike most other games emerging in the crypto space, The SandBox isn’t a newcomer to the gaming scene. In fact, the initial build of The SandBox was released to the public back in 2012 as an open-world mobile game. The Sandbox is heavily inspired by Minecraft and has similar pixel-based graphics. The Sandbox never reached the popularity that Minecraft enjoyed over the years.
So back in the crypto boom of 2018, there was a lot of interest in crypto-based gaming. This is when NFT gaming giant Animoca Brands acquired the game to turn into an NFT gaming sensitization. This isn’t the only crypto/ NFT game Animoca has worked on. The popular Pokémon style game Axie Infinity is also an Animoca Brands product.
Other huge investors in the game include the legendary rapper Snoop Dogg, Gucci, HSBC, PwC, and Republic realm. So, the game is backed by heavy hitters.
Gameplay
Enough with the history lesson. Let’s get into the game itself. The Sandbox is an open-world game with pixel-inspired graphics like Minecraft. The game has its own ecosystem from making your own adventures to owning digital assets like land.
The game is powered by three different tools that you can use to create your own universe within the Sandbox metaverse. These are VoxEdit, Marketplace, and Game Maker. The VoxEdit tools allow you to create 3D objects within the game. From avatars to equipment, there are no limits to what you can achieve with VoxEdit.
The assets that you make using VoxEdit can be listed on the Marketplace and sold or traded with other players as NFTs. This can be a great outlet to make money for people that are more creatively inclined.
The game maker allows you to place assets within the game to make your own custom scenarios and events. From walking dead type scenarios to sci-fi based events, there are hundreds of different scenarios and events being created by the community that you can take part in.
You see, there is no goal or objective in the game. The Sandbox is well sandbox by nature, you make your own experiences and share them with others. This makes it so that the game is driven by the community rather than by developers. This can both be a good and a bad thing. Good that players are not dependent upon developers for new content and there is always something new to do thanks to a random creator. But bad because developers have no control over the evolution of the game, they are helpless in terms of the direction of the game.
Games like Arma 3 and Minecraft have used this community-based evolution to their advantage to this day. Even games released decades ago have thousands of players playing them because the community keeps providing new content to try out. Both Arma 3 and Minecraft have even spawned dozens of games from community mods that were made by independent programmers.
Popular games like DayZ and PUBG were once mods inside Arma, that later became their own games because of how popular they became.
The Sandbox has something similar going on as well. They call it the Foundation, where creators are offered grants to make game projects within the SandBox ecosystem. Also known as the game makers fund, supports game designers in the sandbox metaverse to produce unique game modes and experiences. The initiative isn’t just monetary as well, The Sandbox team also promises to help support, consult and guide game designers.
The Tokenomics
The in-game currency in The Sandbox is SAND and is central to any experience inside the SandBox. SAN is an ERC-20 utility token. For those of you not versed in crypto lingo, that is just a fancy way of saying the token is based on the Ethereum blockchain using ERC-20 standards. This is the standard used to create tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.
There are three types of tokens in the SandBox. We already talked about $SAND. It is basically the common currency inside The SandBox. The other two currencies are Gem and Catalyst.
Gems are used to create rare assets in the game. This is the second most used currency in the game after SAND. Using a GEM token can add 25 attribute points to an overall stats of an asset. So, creators use them to craft rare stuff.
Catalyst, the third type of token in the Sandbox is still shrouded in mystery. The only thing we know about catalyst token is that it gets burned every time a player mints new assets to enhance the rarity.
Players can use the SAND token to play different games, access events, buy items and equipment for their characters, etc. If you are a creator you can also use SAND. SAND is needed to buy LANDs. This is basically a virtual space that is used to make your own custom adventures or interactive events. In return, you can charge people to enter your created space. Players can also buy the assets you created in the marketplace.
The Sandbox also uses a DAO structure to democratize the game. DAO or decentralized autonomous organization allows players to take control over their experience of the Sandbox. Important decisions in the space and worlds they participate in can be decided via voting.
The SAND token is used as the governance token. Players can use SAND to make decisions about their world and the rules that govern them. The system is weighted, owning more SAND means you have more voting rights.
There is even a stock market within the game that you can use to earn passive income. Players and creators can invest and use staking to pool rewards. Like they would do with cryptocurrency in real life.
The best life is that since SAND is a proper token on the Ethereum blockchain. Anyone can cash out by selling their assets for SAND and then trading that SAND in exchange for USD or any other local currency.
Play to Earn Potential
Even though The SandBox has a lot going for it, play to earn is at the center of the SandBox. Following are some of the ways players can make money by playing the SandBox.
- Creating experiences on LAND: Players can buy LAND inside the SandBox. LAND is basically a virtual space that you can use to create your own custom worlds or scenarios. LAND-owning players can create fun events and scenarios on their LAND and then charge other players a fee for entering their ‘worlds’. There is massive potential here. You could attract a lot of people if your experience is worth it. You could even potentially sell ‘Ad space’ within your worlds and earn hefty commissions from real-life companies looking to market inside the metaverse.
- Creating Stuff with VoxEdit: The SandBox comes with a powerful tool called VoxEdit. You can create custom 3D objects using VoxEdit. And then these assets can be sold on the Market Place, which is also a part of the SandBox. This is also a viable way of making good money inside the SandBox. People are always looking for more and new content. If you make stuff people like, you can really turn a profit from the Market Place.
- Rend LAND: LAND-owning players don’t have to be creative and build beautiful experiences to earn from LAND. LAND owners can also ‘rent’ out their LAND to other players for a small fee, which can then be used by the renters to make their own experiences and earn. As there is a limited number of LAND available within the SandBox, newcomers will require LAND if they want to create their own experiences.
While these are the main ways you can earn from SandBox, players are sure to come up with other new ways to earn a good buck.
Verdict
The SandBox is a decent crypto game with lots of potentials. It could truly become the poster child for crypto games if it continues to grow. The game has good foundations, fun gameplay, and solid tokenonmics. SandBox is focusing on empowering its creator community, and this is what will take this game to the next level. The SandBox earns a solid 9/10 for its solid direction, exciting gameplay, and decent implementation of the blockchain in a game.
Our score: 8.5/10
