Blockchaingamer
Sebastian Borget, Sandbox Co-founder interview
-Applying blockchain technology to the ‘Sandbox’ game, designing items with 3D pixels (voxels).
-Every token has value which is determined by each unique NFT item.
-Create your own items and trade in a blockchain based Marketplace.
-Partnership with Kakao Klaytn … “Building the Korean user base”
Sebastien Borget, Co-founder of The Sandbox, interview with DeCenter on June 4th.
Dapp (Decentralized Application) game ‘Crypto Kitty’ was the first ever blockchain game to come out and was so popular that it initially overloaded the Ethereum network. The general consensus of those who owned these Cryptokitties felt that it was very cool to create their own kitty’s at variable prices however besides that they did not think that the characters had any other attractive elements. Since then, NFT (Non-Fungible Token) based games have begun to emerge that enhances the Cryptokitty’s original game structure, utilizing user-generated content (User Generated Content).
NFT’s have different values based per token and Ethereum’s ERC-721 and ERC-1155 are typical issuance standard tokens. If a game with UGC applies NFT functionality, then each content value can be set differently which is also useful for supporting the trading of unique content. The creators of the original UGC-enabled game “Sandbox,” released in 2012 will now be taking advantage of the added features that come from NFT’s, incorporating them in their new version being released later this year.
Design your own items with voxels …and you can trade these items on the blockchain platform.
In the first Sandbox game players could design their own characters and lands with various pixels and now there are already over 1.2 million monthly users for that version. The Sandbox team has re-invented the ‘Sandbox’ with the inclusion of NFT’s for their new DApp game. Sebastien Borget, Co-founder of The Sandbox said in our interview, “Blockchain technology makes it easy for users to trade their own content,” and as a result of this initiative the Sandbox team recently received an investment round of $2.5 million.
The Sandbox consists of three elements. The “VoxEdit” software that helps users design their own items with “Voxels,” game pixels. A Marketplace where you can trade items using NFT’s, and the Game Makers (designers) that create the games using these items as components in their games.
Users can already start creating 3D items using the released VoxEdit and one way to help ensure that these items be sold in the Marketplace, the Sandbox team are working with 75 amazing voxel artists. They surmise that players will begin to purchase the top-of-the-line items that are designed by these great artists in the Marketplace and some transactions should also occur in the initial services phase.
The Sandbox team also have a ‘Creator’s Fund’ for artists. “We run the creator fund to reward good artists,” said Borget. “We’re trying to attract more early adopters by supporting the artists and users,” and he adds “When the Marketplace is released in August, there will be a fee every time a purchase is made in the market and then this fee will go as a commission towards the ‘Creators Fund.” The lasting rewards of these artist items could only be short-term. So in order to attract a large number of users in the long term, there should be other incentives for users to continue playing more sandbox games. Borget states, “Voxels are easy to work with that even children can easily design with them, and when they create several voxel items they will all each be truly valuable and unique items. He also added the fact “that users will have full ownership of their items and they can capitalize on them to make some sort of profit, which will be an incentive for them to continue playing the Sandbox games.”
Klaytn Partnership · Hashed network to target the Korean market
In addition to having the special property of voxel items being NFT’s, there is another objective in place with the Sandbox team. They are actively targeting the Korean market. The Sandbox is expanding its presence in the Korean market by partnering with Kakao’s public blockchain platform, Klaytn and receiving investment from domestic blockchain accelerator Hashed.
“Our goal is to secure Korean users by joining Klaytn’s Initial Service Partner (ISP),” said Borget. The Sandbox is currently developing dapps based on the Ethereum platform and his answer to whether the Sandbox will use Klay with Ethereum when the Klaytn Main Net comes out in June, “I think it should be a multi-platform dapp to create mass adoption, so I plan to use Ethereum and Klay together.” In addition to the NFT-issued standard tokens, such as ERC-721 and ERC-1155, there will be a general ERC-20 token “SAND” used in the marketplace.
The ultimate goal of the Sandbox is to become a pioneer of UGC / NFT-based games based with a large Korean user base. “The game market is already big enough for UGC,” said Borget. “I want the Sandbox to be the prototypical game that combines NFT’s.” The Sandbox will launch their Marketplace in August and can use their items on a game MAP in September.
In addition, Sandbox Co-founder Sebastien Borget predicts that the future of blockchain based games will be positive. “The blockchain game is still in its infancy, and it has the great advantage of actually creating true value for game items.” He also mentioned that “the game NFT’s can be used in multiple dapps and that they are going to apply the decentralized economy of the blockchain through all the games.”
Credited to: 박현영기자 hyun@decenter.kr
Official Link: https://n.news.naver.com/article/011/0003565992
