How to Get Started Designing Buildings for the Metaverse.

Getting started in the metaverse is much easier than you might think.

Although the metaverse is new, and you might not be a super technical person, designing buildings in the metaverse might be even easier for you than in real life.

For example, you don’t have to worry about physics.

Gravity will not pull your building down if it’s not structured correctly.

That opens up a world (universe?) of opportunities for design features you can’t do in real life.

Another reason designing buildings in the metaverse is better:

There are no building codes.

There are some rules to follow, but they will be simple and mostly related to the technical limitations of the place you are designing for.

It won’t be rules you feel are arbitrary.

For example, check out this art gallery building.

It’s suspended in the air with only two stairwells holding it up.

This is physically impossible, not to mention it doesn’t meet any building codes I am aware of in the known universe.

One more reason:

Virtual buildings are going for hundreds of thousands of dollars in the metaverse.

Not every single building, of course.

But the people who are transitioning their business model from real-world designs to metaverse-only designs are staking their place in the market.

That kind of specialty demands higher prices.

In this blog post, I’ll be going through various ways to get started designing buildings for the metaverse today.

And as you should already know, none of this is specific financial or business advice, and we are not responsible for any decisions you make based on what you learn here.

Let’s go!

Pick a Place to Design/Build

The first thing is to decide where you will be putting the buildings you design and build.

When I say “build,” think of that not as hitting nails with a hammer but as hitting the “export” button in your design software and selecting the proper file format.

As I mentioned earlier, there will be some rules specific to each place you design for.

You also won’t be limited to just one place.

Some places will have similar enough requirements that you can submit your work to all of them with only minor modifications.

Sometimes no modifications at all.

Here are a few popular options:

The Sandbox

The Sandbox is still in its development and testing phases, but it already has support from some big names you might know:

Snoop Dogg
Care Bears
Smurfs
Atari
Deadmau5
The Walking Dead
And more

When it comes to monetization, taking a quick look found this very small building selling for over $4500 (USD).

And this two story “pirate bar” currently going for just over $9000 (USD).

Also, land in the game, appropriately called LAND, is pretty expensive.

This isn’t something you as a designer can manufacture, in any case.

But to give you an example of the popularity of The Sandbox, the smallest parcel of land at the lowest price right now is almost $8500 (USD).

Considering people (and brands!) are investing that much in a small piece of digital real estate, you can bet they’re going to want to put money into making it look good, too.

Above, I mentioned some buildings on the marketplace.

Think of those like selling stock plans.

They’re digital files that are theoretically infinitely reproducible, and people can buy them online, and you get your money.

But, as I mentioned in our post Building Design in the Metaverse, designers are out there making custom buildings for clients.

And they’re selling those custom designs for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The first thing you’ll notice about The Sandbox is that everything is made of tiny cubes.

Those are called voxels, and you can think of them as a 3D representation of a pixel.

If you’ve never built anything in voxels before, it’s basically like playing with LEGO.

So, yeah, you’d be getting paid to play with unlimited LEGO all day.

You will need to use their proprietary software to build your structures, but it’s free and works on both Windows and Mac (linked below).

Resources to get started today:

Decentraland

Decentraland is another of the most popular explorable metaverse options and has been in development for quite some time.

The first thing you might notice about Decentraland is that it is not voxels.

This style of design is called “low poly,” so if you do a search for “low poly buildings” in your favorite search engine, you’ll see many examples.

Land in Decentraland varies wildly in price, based on location, but most of it is tens of thousands of dollars.

At the time of writing, it looks like the cheapest and smallest parcel of land is over $18,000 (USD).

Just because the land is much more expensive here than in The Sandbox doesn’t mean it’s going to be more popular, or better, or that you’ll make more money.

However, if you’re not into the voxel style of The Sandbox, this might be your next best bet.

I’m a big fan of designing low poly art because you can work pretty fast once you get the hang of it.

When you see a movie from a studio like Pixar, each of those scenes has millions of polygons and takes much time to design, build, and render.

But with low poly, you can knock out an entire building model in an hour.

To get started, you’ll need these resources:

Roblox

If you have kids or grandkids right now, there’s a good chance they play Roblox.

Or at least know someone who does.

Roblox has been around for a while, but it grew popular during the COVID pandemic in 2020.

As of September 30, 2021, Roblox has over 43 million daily users, playing for a collective 3 billion hours in any given month.

Part of the appeal of getting into Roblox as a designer is selling directly in the software and making money.

Anyone can.

Roblox has an in-game currency called Robux that players can use real money to buy.

Players can then spend the Robux on experiences or items in-game.

And then the developers (you) get about a 25% cut.

In Roblox, you can create and sell avatar items (like clothing or weapons for players), consumables (like temporary power-ups that make players jump higher), and experiences.

Although you may want to explore the other types, experiences will be what you want to work with as a designer.

Experiences can be set to different levels of access and monetization.

The first is free and public. That means any player can log in and check out the experience, along with other players.

Next is paid and public. It’s public with other players, but they have to pay once to get access for life.

The next is free and private, where players can get access for free, but they’re allowed to make private servers for just them and the people they invite.

And the last one is paid and private, where players can purchase the experience once and load up their server to hang out in, only letting in people they want to.

At the time of writing this, it would take over 1,000,000 Robux earned each month to pay my bills, and you only get 25% of what you sell, but with over 40 million daily players, this is possible.

If I were to do this, I would hit all sides and build a brand within the Roblox-verse.

I’d start with setting up my flagship product: a paid and private experience they can buy and do with as they please.

Next, I would create a free and public experience of the same with an in-game advertisement saying they can have their own if they buy the private one.

I would create some smaller ones to give away free and let players use privately, again with in-game advertisements for my other experiences.

After making a few of each, I would build a paid, and public “clubhouse” people could join, where I would hold meetings and events and stuff for my brand’s most loyal fans.

I’d also probably start creating in-game items at this point with my brand logo on it or maybe swords and shields in the brand colors.

Things people can use in other experiences.

They would be exclusive give-aways for clubhouse members.

And, of course, the clubhouse would advertise my other experiences that players can purchase.

Maybe with mini versions of them so the players can experience it without having to leave the clubhouse.

Here are some skills you’ll need and guides to get you started:

Minecraft

I don’t see anyone selling buildings for Minecraft because part of the fun of that game is building.

But, as Minecraft sustains its decade-long popularity and inches closer and closer to interoperability with the metaverse, I could see that changing.

There are over 150 different types of blocks in Minecraft.

They all have their own aesthetic, durability (unlikely to matter for your work), and functions.

An example of a function would be whether or not it emits light.

I foresee a possible future where smaller businesses decide to set up a Minecraft server for their corner of the metaverse.

For now, Minecraft servers will be one of the most affordable ways for small businesses to get into the metaverse.

My advice would be to have this skill in your pocket, but not to base your entire business around building in Minecraft.

Unless you do some research and find that there actually is a market for this.

I don’t have any specific resource links for Minecraft because it’s such a big intellectual property.

You can find answers to any questions you have in your favorite search engine.

Set up your Wallets

Once you’ve decided where you want to put your buildings, you need to set up the appropriate blockchain wallet to access it.

The metaverse is built on several different blockchains, but many wallets can handle several at a time.

If you want to be as safe as possible, I recommend you set up at least two wallets: one for spending and one for holding and storing.

All of these are incredibly straightforward setups, and they will walk you through the process.

The first one I recommend is Coinbase.

Before you sign up, if you know anyone who already has an account there, ask for their referral code and how you can get free $10 in bitcoin.

Coinbase is used for all of my purchasing and transferring of tokens/coins.

Next, I recommend MetaMask, which will get you into Decentraland and The Sandbox.

You won’t need a crypto wallet if you’re getting involved in Roblox.

They use something called DevEx, so you’ll need an account with that.

Read the terms of service for Roblox cash out info.

If you’re doing custom work for brands in Minecraft, you can use whatever you would use for clients of your real-world building designs.

Conclusion

That’s pretty much everything you need to know to get started.

If you decide to start developing in the metaverse, please let us know, so we can see it!

And, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.