Cruising Voxels — Volume 1
Overview:
Voxels is a virtual world on the Ethereum Blockchain. It is an independent, user owned, privacy respecting world that provides a place to connect, enjoy and interact. Voxels is web based, free to play, and deeply enmeshed in the NFT ecosystem.
Jumping in:
Voxels is a free-to-play game. Any user can access it, anonymously via browser.
Simply enter a voxels URL and you will land in the voxels metaverse ready to explore as an anonymous user. The commands to get you started are simple and intuitive. Simply use WASD for moving and space for jumping.
You can also hit F to enable flying. This way you can check out the area from a distance.
On the bottom right side of your screen, you will notice the minimap. Expanding that will give you an overview of the entire Voxels world, consisting of Origin City (the capital), and the main island, along with many smaller surrounding islands. Click anywhere on the map to teleport to that location!
The world of voxels is split into plots of land. Similar to the real world.
Each land is an ERC-721 NFT token that can be bought either from voxels during parcel sales, or on the secondary market. Each NFT has a set of attributes that describe its size and location in the world.
Location on the map is a very important aspect since high-traffic areas provide higher exposure.
However, anonymous users are only allowed in Voxels as visitors. If you decide to sign in, you will be granted access to a plethora of options such as customization of your avatar and building.
Customizing your avatar
There are three ways to customize your avatar in Voxels. Username, skin, and wearables.
- Username
Your username is the name you will have in-world. You can register a name by minting it as an NFT here.
Click for more info on how to register a name and use it.
- Skin
Your skin represents the color of every part of your virtual body. Each part of the body can be of a different color. Any part of the body can be set to visible or not visible.
Click for more info on how to modify the skin attribute.
- Wearables
Wearables are clothing items, hats, and other miscellaneous accessories that you can put on your voxels avatar. They are NFTs, minted on Polygon. To wear one, a user has to own it.
Wearables live inside a collection, and to create a collection, the user needs to own a parcel.
In case they do not, the only way to mint it is by submitting it to a public collection.
Click for more info on how to equip a wearable or how to create one.
Building
There are a few options for users to start building. Having build permissions on a parcel, creating a free space, or working on an area where the owner has enabled the sandbox option.
- Parcel
Owning the NFT of a parcel grants the holder the ability to build on it. Owners can also whitelist wallets allowing them to build on their parcel.
Click here for more info on parcels, and how to buy one.
- Free Spaces
Spaces are free plots of land. Users can use them to build and script without any extra restrictions. Each user can have up to 420 free spaces. A build created in a free space CAN be imported to a parcel and vice versa if their dimensions match.
Their only limitations compared to parcels are:
a) They exist off-grid. Meaning they can only be accessed via a link, therefore lacking the exposure to traffic that parcels have.
b) Multiplayer is limited to 5 people. More than 5 people can be in the same space, but each of them will be able to see only up to 5.
Click here for more info on spaces, and how to create your own.
Common use cases for free spaces include:
- Adding extra content to a parcel, by linking free spaces within the parcel.
- Learning and practicing.
- Testing.
- Building behind closed doors and then importing the build to a parcel after it's finished.
- Sandbox
Any free space or parcel can be turned into a sandbox. That means that visitors are allowed to build freely there. Only the owner of the space can turn sandbox mode on and it has a set of limitations, such as not allowing images and audio.
Building
Building in voxels consists of two main elements, voxels, and features.
- Voxels
They are regular building blocks, similar to Minecraft.
They can only be placed within the strict limits of the parcel/freespace. Their shape is fixed and a texture can be applied to them.
For help regarding working with voxels, click here.
- Features
Features are objects that can be used to further enhance the experience created. There is a wide variety of features that can be utilized.
It is worth noting, that features can be customized and animated both through the UI, or via script. Also, features can be placed outside of the boundaries of the parcel/free space.
A full list of all the available features can be seen in the image below. Further explanation of each of them and their properties can be found here.
TLDR;
- Users can cruise around the voxels metaverse anonymously through their browser.
- Avatars are customizable, through NFTs minted on Polygon.
- There are multiple ways to build in Voxels, even if you do not own a Parcel.
- Building consists of Voxels and Features. Voxels are simple building blocks, features offer high customization, and can be scripted and animated.
That's all for now. Volume 2 soon!
If you need any help with getting started or you just wanna say hi, you can always find me on Twitter!
