213 | How AI reboots The Sandbox

Sky Mavis announces its AI-based Axie Vibeathon, while Animoca and AWS launch their Agentic Football Cup. [00:43] Sky Mavis announces Axie Vibeathon - using AI to make Axie Core games. [01:54] Registration is available until Monday 7th September. Submissions close by 21st. [03:10] You have to provide your own AI.[04:42] Sky Mavis provides a Builder Resource Kit that includes art assets and APIs. [05:35] The best 8 projects will get $250 of AI to build further, ending on 31st October. [07:08] Total prize pool is 20,000 bAXS, with the winner getting 9,000 bAXS ($8,500). [09:56] Animoca and AWS are launching Agentic Football Cup - Virtual League. [12:08] The 10 winners of the competition go to the AWS Re:invent conference in Las Vegas. [12:45] It's free to enter. You build/prompt a five-player AI football team.[14:08] There's also the ability to give live instructions during matches. [15:05] From 11th September, you play 10 games each weekend for 7 weeks. [16:05] All blockchain games should be running this type of AI hackathon. [17:12] Blockchain games are particularly suited for this sort of AI creation.

The newly open-sourced Pixels has launched its community hub, including voting, curated tools, apps, mini-games, and Pixels-as-service hosting. [00:27] Wemix has opened pre-registrations for mobile roguelike Hellsquad Rrrush!: Stone Rush.[02:30] Pixels open-sources its frontend, backend and launches its community hub.[04:35] Pixels has also added community voting, which is now live. [05:47] Cambria is approaching its RSGP token launch; likely in September. [07:36] The TGE event has generated $27 million in volume; c.$500k in revenue for the dev. [08:20] But from a small user base - 2,427 wallets in the past week. [09:08] Talking to CEO Robby Yung about the AI vision for The Sandbox.[10:13] Sandbox Studio adds AI for pro developers to publish games across multiple platforms.[11:14] The vision is to be able to use multiple platforms as a revenue multipler for a single title.

The Sandbox CEO Robby Yung explains how its new Sandbox Studio AI tools will reboot the blockchain gaming platform.[01:10] How Robby Yung sees the past 12 months in blockchain games. [03:30] How adoption of AI changes game development and distribution. [06:48] One problem for The Sandbox was its original tools were too simple for pro developers. [08:22] How can The Sandbox employ AI to support professional creators?[10:01] Can you maintain The Sandbox's brand if you move away from its voxel art style?[11:21] Adding AI to The Sandbox has been ongoing for around 3 years. [13:05] In the future, game studios will be much smaller because of AI. [14:50] But will indie devs actually use AI tools? Many seem to hate AI.[17:02] The Sandbox's AI tools are designed to give developers absolute control.[20:30] With AI, game devs will be more creative and publish across multiple platforms. [23:00] Does this level of AI portability undermine The Sandbox as a platform?[21:10] "We view the metaverse as the world and The Sandbox as a city."[28:14] The goal is not to automate game creation but to give creative people better tools. [29:02] Why The Sandbox is running game jams prior to Studio's planned October launch. [31:43] AI is amazing but only when it does what you ask it to do. You need granular control.[33:15] Sandbox Studio is designed for people who are already using Unity and Unreal.

Axie Infinity revives AOC NFTs, Pirate Nation's community regroups for Booty Wars and MapleStory Vibe Camp 2 is live.[00:15] Pirate Nation's community is attempting a new risk-to-earn game. [01:40] Booty Wars is not Pirate Nation 2.0. It doesn't use any of the old assets directly. [03:10] There will be a new mint of 6,969 Booty Pirate NFTs. [04:40] Booty Wars will be inspired by the likes of degen games like Cambria and Gigaverse. [06:24] Axie Infinity is reviving Origin Coins (AOC) to create up to 275 new Axie Origins NFTs. [09:04] This means up to 97 Mystic Axies (3.3 ETH floor) could be minted (35% chance per roll).[10:59] MapleStory Universe has launched Vibe Camp 2, which runs until 15th September.[12:09] Vibe Camp 1 had 693 game submissions, generating 88,000 gameplays. [13:30] This time the prize pool is $15,000 NXPC tokens.

The Sandbox repositions its LAND NFTs for the AI era, Gigaverse Online is announced, Proof of Play shuts down.[00:20] The Sandbox is rebooting functionality for its LAND NFTs.[01:03] The original vision for The Sandbox didn't work due to the friction of mini-game creation. [01:49] It's fixing this with its new Studio AI tools, which are in beta. [03:08] This means it can also make LAND more useful as an enhanced publishing primitive. [06:10] Obviously this may not solve the issue of getting enough players into The Sandbox. [07:32] Gigaverse has announced its move to persistent MMORG Gigaverse Online. [11:40] Pirate Nation dev Proof of Play has shut down after open-sourcing code and IP. [15:10] MIR4 was released 5 years ago. It's hosted 40,000 character NFT trades. [20:32] Sunflower Land dev Thought Farm announces Pokemon-lite RPG Yakkamon for Ronin.

Jon and Jenny talk about Pixels' roadmap for going open source, and Ronin's new Honor Score reputation system.[01:02] Pixels has open-sourced its frontend. [02:40] Why the concept of open source is back for blockchain gaming.[03:55] As well as Pixel, MapleStory Universe and EVE Frontier are also becoming more open. [05:30] How MapleStory's AI hackathon winners came up with very novel ideas for games. [07:54] Open source is important for Pixels because the core game isn't super deep itself.[10:35] This also increases the opportunity for interoperability between Pixels-based games. [14:25] Open source doesn't guarantee success but gives communities creative freedom. [16:53] Ronin has announced a new reputation system for users, called Honor Score. [22:42] Blockchain gaming is only now becoming sustainable.[23:32] Will building around a game with AI become more important than playing the game?

Pixels goes open source, MapleStory Universe talks Action Modules, and The Sandbox get 12,000 sign-ups for its AI tools. [00:36] The Sandbox is quickly adding AI game creation tools. [02:45] The Sandbox reaches 12,000 sign-ups for its Studio tool. [05:05] YGG launches its first $5,000 Vibecode.game jam with Animoca's Mind AI tools. [07:30] MapleStory Universe changes its builder strategy, adding Action Modules. [11:18] Pixels' open source vision. [12:42] It's initially open-sourcing its frontend. [14:07] Pixels plans to open source its server too.[15:00] There will also be an asset-weighted community voting system for governance.

In episode 212, Jon talks to YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon. [00:48] Casual degen web3 gaming platform YGG Play is shutting down.[02:17] LOL Land launched well but overall revenue peaked in October 2025 at $3 million.[03:40][ Why was the crypto liquidation event on 10th October 2025 significant?[05:00] Why releasing more titles typically doesn't add revenue for crypto games. [06:19] Why this was a decision based on the market, not on the product. [07:35] Gabby's lesson is you can't control where liquidity flows to. [09:59] LOL Land, Waifu Sweeper and the YGG Play platform will run until 31st July.[11:26] As part of this restructuring, YGG has confirmed around 35 redundancies. [13:08] YGG will now focus on providing gaming data to AI companies i.e. world model training data. [14:15] In some way, this is a return of play-to-earn, just not earning in crypto tokens. [16:04] This data is useful, particularly for robotics and in-game agents. [18:33] YGG has already been working on this AI P2E with its AI Alerts system. [19:26] YGG was set up to allow people anywhere in the world can earn from technology. [21:20] YGG isn't shutting down. The founding team remains and it has 4 years of runway. [22:53] This doesn't mean web3 gaming is dead. This is just YGG's particular decision.

MapleStory Universe's Vibe Camp hackathon has closed with over 430 entries. [00:22] MapleStory Universe's Vibe Camp and the rise of web3 game jams in the AI era. [02:10] Why Verse8's AI platform made this hackathon easier to enter - over 430 entries. [02:48] Playing the Vibe Camp games -- many seems high quality. [03:12] MapleStory’s curation dilemma -- openness vs controlling the IP. [04:47] Axie Infinity has run the third playtest for Atia’s Legacy this week.[05:50] Combat was 8x8 bouts, 5 weapons. There was also a paid AXS tournament.[06:49] Axie Terrariums got an update with more ways of boosting your yield. [09:17] Terrariums generated $95,753 during its first week. [12:46] Wemade's founder has sold his 39% stake for around $600 million.[14:25] Why are Chinese-linked investors buying into Wemade?[17:38] What does the sale mean for Wemade’s blockchain strategy?[18:51] Avalon says it will be using Sony's Soneium blockchain (an Ethereum L2).[22:00] The blockchain will be used for ownership and payments but no wallets or gas.[24:40] EVE Online and EVE Frontier's Carbon game framework is now fully open source.[26:50] This is a key part of Fenris' vision for EVE Frontier as an open ecosystem. [27:20] MapleStory Universe vs EVE Frontier: two different blockchain philosophies.

Jon Jordan talks to Nexpace COO Keith Kim about MapleStory N's first year, and how AI will power the MapleStory Universe ecosystem in 2026. [01:00] MapleStory N’s first year - $31M revenue, 3.8M accounts, 650K engaged wallets.[02:10] How the profile was different for MapleStory N to traditional MapleStory gamers. [02:57] What we have done well is being agile and altering our strategy, adjusting quickly.[03:25] The pace of updates for MapleStory N is 3-5x faster than for a web2 game. [04:20] The Winter update - new maps, new bosses - has driven really good numbers.[05:06] From Feb 2026, MapleStory N started recouping more token value than it emitted.[05:40] June could be MapleStory N’s highest revenue and biggest NXPC token deflation.[09:45] In web2, players play for fun. In web3, some players spend as much as $100k a day. [11:12] Players really try to make money during the first 3 months of any blockchain game. [13:36] Our goal is to work out how we can add blockchain to make MapleStory more fun. [14:40] It took 6 months to gain confidence in our direction from the reaction of real fans. [16:05] When Keith realized the eye-opening power of AI for games. [17:13] Nexpace has been encouraging the team to build their own games with AI.[18:55] We're trying to consider the scenarios of how AI changes the game industry.[19:17] Initially, we were worried that game IP becomes less important in the AI era.[21:18] You have to let your fans use AI to extend your IP.[21:58] We hope our MapleStory Universe builders make more money than we do.[26:05] Some IP holders want to tightly control their brand. We just want to limit AI slop. [28:20] We need to change our view of what is high-quality content. It's up to the users.[30:04] This is a very exciting time to be a builder, especially with MapleStory. [33:38] Professional developers can also build proper businesses on MapleStory IP.