Sandbox
Sandbox LAND plot size and building limits
Sandbox LAND provides a 96-by-96-meter footprint and a 128-meter build height for each standard plot. Larger experiences need matching adjacent plots you own or suitable space within your Estate, a combined parcel. The project’s chosen dimensions, placement options, asset readiness, and performance determine how much of that space becomes playable.
The footprint controls paths and placement
The plot boundary contains the terrain, structures, and paths belonging to a 1x1 experience. Walls and objects consume part of that area. The space between them determines where an avatar can walk and where the camera can follow. A dense collection of buildings therefore needs circulation space alongside room for the buildings themselves. Measuring only exterior dimensions can miss tight interiors, obstructed entrances, and uncomfortable turns. Camera clearance also matters, especially where a third-person view follows a player around corners or through enclosed passages.
Different layouts use the same area differently. Indoor games can distribute rooms across floors, while open environments devote more ground to sightlines and travel. Extra horizontal space helps a design built around exploration, but it also increases the distances between activities. A compact layout can support substantial gameplay when its interactions make effective use of the available space.
LAND tokens and Game Maker space
LAND names both an ownership token and the spatial unit Game Maker uses to size experiences. The NFT, or non-fungible token, represents a particular parcel on The Sandbox map. LAND uses the ERC-721 standard and exists on Ethereum and Polygon. The token identifies the location; the project contains terrain, objects, and game logic. A terrain block measures one meter along each edge, with 32 voxels across that distance. Voxels are the small units of geometry used to shape an asset in VoxEdit.
Creating and sharing a draft through the Game Maker Gallery does not require LAND ownership. Hosting that experience on the map requires suitable LAND you own.
Height creates room within the same parcel
A standard LAND plot has a build height of 128 blocks. That vertical space allows upper rooms, towers, and layered environments within the same horizontal boundary. Floors still need enough room for movement, and routes between levels consume space. Stairs, openings, and structural thickness belong in the layout alongside the rooms they connect. Using height can preserve ground-level space for other activities, although stacking content changes how players navigate and how the camera views each area.
Room clearance, floor thickness, and access routes determine the number of usable floors within the height limit. Every occupied level also adds objects and interactions the game must handle.
Estates combine neighboring plots
An Estate groups adjacent LAND plots into a larger parcel. Standard Estate configurations are 3x3, 6x6, 12x12, and 24x24, containing 9, 36, 144, and 576 plots respectively. These dimensions describe the landholding, not a promise of an equally large single game. Estates can provide locations for related experiences, or available space for projects covering multiple plots.
Estate grouping and multi-plot publishing are separate capabilities. Where the location selector offers Combinations, matching adjacent LANDs can host an experience without first being merged into an Estate. The plots must belong to the connected wallet and match the required footprint.
Can several experiences share an Estate?
Several experiences can share an Estate when each occupies its own available LAND footprint. A single plot hosts only one launched experience at a time. A project covering multiple plots occupies that combined space, leaving other suitable parcels available for separate projects. An Estate can therefore hold related games or social areas without making them one Game Maker project. The location selector shows which parts of the Estate already contain published experiences and which matching spaces remain available.
Shared art and themes can connect those projects. Design each experience’s quests and progression separately; adjacent ownership alone does not create gameplay connections between separate experiences.
Placement follows shape and orientation
Matching the plot count is insufficient when the parcels form the wrong shape or face the wrong direction. A 3x1 project and a 1x3 project use the same number of plots, yet occupy different arrangements. The placement flow keeps the experience’s original orientation, so those footprints are not interchangeable. For Combinations, neighboring plots must touch along a side and collectively match the project’s layout. Diagonal contact does not supply the required side-by-side connection.
Space already hosting another published experience also affects placement. The Estate selector marks occupied areas separately from available locations. Total ownership, contiguous shape, and availability describe different properties of the same holding. A large parcel can still lack a free area matching the project currently being positioned, even when its unused plot count appears sufficient.
The project footprint stays fixed after creation
Game Maker fixes an experience’s dimensions when you create the project. Editing terrain and rearranging objects change the contents within that extent. Buying more LAND does not enlarge the existing project. A different footprint requires a project created with the supported dimensions needed for that layout.
Game Maker allows workspace duplication to preserve an editable baseline.
Asset scale determines usable interiors
Doors and windows need dimensions matching gaps in the terrain’s block scale. Their voxel measurements therefore follow multiples of 32, and their placement needs to align with the opening. For medium avatars, door-sizing guidance recommends openings at least two blocks wide and three blocks high. These are recommendations for that avatar scale, not universal dimensions for every custom character or camera arrangement. An asset’s exterior appearance also cannot establish whether its interior is accessible.
Colliders determine where movement meets an object’s boundaries. A visible opening can still have collision geometry blocking it. Modular structures need openings and enough space around furnishings. Game Maker 0.12 includes controls for adjusting collision position, rotation, and scale. Changing a collider does not resize the visible model, and asset sizing remains a separate consideration from the experience footprint.
Game Maker 0.12 includes free asset kits usable in any experience. A marketplace NFT visible in the editor can still block launch if the publishing wallet does not own it. Custom assets you create yourself do not need NFT minting simply for use on your own LAND. The Experience Manager’s Asset Review identifies unavailable assets and items needing purchase. Extra building space cannot resolve those ownership or availability conditions.
Extra space does not remove performance constraints
Performance follows the combined workload of assets and game logic, not simply the number of LANDs. Detailed geometry, animation nodes, repeated objects, and behavior logic all contribute to that workload. Filling a larger environment can increase the amount the game needs to process. Empty acreage therefore says little about how a finished scene will perform.
Game Maker’s size guidance recommends a 2x2 footprint at the upper end of performance-oriented layouts. That recommendation does not make every smaller scene efficient or define an Estate’s maximum size. Multiplayer synchronization adds another consideration, and the editor provides behavior and component performance information. Tooltip maximums reflect isolated tests without the rest of a scene. Combining many such maximums does not establish a usable overall budget. Playtesting on supported devices reveals constraints a parcel count cannot measure.
Should I keep a 1x1 build or expand it?
Keeping the 1x1 build preserves the existing project when its complete layout fits inside a single plot. In this hypothetical comparison, the owned space is one unoccupied plot, the required assets are ready, and the entire layout measures 83 meters wide by 93 meters long. Those measurements include the walls and paths, and the design stays within the standard build height.
Against the plot’s 96-meter sides, the spare dimensions are 96 minus 83, or 13 meters, and 96 minus 93, or 3 meters. These are total remaining distances along each axis, not margins on every edge. Continue playtesting the existing draft. Its footprint fits horizontally, although that arithmetic does not establish camera clearance or complete publishing readiness.
The larger option increases the complete width to 103 meters while keeping the other assumptions unchanged. That exceeds a single plot’s width by 7 meters. The existing 1x1 project cannot extend to hold it. The expanded design needs a separate project with a supported larger footprint and matching available plots.
Expansion can proceed once those project dimensions and a suitable location are available. If the location selector lacks a matching unoccupied combination or Estate space, wait on expansion and retain the working draft. Stop trying to fit the 103-meter width into the fixed project. You can keep editing a layout within the original boundary; more vertical organization can help only if it suits the design.
Premium location and extra area serve different purposes
Premium LAND is sold as a 1x1 plot, with the same basic building dimensions as regular LAND. Its location-related benefits do not provide a wider plot or extra build height. Adjacent Premium plots can also form an Estate.
A compact game may fit either kind of single plot. A broader horizontal layout needs matching multi-plot space, while several separate projects need available locations of their own. Extra LAND addresses those spatial requirements; Premium status concerns the parcel’s position and associated benefits.
Helpful answers
Why might a Game Jam reject a multi-plot experience?
A Game Jam can reject a multi-plot project because its entry rules limit the permitted experience size. Standard Game Jam requirements specify a footprint no larger than 1x1, alongside creation-date and software-version conditions. The particular event’s requirements govern its entries. Owning an Estate does not waive a contest’s size rule, even when the larger project fits your map location.
Does buying Premium LAND include assets from its original sale?
A secondary Premium LAND purchase includes earlier promotional assets only when the seller bundles them into the sale. The parcel and those assets are separate NFTs. Initial-sale benefits do not mean every later purchaser receives the original asset package. The included items therefore depend on the actual sale terms, independently of the plot’s building dimensions.
Can a hired builder design my layout without taking ownership of my LAND?
Yes, a hired builder can create the Game Maker experience while you retain the LAND NFT. The finished experience needs to reach your inventory so you can publish it on your available plots. Project handover and parcel ownership are separate matters. Its dimensions and orientation still need to match the space you intend to use.
When can a launched experience move to another LAND location?
The close-and-relaunch flow requires closing a live experience before changing its location. Closing makes it unavailable until it launches again, while preserving its configuration. The destination still needs suitable owned space matching the existing footprint and orientation. Relocation changes the map placement; it does not change the Game Maker project’s dimensions.
Does a larger LAND footprint increase a multiplayer match’s player limit?
A larger LAND footprint does not automatically increase multiplayer match capacity. In Game Maker 0.12, multiplayer settings determine the minimum and maximum player counts for a match. The project’s physical dimensions govern building space, while those settings govern instance capacity. More room alone does not change the configured player limit or remove synchronization costs.