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There was so much cool stuff this year at GDC (Game Developers Conference), we really didn’t get a chance to show it to you all. While the vast majority of discussions and booth were geared to developers, there was the occasional consumer (you and I) focus as well. Take Sandboxr, a new company looking to get their kick start on, where else, but Kickstarter. These guys are want to create a way for game fans to quickly and easily purchase customized figurines of their favorite video game characters, offering a virtual storefront for developers to create and sell 3D printed goods.
Here’s how it works. A developer works tirelessly on a new game, spending endless hours creating unique and awesome 3D characters to fill their virtual world. They then submit some of these 3D characters to Sandboxr where they are able to “print” them with their massive 3D printing machine. Knights, orcs, robots, monsters — you name it. If someone can think it up, Sandboxr will bring it to life in the real world. But wait — there’s more…
While submitting their 3D masterpieces to Sandboxr, a developer can set a wide variety of custom variables for the user to adjust via the Sandboxr Android application. Of course there are the obvious adjustments like arms and legs for custom poses, but (if the developer enables it) users can go as far as change clothing, color, add weapons, even manipulate facial movements. Again, it’s all up to the developer. So, let’s pretend we have a 3D submitted Ryu from Street Fighter. Users can adjust every animation from one of his special moves, capturing a moment of time in a shoryuken or hurricane kick. What’s more, additional characters can be added to the mix, giving users the ability to capture a completely epic battle sequence between 2 different characters. All customized to the user. All printed out from a durable sand/plastic material.
Once the developer is finished submitting their characters to Sandboxr and creates an account, Sandboxr takes care of the rest, handling all the 3D printing in their own factory, and shipping out the figurines to users. Just set it, and forget it. When everything is all said and done, developers will have another way of monetizing their apps and games, while users get a customized figurine of their favorite video games characters to call their own. Genius.
Sandboxr’s Kickstarter project has already hit the ground running but with 11 days left to gain funding and only about $15,000 raised of their $125,000 goal, we fear they might not make it on time. It’s a shame too because we’d be first in line for some 3D printing action. If you’d like to help fund Sandboxr, you can hit up their Kickstarter via the link below or their official site to learn more.
[Kickstarter | Sandboxr]
^^^^^^^^^^^SPAM ALERT^^^^^^^^^^
Here’s the problem with this though. This will likely carry the same price as regular “figurines” at the stores because their the IP of another company; heck, even problem more in certain cases. Sure, they are “customized” but that’s the bulk of that. Want a character that a developer hasn’t given them permission to use? Go pound sand.
It sounds nice but it won’t really pan out as some might think.
its not just “figurines” designers can put anything on there like jewelry or phone case covers. The rest of the world can get on and use the 3d designer’s images and shape and mold the 3d image the way they want it and they can also add other images to it. Ask any designer, thats amazing for any software to do. I’ll bet they have a kickback for designers when people use their images. This can take 3d printing to the masses.
I think this is a really nice idea. This would allow people to setup kiosks at the mall where you can order your item from a book of printable characters and have it printed while you shop. However this only works for special order items that you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. 3D printing isn’t going to be able to out price bulk manufacturing.