Sandboxr wants to use 3D printing to bring your favorite video game characters to life [VIDEO]
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]