How to Create a Metaverse: A 7-Step Guide
Creating your own metaverse can be an exciting and captivating project that allows you to bring your boldest fantasies to life. In this guide, we will explore the 7 key steps necessary for creating a metaverse, providing examples of well-known projects, success stories, and interesting facts about metaverse life.
Step 1: Develop a Concept
Before embarking on the creation of a metaverse, it is essential to define its concept. Ponder the atmosphere and appearance you want to give to your metaverse. It is crucial to have a clear understanding of the possibilities and functionalities you wish to incorporate into your virtual world.
Creating a concept means answering the question: why do people need this metaverse? While opinions may vary, conducting market research at this stage is important to understand the desires of your target audience.
When Second Life conducted such research, it became evident that the project’s target audience was seeking a social space where people could realize their dreams and fantasies. Consequently, Second Life decided to offer users the ability to create virtual avatars, interact with others, and build their own virtual objects and mini-worlds within a larger metaverse. And it paid off.
Second Life became a popular metaverse that not only provided a sense of empowerment to its community but also helped turn dreams into reality. Virtual businesses were established, generating real income for their owners, and some users became so devoted to this metaverse that they even entered into virtual marriages…
Step 2: Define the Technological Stack
The technological stack defines the architecture, programming languages, frameworks, and other components that will be used in the process of creating a metaverse.
Examples of technological stacks for metaverses include:
- Blockchain platforms: Some metaverses utilize blockchain for security, authentication, and management of digital assets.
- Graphics engines: Graphics engines such as Unity, Unreal Engine, or WebGL may be used to create visual effects and render virtual worlds.
- Cloud services: Cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure can be employed to ensure scalability and accessibility of metaverses.
- Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR): If your metaverse focuses on interaction using VR or AR, the technological stack may involve corresponding software development kits (SDKs) and tools for creating virtual or augmented scenes.
- Databases and data storage: Various databases and data storage systems can be used to store information about users, virtual objects, and other aspects of the metaverse.
To illustrate this further, let’s consider the technological stack of Decentraland. This long-standing metaverse witnessed the sale of the most expensive virtual property for $2.43 million, becoming a platform for unique and creative investments, serving as an exemplary model. Decentraland’s stack includes the use of Ethereum for smart contracts, IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) for data storage, and WebGL for rendering the virtual world.
Step 3: Create Virtual Objects and Biomes
Creating unique virtual objects and biomes is a crucial component of any metaverse. Developing models, textures, and animations will breathe life into your metaverse and evoke a spectrum of emotions for users.
Here’s how this step was realized in Minecraft. Minecraft is not only a popular game but also a metaverse where users can build virtual worlds with blocks. The vast array of virtual objects and environments created by a 70-million-strong player community makes Minecraft an unparalleled example of a creative metaverse. The combined length of all virtual blocks in this metaverse exceeds 4 million kilometers, surpassing the Earth’s equator length.
Step 4: Incorporate Social Interaction Mechanics
One of the key aspects of metaverses is social interaction. Developing functionality that allows users to communicate and collaborate will make your metaverse interesting and appealing.
For example, on the virtual reality platform VRChat, users can organize and participate in virtual concerts, contests, and meetups with famous streamers and vloggers.
Step 5: Design the Economy
The virtual economy is an important component of metaverses. Developing a system of virtual currency, trading platforms, and opportunities for earning and consuming virtual assets will help create a vibrant and dynamic metaverse, such as GrabCoinClub.
The project ensures the community is equipped with the utility token GC, which serves as the internal currency of the metaverse and can be traded on cryptocurrency exchanges. This means anyone can purchase GC with USDT (or other cryptocurrencies) and introduce tokens into the metaverse to achieve their economic goals or convert them back to fiat currency.
GrabCoinClub offers several earning options:
- You can play the NFT game and earn GC.
- You can own NFTs from GrabCoinClub collections and receive passive income in GC as a percentage.
- You can stake GC on a cryptocurrency exchange and earn profits.
Step 6: Allocate Time for Testing and Be Prepared for Optimization
Like any other project, creating a metaverse requires testing and optimization. For initial tests, start with a small number of users or team members. Ensure that your metaverse functions as intended and that the implemented mechanics operate as designed, so as to avoid situations like what happened in the Sansar metaverse, incidentally created by the makers of Second Life.
During the testing phase of the metaverse, one user accidentally purchased a virtual fish for an amount that significantly exceeded their budget. As a result of this accidental purchase, the user became the owner of the most expensive virtual fish in Sansar’s history. The project team addressed the issue and took measures to prevent such incidents in the future. It’s better for us to learn from others’ experiences so that we don’t have to learn from our own mistakes.
Step 7: Launch and Commence Marketing Campaign
After completing the development and testing of your metaverse, it’s time to launch and promote it. Spreading information about your metaverse, attracting users, and building a community will help you create a successful metaplatform.
To learn how to build a successful community, refer to the guide provided here.
