MetaPets and Boximon: Take your NFTs for a walk in the real world

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Would you like to have non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that play as game characters in the real world, gain abilities over time, and interact with the world around them? Virtual/Augmented Reality (VR/AR) developers Omniscape have created MetaPets and launched the “Boximon” character series, combining location-based AR with blockchain transactions in a game that experiments with virtual spaces and is fun to play.

Rather than letting NFTs sit idle in a wallet, Omniscape’s AR lets the MetaPets/Boximon characters appear to leave players’ devices and go wherever players drop them, indoors or outdoors. They’ll remain at their location until players collect them and drop them elsewhere.

As the name suggests, Boximon borrows some of its name and concept from Pokemon Go! but takes things a lot further. Players will be able to interact with their virtual pets and the characters will also interact with each other. Since it’s blockchain-based, each Boximon
is an NFT, which means they can have new features and abilities added over time or combined to gain greater powers—and yes, players will be able to trade them.

The launch release for MetaPets features 24 standard Boximon characters (plus two rare and secret ones). Users acquire new pets by buying a “crate” and breaking it to release them into the world. Breaking a crate creates several “crate debris” pieces, and collecting 12 debris pieces gives you a free crate and pet.

The Boximon™ are coming in a few weeks! Get ready!#boximon #omniscape #metapets #handcash @omniscapeXr pic.twitter.com/E1wDJVFk7I

— Boximons (@TheBoximons) March 8, 2024

The first Boximon crate series is available to early adopters only. Eventually, there will be 52 characters, including rarities and special drops. Players can buy crates directly from the Omniscape app or the HandCash Gamers Marketplace.

Boximon is just the beginning

Speaking to CoinGeek, Omniscape CEP Robert Rice said the initial launch for Boximon virtual pets “has been really well-received.” User feedback in the game’s Discord and Telegram groups suggests a lot of excitement over the upcoming features Omniscape plans to add.

“This is just the initial launch promotion to get people started, with a few rare drops and a few others that won’t be available in a launch crate again. I think users are going to be continually surprised at some of what we are going to be rolling out over the spring and summer, as well as new Boximon and other promotions,” he said.

Currently, the game is still pretty basic as players get used to it. Boximon will dance if they meet each other in the same location. Rice said developers are having a great time dreaming up other features, which will probably include having them playfight, “which is going to be hilarious,” and hit each other with whatever odd implements they have in their hands. These playfights will become battles for game points, and there will be racing and other mini-games.

As the virtual world Omniscape is building grows, MetaPets will turn the tables on their owners: Players will become avatars in the VR world, and their characters can follow them around.

“This is going to be a fun summer with these guys,” Rice added.

We played around with a couple of Boximon to see what the game is like, dropping one on the desk and another on a bridge a few hundred meters away. Sure enough, when we passed the bridge a few days later, the Boximon was still sitting there (probably a little lonely, but as we said, it’s still early days).

Omniscape integrates with HandCash

Omniscape and HandCash cooperated to integrate the two apps. After creating an Omniscape account, users can connect it to a HandCash wallet, and any action performed in one app will be reflected in the other.

“It has been really easy working with the HandCash team. They are super responsive and expert at what they do,” Rice said.

“The hard part was figuring out how to make it work and connect all the dots. We are doing some really out-of-the-box innovative things, combining augmented reality, virtual reality, tokenized 3D objects, and NFTs across multiple platforms—mobile, desktop, AR, and VR. Doing all of that and working out a seamless integration was a challenge for sure. Some of this has never been done before, and we are breaking new ground together.”

The integration effort is ongoing, Rice added, not just for Boximon but for the Omniscape platform in general with the virtual goods marketplace and other tokenized assets/objects. Though it’s taken a little time to get everything right, there’s now a solid foundation for other things the company is working on for the future.

Watch: NFTs with utility? How about power-ups for games