Blockchain-Based Metaverse with NFT Marketplace

Project Solution

Develop an extended reality, blockchain-based, constructive metaverse.

Overview

The Client's goal was to change how people engage with extended reality (XR) and enhance the human experience. XR comprises computer-generated environments that merge the physical and virtual worlds or craft an exclusively virtual experience — including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and future immersive technologies.

The Client set out to create an XR, blockchain-based, constructive metaverse focused on human instincts, letting users freely explore their creativity and potentially monetize their creations in a secure virtual environment. What differentiates this metaverse is how users engage with it: they interact with others, play games, learn new skills, curate art, own NFTs, buy and sell virtual land, and build structures on the parcels they own. Transactions take place on a secure platform using the company's token or other cryptocurrencies.

An Ambitious Project Calls for Team Augmentation

The Client's metaverse was near the end of its pre-production phase when it was decided that the in-house development team needed augmentation, with extra assistance critical for the game-development programming and the blockchain back-end. The project was built using Unreal Engine — a 3D creation platform offering a complete assortment of tools for game development that also supports media visualization, content creation, event production, training, and simulation. Unreal Engine work requires C++ expertise, and the Client also needed developers well-versed in blockchain applications to launch an online NFT marketplace connected to its VR metaverse. INNERLUXES provided the needed Unreal Engine front- and back-end and blockchain back-end developers — plus technical managers — catering to both the engineering and game-development sides of this ambitious project.

Project Objectives and Approach

• Test multiplayer functionality through Unreal Engine's basic VR templates, and build a metaverse where users can use their purchased NFT (representing virtual land bought from the marketplace) to build 3D models and create experiences showcasing creativity, commerciality, and craft.
• Use the ERC-1155 smart-contract standard to create the smart contract and deploy it on the Polygon network. ERC-1155 allows the expedient transfer of fungible tokens and NFTs in one transaction.

INNERLUXES designed a flow where a player enters a lobby, uses menu widgets to view their inventory, travels to different islands, and returns to the lobby with a click — the menu widget also enabling player movement and a teleportation plane between islands. Assets were created for players to choose from, viewable as 2D images in their inventory.

The smart contract followed the ERC-1155 multi-token standard (fungible, non-fungible, and semi-fungible tokens in one contract), integrated with the NFT marketplace and capable of minting NFTs and transferring ownership. INNERLUXES generated an ABI (JSON file) for the integration; the contract also lets users create and sell their own NFTs on the platform, with each NFT identified by a unique uint256 ID that never changes for the life of the contract. A rapid application development (RAD) strategy delivered fast turnaround.

Technologies and Tools

Unreal Engine, C++, Blockchain (Ethereum), ERC-1155 smart contracts, Polygon network, MySQL database, MongoDB (NFT marketplace listings), Visual Studio, crypto wallets (MetaMask, WalletConnect).