By Stuart Reed, on twitter @OlyStuart, 08/08/2022

Introduction

Hi everyone, I'm Stuart and I'd love to give you an introduction to the Monaverse platform, what you can do with it and how to get started. This article includes a brief summary of how I got started with 3d design in 2022, what a metaverse is, what Mona is, resources to help you get started and some ideas for what you might do from there. I don't work for Mona and this is not sponsored I just think it's a great platform and community.

I first heard about crypto in January 2021 and wanted to learn more. I sold some Magic the Gathering cards for funds to mess around with and started experimenting. I tried a few centralized finance platforms, DeFi trading, liquidity providing and yield farming, sold a few NFTs, had some adventures like getting rekt in Iron Fi and came out of the year breaking even. I saw that the market was turning bearish and called it good, because the money was helpful for my family’s budget. If you're working class too this probably sounds familiar. My biggest barrier in crypto is lack of capital to get off the ground, and that’s an issue a majority of people face when they’re looking at crypto and web3. Everyone who looks can see there's opportunity here, the question is how to start with little (or nothing) and make something out of it.

Fast forward to January 2022 and a tweet from a metaverse company called Mona catches my eye. The “Metaverse Renaissance,” a building contest with $250,000 in prizes, was advertised as friendly to beginners with no prior experience. What the hell, I thought, why not give it a shot? I downloaded the Unity game engine and started watching tutorials. At the end of the month I didn't win a prize but I was able to finish a functional space in just a few weeks with no prior experience. I felt really proud of it and wanted to keep going. The thing about 3d design is it's full of infinite possibilities so once you get going you just fall further down the rabbit hole thinking about all the other things you could learn. My first two Mona spaces sold for 0.1 Eth each which helped justify the time I was putting in, so I kept learning.

In the 6 months since then I've sold 8 Mona spaces in total and earned roughly $2,000. I love nature and photography so many of my spaces reflect that. I've incorporated my photography, AI art and audio recordings in my designs. I've built NFT galleries in forest settings, in space, on top of a mountain and in an ocean setting. My most recent minted space is UFO Art Gallery, complete with a sci-fi soundtrack produced by my teenage son. While I've come a long way and am now one of the best-selling Mona artists (in terms of number of spaces sold), I still feel like I'm only just getting started. If you'd like to check out my work follow this link to my creator page on Mona's website: https://monaverse.com/user/olystuart

Enter UFO Art Gallery: https://monaverse.com/spaces/WC6vrINOkrcS/

What is a Metaverse?

Let's take a step back for a moment before getting into details about Mona. The word metaverse is a nebulous term, mis-used by corporations and derided by many. There are dystopian implementations that are easy to envision (think Zuckerberg-run digital cities packed with corporate billboards and rent-extraction), but are there utopian versions?

I would say that metaverses are digital spaces designed to connect people around the world, empower people in expressing their artistic vision, and enable co-ordination and the sharing of knowledge. A metaverse should enhance people's lives, not suck us into a dystopian videogame future. We have the technology to learn from each other as human beings regardless of nationality, wealth or ability. Humanity must use this as an opportunity to connect and collaborate, rather than cede the technological space to capitalists seeking profit and power (and our data).

Mona and the Monaverse

Mona is a company building a platform for 3d designers to build spaces, mint them to a blockchain and sell them. It's also a community of friendly folks happy to help anyone get started and get better. They offer this platform without any upfront cost, earning revenue only through a fee added to sales. They recently raised over $14 million, they've got a great team and I would guess they will be here for the long run.

Let's move into a lightning round of Q&A:

Q: What blockchains are Mona spaces on? Where is the data stored?

A: Currently Ethereum and Polygon, on Mona’s own smart contracts. The data for the spaces is hosted on IPFS.

Q: What can you do with a Mona space?

A: They can be used as NFT galleries, meeting or event spaces, to showcase your 3d design such as architecture or sculptures. They come with text and voice chat functionality. You could host a DJ show, an NFT drop party or discord group meetup.

Q: Do you need to buy a "land" parcel?

A: Nope! Anyone can build and mint a space for free. They're connected with each other through portals and there's no artificial scarcity. Here’s a quote from their documentation: “Mona’s mission is to create a metaverse that belongs to everyone, which is why anyone can create, explore, and monetize in the Monaverse - no land, no limits.”

Q: What about mobile? VR?

A: Currently Mona spaces only work on computer browsers but mobile and VR are both in the works. The Mona team keep shipping new features regularly so stay tuned.

Q: Can I stream video into a space?

A: Not yet but it's another feature that's coming. GIF support was recently added and you can stream in audio through the voice chat channel. I’ll be dropping a movie theatre in space once it’s implemented. I’m sure people will think of many creative ways to incorporate videos.

Q: Do I need to own a Mona space to use it?

A: Nope! Unless the space is token gated (which you can do), it is freely open to anyone. Enter a space, hit the option to create a group instance, and you have a link to share with your group for a hangout space. Owning the space just gives you the ability to change what digital art is displayed on the canvasses, what the web-linked artifacts in the space link to, and which Mona spaces the portals connect with.

Q: How much do Mona spaces sell for?

A: There's no minimum or cap so it's up to you and the market, but we've seen spaces sell between 0.1 Eth and 10+ Eth. Mine have been .1 - .4 Eth each so far on Polygon. They are typically 1/1 but can also be multiple editions minted one at a time.

Q: What software and hardware requirements are there? Do I need to buy anything?

A: You'll need a desktop or laptop computer. A high end rig will enable some things but you don't need one, I've built all my spaces on a cheap Dell and it's done just fine. It's actually good to tune spaces so that they work well on lower end machines anyway for accessibility. You can build using all free software: Unity game engine is required and Blender or other 3d modeling software is recommended. You can use many other programs, as long as you can export your models in .fbx format and they're not super high on Polygon count. If you have specific questions about software compatibility I recommend asking in the Discord.

If you have more questions you could reach out to the Mona team on twitter, join the discord, and feel free to ask me if you like. They host regular twitter spaces which are also a great way to connect. There's an event calendar in the Discord.

How to Learn More and Get Started

I would need to write a series of articles to get through all my thoughts and suggestions, in the meantime here is what you need to get the ball rolling:

-Mona on YouTube with very helpful concise tutorials: https://youtube.com/channel/UCyMXSno2lS__03DrX2mwelQ

-The Mona webpage to browse around and check out some spaces: monaverse.com

-Monaverse documentation for more specific questions. I recommend reading through the whole page, it's not too long:

-Mona Discord and other links: https://linktr.ee/monaverse

-Mona team on twitter (partial list to get started): @monaverse, @burningbush_eth, @justinmmelillo, @themattempire42

Conclusion

This article only scratches the surface and there’s a lot more to be discussed. I’d like to follow up with more, perhaps reviews of Mona spaces or other content. If you’d like more technical tutorials make sure to check out Matt Empire’s streams (his twitter is linked above). Mona is a platform that’s great for anybody whether you’re just learning or you’re an experienced 3d designer porting your skills over to web3. It has the right ethos for building an open, decentralized, positive-impact sort of metaverse.

I’d love to see what you build so please feel free to tag me on twitter. I have a lot of ideas I haven’t yet turned into Mona spaces such as movie theatres, fundraising and community event spaces, educational venues, a rocket launch experience and lots more. This month Mona has been running a contest for building spaces with interactive elements and I’ve built a Roblox-style jumping game challenge with an NFT gallery at the end and a treasure chest leading to a prize. I won’t link it here because it’s not minted yet but stay tuned to my twitter for updates and new releases. Thanks very much for reading!