Family-friendly 3D design platform Rooms.xyz aims to foster creativity and coding inspiration

Rooms.xyz – Vercel customer – (United States)

The .xyz community is home to a growing number of 3D designers, artists, and innovative 3D platforms, steadily expanding its influence in the creative realm. Programmer Rosenbloomboom.xyz shares their Unity3D, C++, JavaScript, and Ionic-based gaming projects. Berlin-based 3D artist Ronny Schmidt uses Rosch.xyz to share his captivating 3D animations for commercial clients such as Nike, Google, and Balenciaga. 3D printing company Form.xyz offers a full suite of services like 3D scanning, sculpting, and printing. In this week’s #WebsiteWednesday, we’ll introduce you to a 3D design platform that encourages creativity and can inspire young coders: Rooms.xyz.

Introducing Rooms.xyz: a digital game platform for 3D design

Rooms.xyz is a browser-based tool for designing 3D spaces. The new platform is designed to help users express their creativity through drag-and-drop functionality, editable objects, and coding, enabling the design of rooms, basic games, and interactive activities. Inspired by the difficulty of current 3D model creation, co-founder Jason Toff, a former partner in Google’s in-house incubator Area 120, sought to create a tool that bridged the gap between simple creation platforms like Minecraft and more advanced world-building platforms like Roblox. As explained to the press, the company’s vision is to offer a user-friendly experience, like a “digital equivalent of LEGO.” The project raised $10 million in seed funding, led by the a16z Crypto division of technology venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.¹

Search, edit, and add decor to customized 3D spaces

The innovative platform offers a unique approach to 3D design. Differing from Minecraft’s block-by-block method, Rooms.xyz helps users to search, edit, and add fully formed objects to their spaces, such as doors, furniture, decor, pets, and more. The interface provides extensive customization options, including color, size, position, style, and interactive behavior.

Creative expression and coding inspiration for younger users

In addition to creative expression, Rooms.xyz also fosters educational opportunities. Users can interact with objects using the user interface or click to reveal the underlying code and become familiar with the coding language Lua, which is used in platforms like Roblox. This approach serves as a stepping stone for younger users to gain coding knowledge before transitioning to more advanced editing tools.

Explore captivating room designs: Inspiring examples to ignite your creativity

The Rooms.xyz homepage showcases a section called “Example Rooms.” Here, visitors can explore a wide array of inspiring room designs crafted by talented users. These rooms serve as a testament to the platform’s versatility and the limitless possibilities it offers for creative expression. Additionally, users have the freedom to copy an existing room and personalize it to suit their own vision, fostering a spirit of collaboration and innovation. Check out a few remarkable examples: 

• Superbrunoworld:  Embark on a nostalgic journey to the pixelated landscapes of a beloved video game classic. Superbrunoworld is a tribute to the iconic Super Mario Brothers series, filled with colorful brick platforms, question blocks, and green pipes. 
• Neonroom: Step into a vibrant living room adorned with captivating neon lights. The “neonroom” is a modern and playful space featuring a charming robot figure, a classic Sonic the Hedgehog figurine, an original NES game console, and a refreshing green plant. 
• Zoltair: Visit a room inspired by the iconic Zoltar fortune-telling machine. Encounter a life-sized “Zoltair” ready to answer your questions. Click on “Zoltair” and ask any question on your mind. Remember, “Zoltair” may not be a reliable source of information or guidance – or is he?
• .XYZ’s Welcome: Step into the welcoming embrace of the “.xyz Welcome Room,” a duplicate of Bruno’s Welcome room. As the platform encourages, we used the copy feature to begin learning and building on top of the existing space. We had fun personalizing elements with .xyz’s colors. You can interact with the elements similarly to Bruno’s room, like the interactive .xyz logo that can be playfully tossed around the room, the plant that grows when you click it, and the adorable and talkative kitty cat. We even turned Bruno into one of .xyz’s iconic Purple People!

In the future Rooms.xyz can explore monetization opportunities, including selling objects, subscriptions, and licensing the software for educational purposes. The team also envisions compatibility with AR/VR platforms, such as Apple and Meta, as the technology evolves. 

Words from Rooms.xyz co-founder Jason Toff

Rooms.xyz draws inspiration from Jason’s previous work at Google’s AR/VR division, where he contributed to projects like AR/VR app builder Poly and 3D modeling tool Blocks. We asked Jason about the inspiration behind choosing to build on .xyz domains. As he explained,

Rooms.xyz is currently in beta, providing users with a free and accessible avenue for exploring their creativity in the world of 3D design. You can learn more by visiting Rooms.xyz.

^{1. https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/16/a16z-backed-rooms-xyz-lets-you-build-interactive-3d-rooms-and-simple-games-in-your-browser/}