How to Make Money in Virtual Worlds: Games, Wearables and Creator Opportunities in Decentraland
By Bay Backner, , in Announcements
Can you actually make money building games or avatar items in a virtual world? Whether you landed here asking how to build in the metaverse, where to build new games, or how to get paid to make games, the short answer is yes, and Decentraland is one of the places actually doing it.
In Decentraland, there are several ways to turn creative and technical skills into paid opportunities. Creators can design avatar Wearables and Emotes, build games and social experiences, work on commissioned projects, and enter prize-funded Buildathons and Hackathons. And for game developers, there is now another route: applications are open for Decentraland Creator Success, a program designed to help promising developers with paid projects and professional development.
Whether you're a 3D artist, indie developer, technical creator or small studio, there are multiple ways to start building, earning and developing a portfolio in Decentraland.
Unlike most virtual worlds, Decentraland is not owned and controlled by one company. It is a social world for adults, owned and run by its community, with support from the not-for-profit Decentraland Foundation. When you build here, you own what you create, and you can help shape where Decentraland goes next.
Curious what that actually looks like? Decentraland is a free desktop app, and you can get started with just an email. Download and see for yourself before you start building.
How can creators make money in Decentraland?
There isn't one single business model for creators in Decentraland.
Some creators make digital items that people use to express themselves. Others build games and persistent social spaces. Some enter competitions and win funding for their projects, while others go on to work with communities, brands or organisations.
Some of the main opportunities include:
Creating and selling avatar Wearables
Creating and selling Emotes
Entering Buildathons and Hackathons with cash-equivalent prize pools
Building games and interactive experiences
Working on commissioned experiences for brands and communities
Applying for funded game development through Creator Success
You also don't need to begin by building a huge virtual environment or creating an entire commercial game.
There are entry points for different skills and different levels of experience.
Make money creating avatar Wearables
If you're a 3D artist rather than a game developer, one of the clearest ways to start creating in Decentraland is through Wearables.
Wearables are custom 3D items that players use to personalize their avatars, covering everything from clothing and footwear to hair, hats, eyewear, jewelery and hand accessories.
A good place to start is simply by exploring the Decentraland Shop. You can see what other creators have already made and are selling, explore different styles and categories, and get a sense of what is possible before creating your own collection.
You don't even need to build the avatar system yourself.
Decentraland provides reference avatar models, textures and example Wearables that creators can use as a starting point, together with a dedicated Decentraland Tools plugin for Blender to help edit and export Wearables and Emotes.
The official Wearables documentation is aimed at creators with basic to intermediate 3D modelling skills, making this a particularly natural entry point for artists who already know tools such as Blender and want to begin creating for virtual worlds.
There is also plenty of room for creative experimentation. Creators can design across different parts of the avatar, make their own textures and add dynamic elements. Wearables can even use spring bones to make things such as long hair, braids and dangling accessories move with the avatar.
Decentraland provides technical guidelines covering areas such as polygon counts, textures, materials, rigging and dimensions, as well as downloadable reference assets to help creators make compatible, performant items.
For someone wondering how to make money as a 3D artist in a virtual world, creating Wearables can therefore be a much smaller first step than developing a complete game or interactive experience.
Create and sell avatar Emotes
3D modelling isn't the only avatar-related opportunity.
Creators can also produce Emotes, animations that allow Decentraland avatars to dance, react and express themselves. This is how the community shows off their moves!
Like Wearables, these can become part of the wider avatar ecosystem and give animators and character artists another route into virtual-world creation without needing to become game developers.
Wearables and Emotes are particularly interesting because they are inherently social products.
People use them around other people, inside games, at events and while exploring Decentraland. They become part of how people present themselves and communicate their identity in a shared digital environment.
Win prizes through Decentraland Buildathons and Hackathons
Another way to get paid for creating in Decentraland is through regular Buildathons and Hackathons organised by Regenesis Labs and the Decentraland Foundation, often using platforms such as DoraHacks and itch.io.
These events challenge creators to build around a particular theme or technology, with prizes for the strongest projects.
They are also designed as an accessible way for new builders to enter the Decentraland creator ecosystem.
The current Friendzone Buildathon
The current Friendzone Buildathon, organised by Regenesis Labs, challenges creators to build mobile-first social experiences for the Decentraland Mobile App.
Creators can build a social space, multiplayer activity or lightweight game in a Decentraland World.
The idea is to create somewhere people genuinely want to spend time together.
That might be:
A hangout where the environment encourages conversation
A game that becomes more fun when friends join
A competitive multiplayer activity
A cooperative challenge
Because Friendzone is focused on mobile, creators are also being challenged to think about touch controls, small-screen usability, performance and short, accessible play sessions.
The current Buildathon includes an $8,000 USD prize pool paid in MANA, shared between five winning projects:
1st Place: $3,000 in MANA
2nd Place: $2,000 in MANA
3rd Place: $1,500 in MANA
4th Place: $1,000 in MANA
5th Place: $500 in MANA
Winning isn't the only benefit.
Eligible participants can also receive badges and merch rewards, while the top projects may receive additional visibility through Decentraland Mobile Discover.
Explore the Friendzone Buildathon on DoraHacks →
Buildathons are also a way to learn
One of the most useful things about these events is that creators aren't simply given a challenge and left alone to figure everything out.
Throughout Friendzone, builders can access workshops, tutorials, live feedback, troubleshooting and practical support covering areas including:
Creator Hub workflows
Building and testing for mobile
Mobile UX and touch controls
Performance and optimisation
Concept development and feedback
Workshop recordings and resources are also published so creators can learn while they build.
That makes Buildathons useful even if you're opening Decentraland's creator tools for the first time.
Instead of learning everything before starting, you can build something small, get help along the way and finish with a working project you can show your friends or add to your professional portfolio
And the end of a Buildathon doesn't necessarily have to be the end of the project.
Promising submissions may be considered for further incubation through opportunities including the Regenesis Labs Grants Program and the Decentraland Foundation Creator Success Program.
A three-week competition project could become the first version of something much bigger.
Can you get paid to make games in Decentraland?
Yes! Decentraland has launched Creator Success, a program designed to give game developers a pathway from an initial idea to funded development.
Over $50k has already been awarded to creators via funded Decentraland programs within the past year. Creator Success makes this kind of paid opportunity available to more developers, with applications now open to the wider community and new creators.
Applications to Creator Success are now open.
The program isn't only for established studios.
It is also designed for individual developers, hobbyist game makers and very small indie teams with the technical ability and ambition to build engaging games.
The idea behind the program is simple:
Turn your game dev hobby into a paid project.
Rather than treating game development as a one-off competition, Creator Success is designed as a longer development pathway.
Creators define an idea, prove they can build it, develop a focused version, put it in front of real players and use what they learn to decide what should be built next.
How does Creator Success work?
Creator Success funds games in stages, starting with up to $4,100 USD. Games that show strong player retention can then be considered for additional funding rounds.
The process starts small. Before applying, developers are encouraged to play existing Decentraland games and think about what makes people stay, play with others and come back. From there, applicants put together a test project and a Game Design Document (GDD) explaining what they want to build. Decentraland has released a new set of AI-powered Game Design Skills to help with this. The Skills make it easier to move from “I have an idea” to “I know what I need to build and test next” by helping you shape the core game loop, think through what will bring players back, and turn the idea into a practical development plan. Using the AI tools is optional, but they can help you get from idea to build much faster.
The project and GDD live in your own GitHub repository, so there’s no need for a pile of application paperwork. If you're accepted, you keep building on the same project.
Apply to Decentraland Creator Success →
What is Creator Success looking for?
Creator Success focuses on helping developers make experiences that people actually want to play again.
That means asking questions such as:
Would somebody understand what to do?
Is the core activity enjoyable?
Is it better with other people?
What gives a player a reason to return tomorrow?
Games in the program are regularly playtested, creators receive feedback from real players, and retention data can help inform what should be developed next.
That is particularly valuable for developers making the transition from hobby projects into professional game development.
Do I need to be a professional game studio to apply?
No.
Creator Success is specifically intended to create a route into professional game development for people who may not yet think of themselves as a studio.
You might be:
A programmer making games outside your day job
A game-development student or graduate building a portfolio
A two-person indie team
An experienced developer interested in building for virtual worlds
Someone who has entered a Decentraland Buildathon and wants to develop the idea further
You don't need to arrive with a finished commercial game.
You do need to demonstrate that you can build and deploy something, develop a coherent game idea and learn from how real players interact with it.
Where can I build new games?
Decentraland is one of the places you can actually do this today. Open the Creator Hub, build inside a persistent virtual world people are already exploring, and publish without needing your own server, an engine license, or a player base to start from scratch.
Why make games in a virtual world?
Building a game inside a persistent social world creates different design possibilities from releasing a completely standalone game.
People already have avatars and identities, so you can focus primarily on the experience itself.
They can encounter other people while exploring, invite friends into an experience, compare achievements, participate in events and return to places where they recognise other people.
That means social mechanics can become part of the game itself.
Multiplayer competition, cooperation, collecting, progression, leaderboards, recurring events and shared spaces can all help turn a one-off experience into somewhere people want to revisit.
For developers, that means thinking beyond getting somebody to play once.
A more important question becomes:
What gives somebody a reason to come back?
That question sits at the centre of both Creator Success and current creator initiatives such as Friendzone.
Other ways to earn as a Decentraland creator
Selling avatar items, entering Buildathons and joining Creator Success aren't the only ways creators can build careers around Decentraland.
The ecosystem also includes independent studios, freelancers and creators building experiences for communities, events and external organisations.
That creates opportunities for people with skills including:
3D modelling
Game development
Animation
Digital fashion
Environment design
UI and UX
Community experience design
And these routes don't need to exist separately.
A creator might begin by making a Wearable.
A developer might enter their first Buildathon to learn the tools.
Two people might team up to create a small social game.
A promising experiment might become a Creator Success application.
Over time, a side project can become a portfolio, a collaboration, a funded project or even the beginning of a studio.
How do I start creating in Decentraland?
Start with the route that matches the skills you already have.
If you're a 3D artist, browse the Decentraland Shop to see the Wearables other creators are making and selling, then explore the Wearables documentation and reference models.
If you're interested in games but haven't built in Decentraland before, a Buildathon can give you a specific challenge, learning resources and a deadline to work towards. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter to learn more.
If you already have the skills to build a small playable experience and want to take game development more seriously, Creator Success provides a direct route towards funded development.
And if you're somewhere in between, start small.
Play some Decentraland games. Open the creator tools. Build one mechanic. Make one Wearable. Join a workshop. Enter a Buildathon.
You don't need to have a studio before you begin.
Sometimes building the first small thing is how the studio begins.
Ready to turn your game idea into a paid project?
Applications for Decentraland Creator Success are now open.
If you have the technical skills to build games and want to develop an idea with funding, structured milestones, player feedback and support, you can start the application process now.
Apply to Decentraland Creator Success →
Virtual worlds need more than places to explore.
They need creators giving people things to wear, games to play, reasons to connect and places worth coming back to.
For the people willing to build those things, there are increasingly more ways to turn creative skills into real opportunities. Haven't explored Decentraland yet? It's a free desktop app, and you can sign up with just an email. Download it today and see what other creators have already built.