Following the DAO grant and the Protocol Team’s exploration of other game engines, Decentraland is poised to expand its presence across multiple platforms, bolstering its foundational strength and fostering innovative business approaches.

As 2024 approaches, the decentralized foundation's primary objective is to introduce a new and robust desktop client developed in Unity. This initiative aims to broaden Decentraland's horizons, enabling its expansion onto alternative platforms like mobile and VR.

Decentraland, an open-source, decentralized platform driven by community collaboration, empowers individuals to contribute to the evolution of the virtual social landscape. Leveraging this flexibility, the protocol team intends to develop the Decentralized Explorer using complementary technology stacks, thus unlocking new avenues for growth.

In its quest for versatility, the protocol team conducted extensive research on alternative engines, leading to the decision to build a decentralized mobile client in Godot, an open-source engine, and a desktop client in Bevy, another open-source engine. This strategic move, coupled with the ongoing development of a Unity desktop client by the Foundation, positions Decentraland well for future expansion. Additionally, the protocol team envisions numerous engines capable of running the Explorer in the long term.

Initially relying on the Three.js JavaScript 3D library for rendering its virtual environment, Decentraland transitioned to Babylon.js in 2018 before ultimately settling on Unity. With an open protocol, Decentraland has the flexibility to operate across various technology platforms. After conducting research on two alternative engines, Babylon.js and Bevy.js, the protocol team decided to focus on Godot, integrating Rust programming language from Bevy into the project. The Godot engine offers intriguing possibilities for interacting with Decentraland, including compatibility with all available mixed reality headsets.

With the release of Godot’s editor code, opportunities for enhancing every aspect of the engine emerge, including the potential inclusion of a Decentraland editor with SDK 7. The team's research remains experimental in nature, with Unity serving as the fundamental engine for now, while efforts continue to develop a production-ready client.

The protocol team's next objective is to enhance Web3 integration, enabling player identification without the need for an external wallet, while still facilitating connectivity with one. A beta release of both the mobile and desktop Explorers could potentially occur by mid-2024.