It consists of four main parts: the client software, the Sandbox Editor SDK suite, the website, and the host servers.

[1] According to Jim Sink, CEO of Avatar Reality, "Blue Mars was inspired by a vision of the future when the power to terraform whole worlds is within our grasp.

It currently consists of nine editors with specialized purposes (Animation, Block, Body, City, Cloth, Furniture, Interior, Item, and Shop), a developer version of the client software for testing, and reference and sample data.

Both the client software and Editor suite utilize the CryEngine 2 rendering engine originally developed by Crytek.

The graphics engine is being modified by Avatar Reality, and features not part of a combat game but needed for a virtual world are being added.

This version added a "places browser", which allows selective downloading of city data, and Flash functionality within the player client.

[10] Game designer Raph Koster complimented the graphics and user interface of Blue Mars and compared the business model to that of the There virtual world.