Falling Sand

A free falling sand game in your browser

Drag across the screen to pour sand and watch every grain tumble, slide and pile up. Then pick another material from the bar at the bottom and see what happens when they meet. Nothing is scripted. Every grain follows simple physics, so the results are different every time.

Materials and what they do

• Sand pours, piles into dunes and sinks through water.
• Water flows, levels out and puts out fire.
• Lava oozes slowly, glows, sets things alight and turns water into stone and steam.
• Fire rises, flickers and spreads to anything that burns.
• Oil floats on water and goes up in flames fast.
• Wood stays put and burns slowly, throwing flames and smoke.
• Plants grow by drinking any water they touch.
• Stone is solid. Build walls, bowls and dams with it.

How to play

There are no rules and no goal. Pour, build, burn and flood whatever you like. Press Rain to make the selected material fall from the sky, change the brush size, or Clear the screen and start again. On a computer, keys 1 to 9 switch materials.

Things to try

• Pour lava into the water bowl and watch the steam.
• Float oil on water, then drop one spark of fire on it.
• Build a stone dam, fill it with water and erase a hole in the bottom.
• Let plants grow over a pool, then set them on fire.

Questions