Inside review · 03 of 08
Sandspiel, reviewed
A falling-sand toy box: paint sand, water, fire and plants and watch them interact.
Open Sandspiel on the official siteOur take
Sandspiel is less a game than a toy. You get a box and a palette of materials: sand piles up, water flows and pools, fire spreads and burns plants, lava melts things, ice freezes water, and seeds grow when they get wet. You paint them in with the cursor and watch the reactions play out.
There are no goals, no score and no levels. The fun comes from small experiments: build a dam of stone and fill it, plant a garden and set it alight, drop fungus on wood and see what spreads. A community gallery lets you open other people's boxes, which is a good source of ideas when you run out of your own.
It is a gentle way to spend a few minutes, and because nothing is at risk it is an easy thing to put down. The interface is simple enough for anyone to pick up, though the community gallery is user-made, so the occasional box is a little odd.
A first sitting
Draw a bowl of stone at the bottom, fill it with water, then drop sand in from above and watch it settle. Try fire next to plants, then add water to put it out.
Where to stop
With no score there is nothing pulling you on. A finished scene is a good place to stop: take a screenshot if you like it, then close the tab.
