Mixing Oil, Water, and Little Falling People

February 7, 2008 11:38 AM

The Falling Sand Game is an engrossing but hard-to-describe online toy/game that lets you create environments using falling streams of sand, water, oil, and salt by adding fire, plants, clay, and other substances. Inspired by The Falling Sand Game are a number of variations, such as PyroSand, featuring many kinds of explosives, and Hell of Sand, with little people who you can torture. One of the most interesting versions is The Powder Game, which lets you paint with superballs, adjust air pressure, and build very satisfying volcanoes and gardens. For even more, WxSand [downloadable .exe] is a Windows version with lots more options and many interesting mods. [Games are Java applets and are incredibly addictive, especially The Powder Game]
posted by blahblahblah (26 comments total)

By default, The Powder Game only displays the most recent four or five creations that have been uploaded by users. For a longer history, plus searches, this is more useful. People do some awesome things.
posted by speedo at 11:49 AM on February 7, 2008

Sadly, a double. Great game though.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 11:50 AM on February 7, 2008

Double.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:53 AM on February 7, 2008

Fair enough, but the old post doesn't list The Powder Game, which is arguably the best of all of these.

[/advocate]
posted by speedo at 11:53 AM on February 7, 2008

Powder Game isn't doubled--it just came out this week.

And it's a good thing my workplace strips Java out of webpages (I don't know how or why either) because otherwise I'd get no work done (actually, maybe that's why). My kids love it too--you can make some really great "bombs" using gunpowder, C4 and nitro.
posted by DU at 11:55 AM on February 7, 2008

Its not a double. Cut it out.
posted by vacapinta at 11:57 AM on February 7, 2008

The other post is also three years old...
posted by nzero at 12:00 PM on February 7, 2008

Er, 2 years old.
posted by nzero at 12:00 PM on February 7, 2008

You can make ultimate fighting cages out of C-4 with gunpowder floors. Make the little fighers go at it, then when that gets old, you can add fire to it and destroy them all.
posted by Burhanistan at 12:01 PM on February 7, 2008

Holy shit, the Powder Game is great, especially the "wind" element. Thanks!
posted by cog_nate at 12:05 PM on February 7, 2008

Yeah, seriously, mix up wind, a fan, the bomb elements, and fireworks and set it on fire--it's surprisingly pretty.
posted by leesh at 12:07 PM on February 7, 2008

These are fun, but I recall the falling sand games putting horrible amounts of strain on my processor.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:09 PM on February 7, 2008

Er, the "fan" element.
posted by cog_nate at 12:10 PM on February 7, 2008

These are fun, but I recall the falling sand games putting horrible amounts of strain on my processor.

Yes and yes. Do not attempt to run any of these games on old hardware, else your CPU will explode long before you finish your next little gunpowder bomb.
posted by suckerpunch at 12:15 PM on February 7, 2008

Ah, a being a little kid simulator.
posted by XMLicious at 12:18 PM on February 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Doh -- sorry blahblah, didn't see past the Falling Sand game, which ate several hours of work last time. Powder looks even worse (read: better).
posted by Pantengliopoli at 12:23 PM on February 7, 2008

Powder Game isn't doubled--it just came out this week.

nah, DU, it's been out longer than that. i think it was just 4.1 that came out this week.

i would pay money for this game.
posted by merelyglib at 12:31 PM on February 7, 2008

That wxSand game is the best of the bunch, I think. I love how it lets you load up an image file to create an instant map -- it's a lot easier to create complex contraptions in MSPaint than with that sprinkler tool you have in-game.

Also, the mods people have come up with are pretty amazing. I haven't seen that forum linked to in the FP yet, but there's a physics loader in wxSand (File -> Load physics from online wiki) that has some great, great stuff. There's one that models the spread of life across a solar system (it's called "User:Hunter Parasite/World Mod", a little less than halfway down the list; here's the Wiki page for it; and here's the history of the solar system I made: start, space race, colonization, alien life, war, second wave, and interplanetary plague). There's another one that lets you construct a human body with a functional circulatory and organ system, then infect it with diseases and tumors which you then have to cure without killing the patient -- it's called User:SpaceMonkeys/DrMod v7.0; wiki page; sample body. Also remember that any of these images can be loaded into the game (along with the appropriate physics file) to begin the game at that point.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:43 PM on February 7, 2008 [3 favorites]

There's a really good discussion / review of the Powder Game going on over at Jay is Games.

I fear to think how much time I've wasted on this little web-toy.
posted by killThisKid at 1:12 PM on February 7, 2008

Oh no! I sure hope that petroleum fire doesn't work its way under the sand and ignite the nitroglycerin depot!
posted by Iridic at 1:35 PM on February 7, 2008

Haha. The first link still uses my hacked version of Sand Game from 2005. Well it wasn't a big hack. I just resized it from a tiny tiny screen to something that offers more area to play around in. I found the original via Fark on DOFI Blog.
posted by chime at 1:40 PM on February 7, 2008

I love these games, and was wondering if there was a downloadable version. Thanks!
posted by zardoz at 4:24 PM on February 7, 2008

Double... AWESOMENESS. (Quiet, you pickers of nits. Go clean your carpet with chopsticks or something!)

I think I can actually feel the office productivity around the world grinding to a halt.
posted by loquacious at 5:17 PM on February 7, 2008

2 years ago? I'm not as new to Mefi as I once was.
posted by mrmojoflying at 6:36 PM on February 7, 2008

other double?
posted by anthill at 4:45 AM on February 8, 2008

There's a version for the Nintendo DS too, download over here. I haven't tried it since I don't have a DS yet so let me know if it's awesome! The touch screen seems perfect, now as for the 4MB memory and anemic processor I don't really know...
posted by drstupid at 10:52 AM on February 8, 2008