April 28, 2008 – 11:53 pm

Ever wanted to play a game that has no purpose or ending? Falling Sand is a Java-based ‘game’ of sorts that lets you manipulate various materials and watch as it interacts with gravity and each other.

The Falling Sand game isn’t so much a game, as it is a toy box of simulation experimentation.

Upon visiting a site, you are presented with a blank screen where a cascade of different colors fall from the top. Each of the colors represent a material; sand, water and salt. At the bottom of the screen is your ‘controls’ where you can select and add your own elements onto the screen. Simplest is the ‘wall’ element that you can draw lines to redirect the falling elements by building ‘channels’. Other elements include fire, plant, oil and other various elements. You can also control the volume of the materials that fall from any point of the screen.

So, there is no ‘purpose’ or ‘end’ to this game, but more of an area to build an environment that interacts with free flowing elements on the screen. Users has released different version of the Falling Sand game:

I used the page to build and test a drainage system that I was planning to lay out on in the yard. (I know, boring) I wanted to see how the water would flow out from two points of a gutter system that were at varying vertical heights.

Of course, you don’t have to use this website for exciting drainage issues in your yard, but its a cool interactive online app/game that you can play with and even burn zombies if you like!

Similar: phun (A desktop version that seems more accurate in the simulation)