SandLab

Prospectus

SandLab is a falling-sand physics sandbox with over 270 materials that react to each other on their own. Pour sand, flood it with water, drop lava into the lake and watch it hiss into steam and harden into stone. Acid eats through metal, current runs along wires, plants grow toward water, gunpowder goes boom. Set up the room the way you want: change the temperature from deep space cold to blazing heat, turn gravity down, off or upside down, add wind and speed up heat flow. Presets like Moon, Arctic, Inferno and Upside down are one click away. Discover all 199 reactions and fill your lab notebook. Short goals teach the basics and point you to new experiments: boil water, grow a plant, make glass, light a lamp, bake bread, forge bronze. Features: - 270+ materials: powders, liquids, gases, metals, chemicals, food, life and special elements like cloner, void and black hole - 199 reactions to discover, 20 goals - Room settings: temperature, gravity, wind, heat flow - Heat map and flammability views - Pause, step frame by frame, slow motion or 4x speed - Undo, zoom, three save slots plus autosave

How it plays

Mouse / touch: - Left click or tap and drag: draw with the selected material or tool - Right drag or Shift + drag: move the camera - Mouse wheel or pinch: zoom Keyboard: - Space: pause / play - . : step one frame (while paused) or speed up - , : slow down - Ctrl + Z: undo - [ and ]: smaller / bigger brush - + / - / 0: zoom in, zoom out, reset zoom - V: switch view (materials, temperature, flammability) - R: room settings - G: goals and reactions - M: sound on / off - Esc: close the open window

Opening an account with this game takes one press: Open the holding, above, and it loads on this page itself — nothing downloads and no form stands between you and the first decision. It is drawn for a portrait (upright) screen and takes its instructions from mouse, keyboard or touch, as the game prefers. The file is drawn tall, for an upright screen — a phone held the usual way frames it best, though it will run in any window you give it. If a fullscreen control is offered, take it — a growing enterprise deserves the whole desk.

Analyst's notes for simulation holdings

• Learn the loop before optimising it. Every simulation is a circle — earn, spend, expand, earn more — and the players who last are the ones who found the circle's slow point early.
• Watch one full cycle without touching anything. A simulation confesses its priorities when left alone: whatever runs out first is what the designer wants you managing.
• Small inefficiencies compound faster than big ones. A route that wastes ten seconds every cycle costs more than a disaster that happens once, so audit the routine before the dramatic.

SandLab — questions from the readership

What does it cost to open SandLab?

Nothing, at any point. The holding is free from the first click to the last upgrade — no account to open, no download to wait for, no paywall filed anywhere in its pages. The advertising around this page is what pays the bookkeeping.

What kind of game is SandLab, exactly?

We file it on the Simulation shelf of the ledger. It is a browser game through and through — the prospectus above is the publisher's own summary of what the game asks of you and what it gives back.

Can I play SandLab on a phone or tablet?

Yes — it runs in the browser on phones and tablets just as it does on a computer. The file is drawn tall, for an upright screen — a phone held the usual way frames it best, though it will run in any window you give it.

Is there anything to download or install first?

Nothing at all. SandLab is an HTML5 game: press the open button and it loads on this very page, and closing the tab leaves nothing behind on your device.

Closing entry

Finished the audit, or still mid-season? The full Simulation shelf is one click away — The ledger's main hall: 302 simulations of everything from bus routes to burger counters to entire small lives. If it can be run, staffed, watered or worried over, somebody has simulated it and filed it here.