The Blob Toy • Hacker News Board

Reminds me of that sand game, I don't remember the name, maybe just "Sand" or "Falling sand" or similar? I know there were a bunch of different versions of it, with a lot of different materials you could draw on the screen, and they interacted with each other in very interesting ways; not just gravity, but there was also a "plant" material that would grow when in touch with water, fire would burn it, gas would explote, etc.

Anyone knows what I'm talking about?

This was many many years ago, but I would love to try it again, although I don't see myself spending the amount of time I did back in the day creating complex mechanisms.

Re: The Blob Toy

#15

Post by LoganDark » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 2:05 AM UTC

Unai wrote: post #14

Reminds me of that sand game, I don't remember the name, maybe just "Sand" or "Falling sand" or similar? I know there were a bunch of different versions of it, with a lot of different materials you could draw on the screen, and they interacted with each other in very interesting ways; not just gravity, but there was also a "plant" material that would grow when in touch with water, fire would burn it, gas would explot…

The Powder Toy?

> The Powder Toy is a free physics sandbox game, which simulates air pressure and velocity, heat, gravity and a countless number of interactions between different substances! The game provides you with various building materials, liquids, gases and electronic components which can be used to construct complex machines, guns, bombs, realistic terrains and almost anything else. You can then mine them and watch cool explosions, add intricate wirings, play with little stickmen or operate your machine. You can browse and play thousands of different saves made by the community or upload your own – we welcome your creations!

Re: The Blob Toy

#16

Post by Unai » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 2:10 AM UTC

Unai wrote: post #14

Reminds me of that sand game, I don't remember the name, maybe just "Sand" or "Falling sand" or similar? I know there were a bunch of different versions of it, with a lot of different materials you could draw on the screen, and they interacted with each other in very interesting ways; not just gravity, but there was also a "plant" material that would grow when in touch with water, fire would burn it, gas would explot…

Can't edit on the app I'm using, but I found this implementation of the game I was talking about: https://www.silvergames.com/en/falling-sand. Not the original, but it has all the elements I remember, plus some interesting things like wind. And works decently on my phone.

Re: The Blob Toy

#17

Post by emmelaich » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 2:12 AM UTC

Author has some nice examples on Twitter, e.g. https://twitter.com/shr_id/status/1679502736222740480

Re: The Blob Toy

#18

Post by starshadowx2 » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 2:13 AM UTC

Unai wrote: post #14

Reminds me of that sand game, I don't remember the name, maybe just "Sand" or "Falling sand" or similar? I know there were a bunch of different versions of it, with a lot of different materials you could draw on the screen, and they interacted with each other in very interesting ways; not just gravity, but there was also a "plant" material that would grow when in touch with water, fire would burn it, gas would explot…

I think you mean Burning Sand which is also the first thing I thought of when opening this.

https://siebn.de/games/bs

Re: The Blob Toy

#19

Post by voidfunc » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 2:21 AM UTC

Unai wrote: post #14

Reminds me of that sand game, I don't remember the name, maybe just "Sand" or "Falling sand" or similar? I know there were a bunch of different versions of it, with a lot of different materials you could draw on the screen, and they interacted with each other in very interesting ways; not just gravity, but there was also a "plant" material that would grow when in touch with water, fire would burn it, gas would explot…

I think it's fascinating that game sticks in people's mind so much, there wasn't much to it from what I recall.

Re: The Blob Toy

#20

Post by starshadowx2 » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 2:29 AM UTC

starshadowx2 wrote: post #18

Unai wrote: post #14

Reminds me of that sand game, I don't remember the name, maybe just "Sand" or "Falling sand" or similar? I know there were a bunch of different versions of it, with a lot of different materials you could draw on the screen, and they interacted with each other in very interesting ways; not just gravity, but there was also a "plant" material that would grow when in touch with water, fire would burn it, gas would explot…

I think you mean Burning Sand which is also the first thing I thought of when opening this. https://siebn.de/games/bs

I still have a copy from 2006 saved on my computer of this and I'm pretty sure I originally got it from some sort of demo disk or something like that, maybe PC Gamer or Maximum PC - can't remember.

I was trying to look into it more and found this blog post from 2006 saying Burning Sand was a version of World of Sand and links to a Japanese site - https://www.kreativrauschen.com/blog/2006/03/29/burning-sand...

That site talks about Hell of Sand being another new version. That lead me to find this site that still hosts old .jar files of different versions of the game under the Falling Sand title - https://androdome.com/Sand/

This site I found on Reddit titled as "a modern version of the classic Hell of Sand" - https://www.projectsand.io/

There was also this game I remember playing back in school that is a lot alike - https://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/