Sandbox of Elements Game

Sandbox of Elements is a falling-sand physics playground: you drag elements onto a live grid and watch them behave like the real thing, from a distance. Sand piles up, water pools and flows downhill, fire spreads through wood and turns it to ash, lava melts what it touches, and ice freezes standing water solid.

The fun is in the combinations rather than any single tool. Mix acid into stone and it eats through; drop a spark near gunpowder and it detonates; pour water over lava and get steam and obsidian. Nearly a hundred materials are unlocked over time across categories like fire, chemistry, electricity, explosives and even a "magic" set with stardust and potions, so the sandbox keeps opening up the longer you play.

Controls

Click and drag on the canvas to paint the selected element into the grid. The number keys Q, W, E, R and T switch between brush sizes. A shape tool lets you draw straight lines, rectangles and circles instead of freehand strokes, and separate weather controls can trigger rain, snow or a lightning strike that reacts with whatever is on the grid below it.

Tips

• Sand and water settle at different rates - give a pour a moment to finish spreading before judging the result.
• Combining two materials you haven't tried before is the fastest way to discover new recipes and unlock fresh elements.
• Explosives and radiation-type materials affect a wide area, so place them away from builds you want to keep.

Good for anyone who likes cause-and-effect toy physics and doesn't mind just experimenting to see what happens next.