gbSand is a standalone version of the popular web-based Falling Sand games. The web versions have generally been written in Java and are run in a browser. gbSand is written in PowerBASIC and is run as a standalone EXE (no browser required).

The basic Falling Sand game typically consists of one or more streams of falling particles, such as sand, oil, and water. The various particles are assigned properties which describe how the particles may fall or interact with each other. Barriers may be generated by the user, directing the paths by which particles may fall and/or merge with of particles streams. Particles which reach the bottom of the screen are typically discarded from the game.

While gbSand can be played by simply running the game and playing with the various controls and settings, there are a number of features available which enable the user to design (and save) game backgrounds for use in subsequent games. By default, gbSand opens with 4 particle streams and a barrier for each particles. Users can modify the numbers of streams/barriers, import barriers from external files, and edit the screen content directly - more editing features than any other falling sand game!

Download (v5.02, 1.4M)

gbSand uses a single main window, consisting of three toolbars and a client area where the game is displayed. Default particle streams enter from the top of the screen. Particle paths are directed by the user by placing barriers (manually drawn or imported from external files) in the path of the falling particles.

Feature List

1. Standalone EXE
2. Play/Pause/Restart
3. Draw game content while game is paused
4. Save/Open games
5. Save/restore game session
6. Default game includes 4 default particle streams and 4 default barriers
7. Four user actions - Draw, Erase, Spout, and Import
8. Custom cursors to indicate which action is in effect
9. Draw barriers with mouse
10. User-defined pen width
11. Unlimited barrier count
12. Import images as barriers
13. User-defined resizing of import images
14. Erase barriers (manual or imported) and particles using the mouse
15. Select screen areas and selectively act on content in the selection
16. Selectively remove streams
17. Create particle streams (spouts) anywhere, placed by double-clicking
18. Unlimited particle streams at user-defined locations
19. User-defined particle count limit (default of 1,000,000)
20. Import barriers from files, placed by double-clicking
21. Nine particle types supported (sand, oil, water, seed, fire, salt, laster, cloud, virus)
22. Speed control
23. Sound effects
24. User-defined game background color
25. Zoom viewing (static image) anywhere on the screen
26. Particle compaction (eliminate off-screen pixels)
27. Print game image
28. Capture game image to clipboard
29. Real-time particle count, computation speed, and refresh cycle timing
30. Popup setting information dialog
31. Online Help (this page)

Future versions will enhance particle interaction, provide additional realism of falling particles and allow insertion of animated objects.

Playing gbSand

1. Select - select an area from the game
2. Draw - draw barriers with the mouse
3. Erase - erase barriers and/or particles with the mouse
4. Spouts - create particles sources anywhere (double-click at desired location)
5. Import - import images, which act as barriers, onto the game screen (double-click at desired location)

By default, gbSand provide four streams of falling particles, one for each supported particle type of sand, oil, water, and seed. Also by default, a barrier is placed in each stream to deflect the particle flow. The defaults are just to demonstrate how the game works to the user. The user may remove the default barriers and particle flows.

Users may create new barriers by dragging on the screen with the mouse. Likewise, particle streams (spouts) may be removed or added. Added particle streams may be placed anywhere on the game screen.

Approximately 100 images, suitable for import (PNG files with black as transparent color), are distributed with gbSand. A separate toolbar is provided which displays all images found in the images subfolder where gbSand has been installed. You can import any image, but those with perimeter transparency tend to give better results. The supplied images are generally just colorful, humorous images - but the user can make custom images, such as a barrier which resembles a maze, which may be used in multiple games. The use of imported barriers is limited only by the users imagination!

The game may be paused and play resumed. A new game may also be started at any time. Games may be saved and opened later. The game speed (rate at which particles fall) can be controlled. The game status in a sessions is automatically saved and restored the next time gbSand is started.

Sound effects are available for each of the user actions (Drawing, Erase, Spouts, Import).

A screen context menu is available, providing various options for controlling the content of the game. A zoom context menu item allows the user to take a closer view of any part of the screen (displayed in a separate dialog). Game images may be saved to the clipboard or printed to a user-defined printer.

The user can select any portion of the screen, after which a separate context menu is presented, allowing the user to copy or selective erase content within the selection.

Toolbars

Settings Toolbar (Top)

• Open
  Opens a file selection dialog. gbSand games file use a ".gam" extension. The dropdown arrow next to the Open toolbar button conveniently lists all games found in the "games" subfolder.
  

• SaveAs
  Open a file Save As dialog, for saving games.

• Play
  Toggles between playing and pausing the game

• Restart
  Starts a new game

• Faster
  Increases the speed of the game

• Slower
  Slows the speed of the game

• Zoom
  Toggles scale factor of imported image from 25% to 200%

• Sounds
  Toggles play of sound effects corresponding to user actions

• Print
  Prints an images of the gbSand dialog to the user-selected printer. The dropdown arrow next to the Printer toolbar button gives additional actions which may be taken on the game image. At this time, the only additional option available is to copy the game image to the clipboard.
  

• Settings
  When pressed, the Settings button toggles display of game information in the dialog caption. The Settings dropdown menu provides the following menu options:
  
  Show Status in Caption
  Toggles display of information (particle count and average time per refresh cycle) in the dialog caption
  Select Background Color
  Opens the color dialog, from which the user can select the screen background color
  Edit Pen Width
  Opens a simple input box for the user to enter the pen width, which is the width of lines drawn with the mouse.
  Edit Maximum Particle Count
  Opens a simple input box for the user to enter the maximum number of particles allowed in the game. The default is 1M particles.
  Edit Import Scale Factor
  Opens a simple input box for the user to enter the scale factor of imported images. A value of 25 means 25%. A value of 100% means 100%.
  Custom Cursors
  Toggles display of custom cursors for each of the user action mode. The default cursor is the standard arrow pointer.
  Auto Save Sessions
  Enables saving of a game when the game closes. The saved game is restored in the next session.
  Ask For Confirmation
  Requires user to confirm actions which would otherwise delete game content (such as opening a new game or restarting the current game).
  Landscape
  Determines whether printing the dialog image is done in landscape or portrait mode.
  Spout Cloud
  Determines whether a "cloud" shaped image is placed at the top of new spouts.
  Start Game Empty
  When selected, a new game (created using Restart toolbar button) will not display default streams nor default barriers.

• Help
  Opens the online Help page (this page). The Help dropdown menu provides the following menu options:
  
  Local Help
  Opens a popup dialog with a compact description of how to play gbSand

  Online Update
  Checks to see if a new version of gbSand is available online. If so, the user may download and install the new version.

Action Toolbar (Middle)
The middle toolbar provides all of the mouse actions a user may take.

• Select - The select toolbar button lets the user select any area of the game. After a selection is made and the mouse is released, a context menu is presented which allows the user to coyp, or selectively erase content within the selection.
• Draw - The draw toolbar button lets the user draw freestyle barriers. The barriers may be drawn horizontally or vertically by pressing the Ctrl or Shift buttin while drawing.
• Erase - The 4 erase options let the user selective remove game elements (manually drawn barriers, particles, or imported barriers).
• Spouts - The 9 spout toolbar buttons to the right allow the user to select which particle type will be used in creating a spout.

Import Barrier Toolbar (bottom)
Thumbnails of all barrier files, located in the images subfolder where gbSand was installed, are shown on this toolbar. To import a barrier file, just select the image on the toolbar and then double-click on the game screen where you want the imported barrier to be centered.

gbSand Selection Context Menu

• Cancel - cancels the context menu

• Erase All - erase all content within the selection

• Erase Barriers - removes all manually drawn barriers within the selection

• Erase Particles - removes all particles within the selection

• EraseImports - removes all imported barriers within the selection

• Copy - copies the selection to the clipboard (as an image)

gbSand Screen Context Menu

• Zoom At Cursor
  Displays a 4X static view, in a separate window, of the area underneath the cursor. This allows the user to more easily see/inspect the status of particles and barriers.
  

• Remove All Particles
  Removes all particles from the current game. Barriers are unaffected.

• Compact Particle List
  gbSand allows up to 1M particles to be created. This includes particles which have fallen off the screen and are no longer displayed. Compaction removes the off-screen particles from the application data arrays, allowing more of the 1M maximum particles to be displayed on the screen.

• Add Default Barriers
  Adds the default barriers back into the game

• Remove All Barriers
  Removes all barriers, including the default barriers

• Add Default Streams
  Adds the default streams back into the game

• Remove All Streams
  Removes all streams, including the default streams

• Remove Most Recent Stream
  Removes the most recently added stream

Keyboard Shortcuts

• F1 - Help
• Ctrl-C - Copy image of dialog to the clipboard
• Ctrl-E - Toggles pen width between 10 and 50 pixels
• Ctrl-I - Settings Information Dialog
• Ctrl-N - Set Import scale factor to 100%
• Ctrl-P - Toggles Play/Pause
• Ctrl-R - Start a new game
• Ctrl-S - Remove Most Recent Stream

Sounds

In future versions, additional sound effects will be available, corresponding to particle interactions.

Other Comments

INI File
gbSand application settings are saved in an INI file, kept in the same folder as the gbSand application.

Comments and suggestions are welcome!