Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
A jam submission

SandBoundView game page

A game for the GMTK Game Jam 2026 - CountDown
Submitted by Athryell, pierclgr, Letju — 1 hour, 18 minutes before the deadline
Add to collection

Play game

SandBound's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Creativity#364.5784.578
Enjoyment#1514.2444.244
Audio#11263.5333.533
Artwork#15483.8443.844
Narrative#35632.6442.644

Ranked from 45 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
The player is an hourglass that needs constatly to manage its countdown

(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
SFX:
Landing sound: Bottle Cling.wav by Angel_Perez_Grandi -- https://freesound.org/s/65480/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
Shatter sound: Glass Break - Medium Jar by RoganMcDougald -- https://freesound.org/s/260434/ -- License: Attribution 3.0
Sand falling: Shaking rice container by lethabomampane -- https://freesound.org/s/764439/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
Gravity change: Zoom 1 up - https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/film-special-effects-zoom-up-1-quicker-delay-107051/
Jump pad: SHRT Bass - https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/film-special-effects-shrt-bass-357133/
End level portal: Teleport - https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/film-special-effects-teleport-game-sound-effect-379236/

Music:
Levels 1-4: The return of 8 bit - https://pixabay.com/music/video-games-the-return-of-the-8-bit-era-301292/
Levels 5-8: Chiptune Techno Polka - https://pixabay.com/music/upbeat-chiptune-techno-polka-218042/
Levels 13-19: Colors everywhere - https://pixabay.com/music/electronic-colors-everywhere-505289/
Levels 9-12: Game 8 bit - https://pixabay.com/music/video-games-game-8-bit-328398/
Menu: Happy videogame music - https://pixabay.com/music/video-games-retro-8bit-happy-videogame-music-246631/

Assets:
End level portal: https://pixelnauta.itch.io/pixel-dimensional-portal-32x32
Pixel art backgrounds: https://craftpix.net/freebies/free-steampunk-cityscape-pixel-backgrounds/

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Viewing comments 38 to 21 of 38 · Next page · Last page
Submitted(+1)

This game is amazing, i feel like its a gold standard for level design. Level design has never been my strongest suite but how you introduce mechanics and challenge the player gradually is perfect. the mechanic itself is very unique and honestly with some ui polish and a custom level maker i can definitely see this as a nice mobile game many people would enjoy kinda like geometry dash. Well done!

Developer

Thanks a lot!

Developer

Thank you for the feedback! The custom level maker was in our to do list! But maybe too much for a Jam :D Definitely something we are thinking about

Submitted(+1)

really really nice! i had a lot of fun! the concept is amazing and the artstyle is cool. the mechanics are original and very funny to play.good work bro!

if you want you can rate my game, i rated your's :)

Developer

Thank you! :)

Developer

We play and rate all the games in the comments! <3

Submitted(+1)

Really exceptional game you've made here! Had a great time playing.

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

Very fun and addictive game. The puzzle platformer was great and the art and music really tied it together. Great Game

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

Great game Well done 

please rate my game Flip it

Submitted(+1)

One of the most creative mechanics Ive seen so far! The level design and polishing feels super good as well, only thing I sometimes struggled with is keeping track of where my sand is on the later levels (but I did finish it!)

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Great concept! I really struggled on level 3 haha

Developer

Thanks a lot! We designed the levels to be hard but not impossible, so if you want to give it another try, do it! :D

Submitted(+1)

Done! 5:36 at 40 deaths. What an excellent platformer! The controls felt really natural and the visual effects were on point! My only complaint would be that the music does not fit the steampunk aesthetics very well, but that could be just me :)

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you so much!

Submitted

so fun i played almost the entire game. The contrast between the sand and the background could be more on some of the stages.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed the game! (Also you can unlock all the levels from the main menu if you are curious 🤫)

Submitted(+1)

finished it in 7 minutes with 37 deaths, cool game!

Developer

Great job! Deaths below average :D

Submitted(+1)

This was so fun! i loved the mechanics, very fun and enjoyable art direction, the levels felt challenging but not unfair, i do have to criticize something, one of the levels (the one with many turrets) was lagging ALOT, but that might just be my potato pc so im not keeping it in mind while rating the game. Overall a really enjoyable and well polished experience!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for the feedback! Happy the you enjoyed it!
Yes, on our pc it was fine but you are not the first one telling us about the lag so we'll fix that when the Jam is over <3

Submitted(+1)

Love a good platformer, this was very fun and challenging, great use of the theme!

Just one tiny issue with one of the earlier levels, where you need to drop and avoid the jump pad things, its that you can't see where you're dropping until you have basically landed, I get that cameras can be a bit annoying to make work but yeah thats like the only thing that I didn't like. Great job from the whole team!

Developer(+1)

Thanks a lot! We've had similar reports about the camera but unfortunately the time frame was limited for us (we did everything in 2 days :O ) so we were not able to fix everything.

Submitted(+1)

fun puzzle platformer!! got 10:16:34 :3

good choice on sfx and music, it works really well on this

honestly my only note for this is i think i’d appreciate more vivid/attention-grabbing visuals to show what stuff is disappearing/appearing on flip, e.g. the portal on level 14 i think is also missing visuals

other than that though, this defo has a ton of potential and i’d love to see more levels for this :3

Developer

Thanks for the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

Oh wow, this is an awesome idea for a game!!. I love the idea of having to juggle the sand with jumping so you don't die. It was really cool how it kept building up and mixing it with new mechanics, like the platforms that switch status each time you jump or the zones where gravity is reversed. Maybe the time to change the side and not die was a bit to tight. Anyways, great job, what a flawless idea! ^^

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

I loved the idea for your platformer! I thought it was really cool how you made use of the platform switching mechanic in your game :D

Developer

Thank you so much!

Submitted(+1)

I loved the idea for your platformer! I thought it was really cool how you made use of the platform switching mechanic in your game :D

Submitted(+1)

Nice little game, the main idea is really good, I like a lot the interaction with the spring (the longer air time not allowing you to flip for a while).  The backgrounds were very pretty, the audio was really good and the sand indicator was perfect (same for the border of the screen turning red when we don't have much time left)

I have a few issues with the background, it moves weirdly  when we are to high / when we stop moving. There is also quite a lot of time where I went out of bounds (the don't jump lv for exemple it is really easy to die in the top and break the background). 
I also feel like the "tutorial" levels are not great. The first mandatory jump of the game being one on the on/off platforms is really weird to me for exemple. I also feel like these are too short, only showing the most bare bone use of the mechanic. 

But other than that I had a lot of fun playing, the game has a lot of potential for longer level combining the mechanics in some clever way. 

Developer(+2)

Wow thanks a lot for the detail feed-back, I really agree with all the points, we where short on time to really polish the game and work more on level design, thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Love the idea. Some parts reminded me of geometry dash. The hourglass looks great, especially the shattering effect.

Developer

Thanks for playing and for the comment! Yes geometry dash was an inspiration ;)

Developer

A fellow time controller! Loved your take on the use of hourglass!

Viewing comments 38 to 21 of 38 · Next page · Last page