I like it. Reminds me of some artistic games on Nintendo. It was hard to start and figure out the controls, some simple tutorial e.g. saying "drag with mouse to clear the sands" would help. But I have figured out even without it, which is maybe part of the game experience? I have not seen anything similar - for me it is original, simple and straightforward game. Well done.
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Sandsmith's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #1 | 4.750 | 4.750 |
| Originality | #3 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Game Design | #5 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Fun | #8 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Overall | #9 | 3.938 | 3.938 |
| Audio | #15 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| AI Use | #17 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Visuals | #19 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Polish | #32 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Thanks for playing! Yeah, you nailed it—I tried to minimize text and in-game messages as much as possible because I didn't want to over-explain things. I completely understand that this can leave players feeling a bit lost, though, so I really appreciate your feedback on that! Making a game playable without a tutorial can sometimes feel like developer laziness, but I like to think of that process of discovery as part of the core game experience.
There are probably similar games out there if you search for them, and the whole "digging through sand" concept might not be totally brand new—to be honest, even I'm not entirely sure if I played something like it in the past! But I really appreciate you highlighting its originality. Thank you so much!
Thanks for playing!
I didn't really get what the "37" was about—does that mean you had an AI play it 37 times? I was hoping for human players, so I was just wondering what was going on there. Anyway, thanks for checking it out!
Yeah, exactly. I designed it so players would have to pay attention to whether the shape is fully visible or just partially visible as a trick, so I'm glad you caught that intention!
I built the screen size assuming PC browsers, so I haven't tested it on mobile devices like phones. Taking up a fifth of the screen definitely isn't ideal.
The slight lag after starting might be because of the device's specs/performance. Thanks for the heads-up!
As for AI, pretty much everything was generated by AI, so it’s used across the entire game.
音が最高すぎる砂のリアルな落ちていく音は人のゲームにメッセージ送りまくってる時の癒しやありがとうあとゲーム性もめちゃ面白かったよ皆んなに言ってるけど他の作品もぜひチェックしてみてください。そして、コメントの投稿と投票（少なくとも5票！）もお忘れなく！
Submitted
The primordial era
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