Sandboxels
Ranked 2 of 4 physics games by recommenders
Free browser sandbox where combining materials produces surprising results, such as steam through sand. Caveat: the neal.fun version runs laggier and looks worse.
Free browser sandbox where combining materials produces surprising results, such as steam through sand. Caveat: the neal.fun version runs laggier and looks worse.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Endless experimenting by combining materials
“The entire fun is about figuring out what you can do by combining stuff.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Sandboxels” “This gives me more ways to play with it.”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Sandboxels” Intense, time-consuming fun
“Probably going to spend the next several hours getting zero useful RL tasks done now”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Sandboxels” “this one really dials things up to eleven”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Sandboxels”
Other physics games people recommend
The three most recommended other physics games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hole Punch | 27 | 7 | 79% | 5 | — | Approved |
| SandboxelsThis page | 10 | 2 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
| 2D Vehicles | 6 | 1 | 86% | 1 | — | — |
| A Slower Speed of Light by MIT Game Lab | 5 | 1 | 83% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
8 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“We are free to use any content you create using our content for any commercial or other purpose.”
“I heated the water inside the hole of the letter 'd' and the steam escaped through the sand.”
“The entire fun is about figuring out what you can do by combining stuff.”
“Was not expecting it to be a single index.html. Pretty cool”
“the neal.fun one is more laggy, and the design is a bit worse”
“Probably going to spend the next several hours getting zero useful RL tasks done now”
“This gives me more ways to play with it.”
“this one really dials things up to eleven”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.