Nat’s Terrarium — sand in a jar

Nat’s Terrarium is a glass jar on a wooden table, lit by a warm lamp, and a heap of colored sand to fill it with. The sand is simulated grain by grain and behaves like kinetic sand: it holds steep slopes, pours in a thick wavy stream that breaks into little lumps, and when you lift a handful it crumbles back down in ribbons, drops and slabs. Pour one color after another and the jar fills with wavy layers, like the sand-art bottles sold at the seaside, then plant a tiny forest on top.

How to play

Hold your finger or the mouse above the jar to pour; move while you pour to draw hills, valleys and waves. Tap in the air to drop a handful that lands with a soft plop. Press the sand itself and lift: you scoop up a lump with all its layers, and it crumbles in your hand in many different ways. Let go and it falls, throw it and it bursts. Switch to the stick and drag it down through the layers to pull them into the mountain patterns of sand-art bottles. Open Decor and tap or drag fir trees, palms, a cactus, mushrooms, a crystal, a cottage, a gnome and little people into the jar: they sink a little into the sand, you can bury them, and the little people walk around when they are free. Choose the jar shape, the palette (beach, desert, candy, night with glowing grains), kinetic or fine sand, shake the jar or empty it and start again. Sand that spills over the rim falls on the table and slowly fades away, so you can pour forever.

Why it's satisfying

Kinetic sand videos are some of the most soothing things on the internet: the slow crumble of a lump held in the air, the way it holds a sharp edge then gives way in one slab, the soft hiss of sand pouring. Here every gesture has that feel, with grains that catch the light, mica that sparkles, layers that stay exactly where you poured them, and quiet sounds of sand, plops and wood. Nothing to win, no wrong move, just a little world in a jar.

About

Nat’s Terrarium is part of Alcy, forty-seven free contemplative micro-games in your browser. For more calm hands-on things: Zen Rake, Pottery, Slime.