Sandspiel vs Grainfall
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Sandspiel
Experiment with a physics sandbox where you can place various elements like sand, water, and fire to observe complex chain reactions. This creative toy encourages exploration and discovery through simulated interactions, offering a calming and reflective play experience.
- Falling sand physics simulation
- Place diverse interactive elements
- Observe complex chain reactions
- Creative sandbox for experimentation
- Calm reflection and healing gameplay
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Sandspiel is a falling sand physics simulator. It is creative toy where players can place elements (like sand, water, fire, plants, etc.) and watch them interact according to simulated physics rules. The game lets you paint with elements and observe surprisingly complex chain reactions: water flows and pools, fire spreads and consumes, plants grow and creep, sand piles up. It's a sandbox for experimentation with no goals beyond play and discovery. Sandspiel embodies constructivist principles — giving you tools to explore and discover rather than explicit objectives to complete, and facilitates calm reflection and healing.
Grainfall
Experiment with a physics sandbox where materials interact realistically. Create complex reactions, record your creations as videos, and share them with friends. Enjoy a free simulation with optional pro features for more materials and customization.
- Realistic material interactions
- Video recording and export
- Offline play
- Shareable worlds
- Tilt gravity control
- Multiple material types
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Grainfall is a falling sand toy. Pick a material, drag across the screen, and watch it react with whatever is already there. Sand piles up and slides back down. Dig a hole and water will find it. Oil floats on top of water, and oil burns. Plants drink from standing water and creep toward it. Fire spreads, leaves ash behind, and boils water into steam that drifts up, cools off, and comes back down as rain. There is no score and nothing to unlock by playing. What you get is twelve materials that all react to each other, and the fun is working out how. Build a glass tank and fill it with acid, since glass is the one thing acid cannot chew through. Pour lava into water and it sets into stone. Light one end of a gunpowder trail and follow it along. Hit record at any point and Grainfall turns what happened into a video, with sound built from the same events you just watched. Save a world and it keeps a picture of itself in your list. Send one to a friend as a small file and it opens straight into their copy. FREE • Sand, water, oil, plant, fire and wall • The full simulation, running at 60fps • Record and export video, with a small watermark in the corner • Your world saves itself and is waiting when you come back PRO - One time purchase • Six more materials: acid, glass, lava, ice, gunpowder, fireworks • Video export with the watermark gone • Save as many worlds as you want, name them, load them back • Send worlds to friends as .grain files • Four color themes • Tilt gravity, so leaning your phone pours everything sideways A FEW THINGS WORTH TRYING • Float oil on water and drop in a single flame • Fill a glass tank with acid • Pour lava into the sea and watch the steam come off it • Light a gunpowder trail at one end • Set off enough fireworks that the falling sparks catch your plants Every material makes its own sound. No account, no ads, nothing collected, and it all works offline.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Sandspiel at none against Grainfall's 1. Sandspiel also leads on ratings volume (19 vs 1). On price, rating, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Grainfall sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Sandspiel asks for nothing beyond the download.
Grainfall holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sandspiel has 19 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
| Parameter | Sandspiel | Grainfall |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (19 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 90.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 19 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Daily | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Max Bittker | John Haas |
In-app purchases
Sandspiel
No in-app purchases
Grainfall
- Grainfall Pro$0.99








