The Powder Toy
Falling-sand game From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Powder Toy is a falling-sand game originally created by Stanislaw K. Skowronek (also known as Skylark). It is now developed and maintained by LBPHacker, Simon, jacob1 and other contributors on GitHub. The Powder Toy is free and open-source software licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.0.[4] A total of 258 (as of February 2025) different in-game materials (or "elements"), each with custom behavior and interactions, are available in the game.[5] In June 2024, The Powder Toy was released on Steam.[6]
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A user interacting with community-produced content. | |
| Original author(s) | Stanislaw K. Skowronek |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | jacob1, Simon, LBPHacker and various other GitHub contributors[1] |
| Initial release | 2008[A] |
| Stable release | 99.2
/ 2 February 2025[3] |
| Repository | |
| Platform | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android |
| Type | Single-player falling-sand game |
| License | GPLv3 |
| Website | powdertoy |
Gameplay
The Powder Toy (abbreviated TPT), like most falling sand games, is a sandbox video game that allows users to create things in-game to share using its online level sharing system, which includes a Front Page (often referred to as FP).
A public server for sharing in-game creations is provided as part of the game itself, allowing users to share anything that abides by the rules. Examples of player shared creations include functioning circulatory systems, nuclear power plants, nuclear bombs, and computers.[5] Content is rated using upvotes and downvotes, and can be reported to the moderators if it breaks the on-site rules or plagiarizes other works.
Modding
The Powder Toy allows users to add plugins or mods to the game with Lua scripting,[7] or to change the source code, which is primarily coded in C++. The source code is available on GitHub and can be compiled using Meson.[8]
A mod manager can be installed using the built-in console with the following command: tpt.installScriptManager().[9] It works on all versions of The Powder Toy.
Users have created many forks and mods. The most popular of which include:
The former is a Lua script and the latter two are all forks of the source code.[10]
April Fools
The developers usually host an April Fools[11] joke every year. Notably, the 3D mode feature was added as an April Fools joke, alongside the addition of a new fake purchasable in game currency called Powdercoins. Normally all April Fools update features are removed very quickly after April Fools, and it is rare that any of them stay in TPT in the long term.
Reception
edgalaxy.com called The Powder Toy a "great science game" for its potential use as a learning aid through its accurate portrayal of physics, chemical reactions and more.[12]
References
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