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How to play Time and Tide
Time and Tide is a one-minute sandcastle game you play in your browser. You pour sand onto a beach, and every 10 seconds or so a wave rolls in and washes away whatever is too low or too thin. There are five waves, and each one comes in higher than the last. When the tide goes out after wave 5, whatever is still standing is your score.
Controls
- Phone or tablet: hold your finger on the beach to pour sand and drag to move the bucket. The bucket sits a little above your finger so you can see where the sand lands.
- Computer: hold the mouse button and drag. You can also move the bucket with the arrow keys and hold Space to pour.
Sand flows at a steady rate, so the only limit on how much you get is time. Every second you are not pouring is sand you will never have.
How the waves work
Before each wave a dashed line shows how high it will reach. Sand below the line washes away, starting with the side that faces the sea. A wall that stands taller than the wave stops it, and everything behind that wall stays dry. Pouring stops when the final wave starts, so the last line you see is the one that matters most.
Wet sand and dry sand
Dark, wet sand near the water holds a steep slope, so you can build tall there. Pale, dry sand further up the beach slumps into a low, wide heap, and sand that slides off the back of the beach is lost. Every wave wets the sand it reaches, so the wet strip creeps up the beach as the game goes on.
Scoring
You score points for the sand still standing after wave 5, plus a bonus for every tower (marked with a red flag) that stands above the last wave's line. The higher a tower stands above the water, the bigger its bonus. The beach and the waves are different every round, and a friend you challenge gets the same beach and the same waves as you.
Tips
- Never stop pouring. Even a short pause costs more than it looks, because a bigger pile also loses a smaller share to each wave.
- Watch the line, not the wave. Keep the top of your castle clear of the next dashed line and only its sea-facing slope gets hit.
- Don't build too far back. The dry sand there spreads out and slides off the beach.
- One big castle or two towers? When the waves stay low, two towers can each earn a bonus. When the line climbs high, put everything into one tall castle.
- Mind the sandbar. Some beaches have a hump of sand near the water. A castle just behind it can be sheltered from the early waves.
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