I've been working like mad on Caustic these past few months, and I'll soon have something to show for it (at least for testing) but over the Easter break, I had to scratch an itch...

I'd been optimizing code for a few days when I decided to tackle the modular synth that's going into Caustic. I got a few % back but the main optimization strategy I had thought of actually turned out to yield worse performance, so I reverted a full days work and I felt like I had lost my edge.

Enter the "Falling Sand" game. Ever since I played the original Java game back in 2005-2006, it's been one of my favorite time-wasters. I have a few different versions on iPad, but most of my devices are Android and there simply wasn't a falling sand game on Android that ran as fast as on iOS and that bugged me. Well, after this latest modular synth optimization setback, I knew what I needed to do to get my confidence back.

Here's the result of a few evenings optimizing and modifying the EnigmaSand 2 source code. How fast it runs will depend on your CPU-to-screen size ratio, but I can safely say it's A LOT faster than other Android falling sand games.

It's a full native (C/C++) app so Android 2.3 or greater is required. You also need a screen 800x480 or bigger. It might work on smaller screens, but I don't have anything smaller than 800x480 to test on so no guarantees.

0 dollars, 0 permissions. Enjoy.