Android testers wanted
The Android build of Physics Sandbox is finished, signed, and sitting in Google's closed-testing track. There's one thing between it and the Play Store, and it isn't code: Google requires 12 people opted into the test, continuously, for 14 days before a new developer can apply for a public release.
That's their rule, not a growth stunt. I'd rather explain it plainly than dress it up as an exclusive beta.
What you'd be installing
A physics sandbox. Drop some shapes, give them gravity, stack them impossibly high, launch something across the screen and figure out why it fell the way it did. No goal, no grade, no account. It's for anyone curious — kids, students, adults who never stopped poking at things.
- Free. No ads, no subscription, no sign-up.
- No telemetry, no analytics, no tracking. The web build ships unminified so you can check that claim yourself.
- Works offline — the Android build bundles everything and never phones home.
- Every Pro feature is unlocked in the Android build. Google requires their billing system for digital goods, and rather than wire that up for a test, the Android build just ships with everything on.
How to join
- Send me the Google account email that's on your phone. It has to be that exact address — Google matches the tester list against the account signed into the Play Store.
- I add you, then you open the opt-in link. It's the same one for everybody: play.google.com/apps/testing/com.stacklis.physicssandbox. Tap "Become a tester" and install from Play like any other app. It only works once your address is on the list, so give me an hour or so — but you don't have to wait on me for a second email.
- Stay opted in for 14 days straight. The thing Google actually counts is your opt-in status, and it has to be unbroken — if you leave the test on day 9 the clock resets to zero, even if you rejoin later. Keeping the app installed is the easy way to not think about it. You don't have to open it daily, though if you do play with it I'd genuinely like to hear what broke.
Goes to hello@stacklis.com. Usually answered same day.
About your email address, honestly: I'll see the address you send, because Google's closed test works off a list of tester emails that I paste into the Play Console. That's the only thing it's used for. No mailing list, nothing sold, nothing shared, and the list gets deleted when the test closes. If you'd rather not hand over an address, the web version below needs nothing at all.
Don't want to install anything?
Completely fair. The same sandbox runs in any browser right now, free, with nothing to sign up for: physics.stacklis.com. Testing the Android build is a favor to me, not the price of using the thing.
Why bother shipping it on Android at all
Because a physics sandbox belongs on a touchscreen, and because I'd rather build software people own outright than one more thing that stops working when a card expires. Getting through Google's front door is part of that — this is the boring 14-day part of it.
Questions
Anything at all: hello@stacklis.com.