Spring Tide ~7 days
Full moon and new moon. Sun and moon line up, their pulls stack, and the high tides go 20–30% higher than average — lows go correspondingly lower. Nothing to do with the season.
Pixel Tide
a day at the beach from the comfort of your home
A pixel beach that runs on its own. Click anywhere on the sand to place a sandcastle — the tide will slowly creep in and wash it away. Four themes, seagulls, tide physics. No score, no goal, no winning. Just waves.
0 standing·0 claimed by the sea·↓ tide falling
tap or click anywhere to build a sandcastle
How to Play
Build a Castle Click dry sand to place a castle. Closer to the waterline means faster erosion — risky spots are more fun.
Watch the Tide The tide rises and falls on its own ~15-second cycle. Watch the indicator to time your builds.
Erosion Blocks under the waterline erode first. Towers collapse when their base disappears — tall and thin falls fastest.
Themes & Speed Four themes (Tropical, Sunset, Arctic, Night) and three speeds — Calm, Normal, Surge. Share copies a link with your exact settings.
Pick your beach
tap to load it above Tropical now playing
Bright midday sun. Crystal water, pale sand, the noisiest seagulls of the bunch.
Open this beach → Sunset now playing
Golden hour. Warm waves and long shadows pulling everything sideways.
Open this beach → Arctic now playing
Cold-water coast. Pale sand, blue-grey tide, castles that look carved from ice.
Open this beach → Night now playing
Moonlit shore. Quiet, slow, and the foam catches starlight on its way out.
Open this beach →Add &speed=calm, normal, or surge to any link to set the tide pace.
Why the tide moves
moon-physics, plain EnglishThe ocean has two bulges at all times — one on the side facing the moon, one on the side facing away. Earth spins through both of them every 24 hours, so any given beach passes a high tide roughly every 12 hours and 25 minutes. The sun does the same thing, weaker, and when the two line up or fight each other you get the biggest and smallest tides of the month.
Neap Tide ~7 days later
First and third quarter moons. Sun and moon pull at right angles and partially cancel out — highs are 10–15% lower, lows higher. The whole tidal range squashes flat.
A day at the beach, by the clock
+0:00 High Tide Water at its highest. Beach narrowest. Surf hits the seawall.
+6:12 Low Tide Water at its lowest. Tide pools open up. Furthest the sand goes.
+12:25 High Again Second high. About 25 min later than yesterday — moon orbits forward.
+18:37 Low Again Second low. Two highs and two lows fit inside ~25 hours.
Some coasts skip a beat — the Gulf of Mexico gets one tide a day, the South China Sea gets a mix. Local geography (basin shape, ocean depth, coastline angle) decides which of the moon's beats actually reach a given shore. Pixel Tide skips all of that and just runs one clean sine wave.
Behind the Waves
Tide physics
The waterline is calculated per column using three overlapping sine waves — a slow ~15s surge, a medium lateral sweep, and a fast surface ripple. Each column gets a slightly different phase, so the water bends and curves across the beach rather than moving as a flat wall.
Castle erosion
Each block under the waterline accumulates erosion damage over time. Once a block crumbles, any blocks above it with no lateral support collapse — tall thin towers fall faster than wide bases. Debris becomes particles that drift upward and fade.
Color & themes
Each theme defines five color palettes: dry sand, wet sand, shallow water, deep water, and castle stone. A slow hue-shift cycle (±10°) animates the water over time without touching the sand — the ocean feels alive while the beach stays still.
Seagulls
Four seagulls wander the canvas. Each tracks the tide line in its column and lerps its position to stay above the water. They switch between a flying W-shape silhouette and a walking stance with alternating feet depending on whether they're moving or standing still.