Nice clicker, and unique take on the theme.
Was difficult until I found out the winning combination!
Great job and good luck!

I love how quaint the game is and the concept is innovative. Music is great too.

This music is so good, its gonna get stuck in my head.
This game is just really fun, the early game is as simple as it is difficult, and then the difficulty in the game shifts drastically from the game's mechanics to your own greed. Over upgrading is as dangerous as not having enough upgrades.
Can we get a downloadable version?

@musicblox I'm headed to bed but I'll put up a downloadable version for the various platforms on itch tomorrow!

Thanks for the kind feedback!

Great take on a clicker, also loved the music :D

Super enjoyed playing, and the music is a bop!

I had a lot trouble at the beginning, but once I got into the rhythm I had SO MANY ANTS. The game was definitely more fun on 10x speed, I don't think I would have had the patience for it at normal speed. The ants in an hourglass song is gonna be stuck in my head for the next week!

I love clicker games and this one was amazing. Very fun! Music is great too! I think I bought too many ants and it glitched and the ants stopped picking up sand at the end though when I had already bought most of the powerups. Thanks for making this I had a blast

Fun little idle-style physics game. My first attempt I died rather soon. After I saw your hint below the game, I was able to narrowly make it through that first hurdle and get to the 4th ant. I stabilized at 5x while upgrading long enough to get the diamond sand upgrade. I stopped upgrading after that and let the game wind down for my total cash out of $14,621,005

With some more time to tweak it, you could get that difficulty ramp tuned nicely. Even without game balance, add a bit of plinko action to the falling sand in the upper hourglass and I'd be fine to keep it on 2x and groove out with the soundtrack while I watch my ants work. Great job all around!

I really enjoy this! I had to play about 10 times to get past the early game difficulty spike in to a stable loop. Once I got there, the game because too easy and the felt more like a traditional cookie clicker where I couldn't quite lose.

The good: Clever idea and well executed overall. Had me hooked trying to make it a bit further in the game's progression. The music was also a big win here :)

The bad: The game's balance felt off. This is the nature of game jams I suppose, but it hurt my enjoyment of the early game. Also, the default x1 speed was wayyyy too slow. I had to play at x5 to tolerate. The graphics also could've use some love, but I suppose they provide a sort of charm as-is haha.

Great work!

Really interesting little idle game, works well with the theme. Great job!

Really fun and cool game. The music was pretty chill, and I appreciate the mute button! It is satisfying to watch the ants move sands, and I like all the upgrade options available. In terms of feedback, I find the game's difficulty curve needs some tuning. Game becomes too easy after your economy gets inflated by gold and diamond sands. The sense of survival is removed until very late in the game when the difficulty finally catches up. Still, a fun game overall!

That was pretty fun! I really like what the tension of the beginning adds to a clicker game! Obviously the balance towards the later part of the game has problems but it's Ludum Dare and you probably already know that ahaha. The music really added to the vibe too!

I really enjoyed this game! I was sure that I was going to live forever for a while there. Strange how the game ended so quickly. One moment I was making millions and suddenly it was gone. Maybe I shouldn't have gone to 10x. I don't think the "money in the bank" was the right metric to show at the score screen. I want to know how many grains of sand I moved! The music and sound effects were hypnotizing, got me in the mood and I felt like these were my little ants. Thank you for the game.

This was a pretty relaxing and enjoyable experience. Really innovative! Was a tough climb to get over the initial start, but after that it was pretty exponential to how far you could go. Good Job!

I'm a little addicted! I'm still playing, just opened a new tab to review. Trying to max out all the unlockables. Great idle game!

Fun little game. I maxxed out the diamond sand and stuff. Interesting take on clicker genre with the constantly approaching weight increases on the sand. I like that there's lots of little details you probably had to figure out like making sure some sand fell through, or keeping the background animating smoothly. It all works great.

Very cute idle game! I love ants a lot so this was a real treat to play. The animations on those ants look so cute and the lyrics to the song omg! Great work!

Great game and great execution! I love incremental games, and this is a great spin on the genre. The physics of the sand was very satisfying.

add game balance, keep the speed really high, and make it into a longer spanning game. Winning formula right here when I turned on the speed.

(Though I was confused at why the ants stopped doing anything)

Veeery addicting! Nice audio. At the beginning it was quite hard, but after figuring out how each upgrade works it was easier.

This is my second favourite Ludlum Dare game of all time, barring of course that drone delivery one from a few years back. I loved this! I couldn't stop playing. The soundtrack really does a lot of it, and the homegrown graphics added to the charm. 10x speed was mandatory after a while but overall!!! well bloody done :)

Took a couple of tries to figure out how to get past the beginning stage, but after a while I got the hang of it. So close to having a billion Sand Dollars...


There's a bit of a balancing act, too - I almost ruined this run because I made my ants too strong and there wasn't enough free sand in the system to flow.

Nice work!

Difficult, but so fun! Also music made me smile :) Great job

Really enjoyed this, the music was nice and the gameplay loop was solid!

Loved the music! A fun game.

What a lovely game! The concept is really cute, and the music is just fantastic. (I'm going to have it stuck in my head for days.) I think some sound effects (even for just things like the buttons or when the hourglass upgrades) would add a bit. Overall, a great and fun little clicker game!

Ant strength is definitely a double-edged sword. Very fun game! Got to a million on my second attempt, yay!

Love the game, simple and easy to play, but very satisfying once you get it! I definitely see the "strength is a double edged sword" by @agrimes! Didn't quite understand, bought it a bunch of times, and watched my ant army wait casually to be "full" as the sand ran out :rofl:.
The colour changing with percentage of sand is a very nice touch!

Okay I played this game far far too long... partially because of the music (which will be in my head for days now, thank you...I think that is a good thing) and partially because I was trying to prove that I would eventually lose... I did with over 17,000 sand having dropped (did not catch the final number as it ended).

The one change I would make immediately is the game over screen... tell me how many grains of sand dropped... PLEASE. Yes I cashed out with $459M. But is that the amount I had at the time of losing or the total amount earned over the game?? I swear I had about that much when I lost as I was saving towards another debuf and need 2.5 Billion!!

Ya I like the game. The time multiplier, the music, the constant challenge to keep the game stabilized is what kept me engaged. Over all this one surprised me. At the start I was not sure if I'd get into it, glad I kept going.

This is delightful, a real balancing act. The song is brilliant, thanks for publishing the lyrics for those who like to sing along :musical_score:

I really enjoyed the gameplay. The balancing act was great!

Really fun game! The music was top notch. I just think the hourglass takes too long to upgrade.

Wow, surprisingly addictive. Cool concept and nice work on the theme. I got into the music too haha :)