Sandcastle Beaches Hub

Beaches as physics canvases

Every Sandcastle beach is a layout with its own water fetch, sand exposure, and carving room—not just a skin swap. Bubblebird Studio advertises roughly ten layouts in the full game, while the August 2026 demo ships Base and Barrier only. The paid release remains to be announced on Steam.

Use this hub to pick a shore that matches your skill goal, then cross-link to build and collectible guides.

Playable in the demo

Base Beach is the tutorial-grade flat stretch: forgiving tides, wide wet band, and space for first towers. Barrier Beach adds stronger wave fetch and demands moats and buttresses from Protect From the Tide.

Install via Demo Download if you have not played either layout yet.

Planned full-game layouts

Steam store bullets name lagoon, island, sand barrier, delta, atoll, and more. Wiki pages for Lagoon, Island, Delta, and Atoll document expected mechanics based on official text—they are not confirmed demo-playable unless patches add them.

Barrier in demo may overlap conceptually with “sand barrier” marketing wording; our Barrier Beach page focuses on what you can load today. Planned Sandbar Beach layouts describe narrow spit shores distinct from demo Barrier—limited lateral room and wraparound flow expected in the full game TBA.

Customization and unlocks

Collect Starfish to unlock sand type, beach layout, and size options per store description. Read Beach Customization for menu workflow, unlock pacing, and how layout switches affect moat planning. Unlock progression ties beaches to exploration loops in Find Collectibles.

Building per beach

Core physics are shared (Sand Physics), but strategy shifts:

• Base: learn compaction and shallow moats
• Barrier: prioritize spillways and seaward buttresses
• Lagoon (planned): expect calmer interior pools
• Delta (planned): multiple channels and branch moats
• Island (planned): exposure from multiple azimuths
• Atoll (planned): ring shores with varied fetch

Tools and checklists

Bring Digging Tools and Carving Tools knowledge to every layout. Run the Tide Defense Checklist when moving from Base to Barrier for the first time.

Compare demo scope

Demo vs Full Game lists exactly which layouts appear in the free Steam demo versus the TBA full release.

Updates

Beach roster changes will appear in Updates Hub and Demo Launch Update first.

Environment variety is mechanical

Steam copy stresses that beaches differ in simulation context, not only skybox. A lagoon’s protected pool behaves differently from barrier fetch even if the same Sand Physics equations run underneath. Plan builds per layout instead of copying one megaproject across all shores when the full game unlocks them.

Demo mastery path

Week one: Base fundamentals. Week two: Barrier fetch and spill moats. Week three: collect starfish to preview customization menus. Wishlist the full game when you want layouts beyond demo scope—see Demo vs Full Game.