If you've made something interesting in Powder Toy, you can share it on this website. You can view other people's creations without logging in, but you need to register and log in to upload, tag, comment, or vote on saves.

If you don't want to share your saves online, or if you want to make backups of your online saves, you can save them locally.

Local saves

Save the game to a file on your computer by holding down Ctrl, and clicking the open or save buttons in the bottom left of the window (these are highlighted in white while pressing Ctrl).

Local saves will appear in a folder called "Saves", and have a .cps extension. On Windows and Linux, press Ctrl+I in Powder Toy to install it, so that double clicking a .cps file will open it in Powder Toy.

Online saves

The basics

Save ID

Each save gets a unique number, called a save ID. This is displayed when you open or save it.

You can post saves in the forum by typing a tilde then the save ID. Example: ~2158

Publishing

Saves can be published (public, visible to everyone), or unpublished (private, only visible to you). But anyone can open a save if they know the save ID, even if it's unpublished. So to let someone else see a save without publishing it, just tell them the save ID.

Votes

Help other people find good saves by voting on them. You can only vote from in game (logging in required). If you like the save, click the green arrow about 1/3 of the way along the bottom of the window to vote up, or the red arrow to vote down if you dislike the save.

You can only vote once on each save. Using multiple accounts to vote more than once on any save is against the rules, and will lead to those accounts being banned.

Also, asking for votes is highly discouraged and can result in a ban.

Comments

You can give other users feedback on their saves and respond to feedback on your saves by leaving comments on them (logging in required). You can do this in the game when opening a save, or on the website.

Tags

Tags are used to categorise saves. Anyone can add tags to a save when logged in by clicking the textbox halfway along the bottom of the window. The author of the save can also delete tags, by clicking the textbox then using the minus sign in a red circle next to each tag. If you find an offensive tag on a save, report it to a moderator (don't remove it until they have had time to deal with the person who put it there).

Rules and reporting

There are certain rules you must follow when uploading saves to this website. These can be found at https://powdertoy.co.uk/Discussions/Thread/View.html?Thread=543

If you find a save which is against the rules, there is a "Report" button in game when opening a save (you must be logged in to use it). Click the button, write a message describing how it violates the rules, and click "Report". A moderator will review it, usually within a day or two. They can unpublish or delete the save, or ban the author temporarily or permanently.

When reporting a save for stealing or copying work without credit, include the original save ID in the report (or the original save title and the name of the user who created it). Moderators do not have time to look through all saves to find the original.

Only report something if it is genuinely against the rules. "IT'S RUBBISH" is not a valid reason. Moderators can ban people who waste their time with false reports.

Sharing saves

To share saves online, you need to be logged in. If you haven't already done so, make an account on this site (powdertoy.co.uk). Open Powder Toy and log in (use the button labelled "sign in" in the bottom right corner).

There are certain rules you must follow when uploading saves to this website. These can be found at https://powdertoy.co.uk/Discussions/Thread/View.html?Thread=543 - these are mostly common sense, but do read them before uploading any saves.

To save something, click the save button (third button from the left, at the bottom). When you have opened one of your own saves from the website, this button has two different functions depending on where you click it. If you click the icon, it saves the game under the current name. If you click the text, you can save it under a different name, change the save description, or publish/unpublish the save.

Give the save a name and description then click "Save simulation".

Opening saves

You don't need to be logged in to open other people's saves. Click the button in the bottom left corner of the window. This takes you to the save browser. Click a save to open it, and click the arrows at the bottom or use the scroll wheel to scroll through pages. Search by typing in the textbox at the top.

Interesting search queries:

• user:Simon - find all saves by a particular user (you can also click on a username in the save browser to do this)
• id:2158 - find a save by ID

Sort order

The first page you see when opening the search screen is called the "front page". This contains recently popular saves, based on when they were first published and how many votes they have.

The pages after that are in order of most votes of all time.

To see recently updated saves, click the "By votes" button in the top right corner to change it to "By date".

My Own

When logged in, click the "My Own" button in the top right corner to see your own saves. Clicking the minus sign in a red circle in the top right corner of a thumbnail deletes the save, or you can see save history (old versions of a save) by clicking the red number 7 in the bottom left corner.

The number in green in the bottom right corner is the score of that save (votes up minus votes down). If the save is unpublished, a padlock is visible in the top left corner of the thumbnail.

Favourites

When opening a save, you can favourite it so that you can find it again easily (the "Fav" button).

To see your favourites, click the gold star to the right of the search box. Remove saves from your favourites by clicking the minus sign in a red circle in the top right corner of a thumbnail.

Copying

Using other people's work is fine in unpublished saves. In published saves, it depends on the person you are copying from. Using someone else's work is only against the rules if they object to you doing so. Many people are happy for you to copy if you give them credit in your save. Some are happy for you to copy without credit, and some don't want you to copy at all. Check the save description, or ask in the save comments.

Moderators are nice people, they won't ban you for copying work without credit unless you do it repeatedly and deliberately. If someone reports the save as stolen (or copied without credit) and a moderator agrees, they will usually just unpublish the save, and may leave a warning in the save comments. If you do your best to respect the wishes of other players when using bits of their work, you won't get banned.