Sort the rice from the paddy, one grain at a time.
Rice & Paddy is a free 3D sorting game for your browser: white rice and golden paddy, a wooden floor, a warm lamp and a pair of tweezers.
Where it comes from
In the Vietnamese folk tale Tấm Cám, a stepmother mixes a basket of rice with paddy, which is rice still in its golden husk. She tells Tấm she may go to the village festival only after every grain is sorted back out. Tấm sits down and cries, and a kind spirit sends a flock of sparrows to pick the grains apart for her.
This game borrows that one scene. You get the floor, the lamp and the grains. The sparrows are up to you.
How to play
- Choose how many grains to pour, from 50 up to 50K, then press Pour.
- Move the white rice past the left chalk line and the golden paddy past the right one.
- Tweezers: press a grain, drag it over the line and let go.
- Scraper: start dragging next to the grains to push a whole cluster at once.
- Drag on empty floor to turn the camera. Pinch or scroll to zoom in close.
- A grain on the wrong side glows red and counts as a mistake until you move it back.
- The clock stops when the middle is empty and every grain sits on its own side.
- The bulb button switches the lamps on and off. The speaker button turns the music and sound effects on or off.
Keys
- 1
- Tweezers
- 2
- Scraper
- V
- Reset the view
- L
- Lamps
- Enter
- Pour (from the level screen)
- Esc
- Close a panel, or keep sorting
Levels
- 50
- A quick warm-up. Tweezers only, a minute or so.
- 300
- The default. A calm, medium-sized pile.
- 1K
- The pile becomes a small hill. The scraper starts to matter.
- 10K
- A long, meditative sit. Runs best on a computer.
- 50K
- A heap you can walk around. Needs a fast computer with a good GPU.
Just for fun
There are no accounts, ads, coins or rewards. It is a small, quiet thing to do with your hands for a few minutes. The 10K and 50K piles are there for anyone who wants a long sit, and they run best on a computer.
Leaderboard
Each pile size has its own board, ranked by fastest time. Mistakes are shown next to your time but do not change your rank. When you clear a pile you can save your name to the board.
The board is shared by all players. The name you enter is shown publicly, so do not use your real name if you prefer not to. There are no accounts, and only your name, time and mistake count are kept.
Questions
What is Rice & Paddy?
Rice & Paddy is a free, browser-based 3D game about sorting. A pile of white rice and golden paddy (rice still in its husk) is poured onto a wooden floor under a lamp, and you move each kind to its own side with tweezers or a scraper.
What is paddy?
Paddy is rice that still has its husk on. In the game it is the golden grain; the husked white grain is called rice. Sorting one from the other is the whole game.
Where does the idea come from?
From the Vietnamese folk tale Tấm Cám. In one scene the stepmother mixes a basket of rice with paddy and tells Tấm to sort every grain apart before she may go to the festival. A flock of sparrows, sent by a kind spirit, helps her. The game borrows only that scene.
How many grains can I sort?
You can pick 50, 300, 1,000, 10,000 or 50,000 grains. The grains are simulated as a real pile, so large piles form a heap and slide down like sand. The 10K and 50K levels run best on a computer.
Does it work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Touch controls are supported: drag a grain with the tweezers, drag next to the grains with the scraper, drag on empty floor to turn the camera and pinch to zoom. Very large piles can be slow on older phones.
Is it free? Do I need an account?
It is free. There are no accounts, ads, coins or in-app purchases.
How does the leaderboard work?
Each pile size has its own board, ranked by fastest time. Mistakes are shown next to your time but do not change your rank. The board is shared by all players. The name you enter is shown publicly, and only your name, time and mistake count are kept.
What do I need to play?
A recent browser with JavaScript and WebGL, such as current Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox. Sound is optional and can be switched off.
Who made it?
Rice & Paddy is built by @trongnv16 (https://x.com/trongnv16).