Free · no signup · nothing to install

Terrain Studio

Nobody sculpted this island. It grew from one number, called a seed, and a few rules about how land rises and where water settles. It opens on a green island with a mountain and a string of lakes: raise the sea level and watch the valleys flood, press Randomize and a different world grows, then wrap it all around a planet. Free, in the browser, no account needed to try it.

This is the whole app with a starter island loaded. Open Water and drag Sea Level, then press Randomize and try Planet. It uses your graphics card and turns its own quality down on slower computers. A short guide walks through the first minute. Nothing is saved to us.

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Using this with a class? Make a free class and add your students yourself: each gets a username and password, with no email or Google account needed. Or give them one join code.A first lesson: Everyone raises the sea level on the same island in small steps and marks which places go under first, then explains why those places and not others.

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What a student actually does

They open Water and drag the sea level up. The lakes in the middle of the island reach the ocean first, the coast pulls back, and the island breaks into pieces around its mountain. Then they press Randomize and a completely different island grows from a new seed number. Then Planet, and the same rules wrap around a sphere they can spin.

From there it is a world builder. Height, noise and ridges shape the land; temperature and moisture decide where forest, desert and snow go; clouds, sky and lighting set the mood. They can paint the land up and down by hand, scatter trees and rocks, turn the tile into an endless world, walk around on it or fly a plane over it, and export it as a 3D model to use in a game or a VR scene.

Three islands side by side, each on a square tile, all made with the same settings. The first is green and forested with a chain of lakes and one grey peak. The second is two tan landmasses around a wide blue bay. The third is dry brown rock with scattered lakes and a snowy mountain range at the back.

Three seeds, three worlds. Every setting is identical here; only the seed number changed: 2423989096, 1337 and 424242. Type one of those into the Seed box and you get exactly the island shown, on any computer, which is how players share a world by trading one number.

What they are learning while they play

Nothing here is presented as a lesson. This is what the activity is made of.

What the student does	What it is
Presses Randomize	Procedural generation. The world is computed from rules, not drawn. Games like Minecraft build maps bigger than anyone could make by hand this way.
Types the same seed twice	Seeds and randomness. Computer randomness comes from a starting number. The same seed always gives the same world, which is how players share a map.
Raises the sea level	Elevation and contours. Everything at the same height floods at the same moment. The shoreline at each level is a contour line, the same one drawn on a map.
Watches the valleys flood first	Sea level rise. Low coasts and river valleys lose the most land for each meter of rise, which is what real coastal maps show.
Moves the snow line and moisture	Biomes and climate. Height, temperature and rainfall decide what grows where. Colder and higher gives snow; wetter gives forest.
Turns up Ridge Intensity	Noise. Layers of smooth random bumps at different sizes, added together, look like real mountains. It is the same trick behind clouds and fire in films.
Switches to Planet	Maps and spheres. A flat tile and a globe are the same rules on different shapes, which is also why flat maps of the Earth always stretch something.
Exports the island as a model	3D models. The land becomes triangles and colors in a standard file that game engines and VR viewers can open.

How to tell whether it landed

Ask, and let them show you. A student who has understood it can answer these without help.

Where did this island come from, if nobody made it?
How could a friend get exactly the same island on their computer?
Before you raise the sea, point at the place that floods first. Were you right?
Why does the snow sit where it does?
What would happen to this island if the sea rose another 50 meters?

The third one is the real test. A student who can predict where the water comes in has read the land's height from its shape, which is the skill a contour map is meant to teach.

Practical notes

AgesAges 9 through high school. Younger students grow islands and flood them; older ones tune the noise and climate and build worlds for their own games.
TimeUnder a minute to the first island. A satisfying session is twenty to forty minutes.
EquipmentA computer or Chromebook with a modern browser. It uses the graphics card and lowers its own quality on slower machines, so it runs on most school laptops but looks its best on a stronger one. Nothing to install.
CostFree. The app has no paid tier.
PrepNone. Open the page and go. Reading this page first takes about three minutes.
In a groupEveryone can load the same seed and get the same island, so the room can compare what happens to one world.

For co-ops, microschools, and classrooms

Put one seed on the board so everyone grows the same island, then raise the sea together ten meters at a time and have students call out what goes under next. It is a geography lesson, a climate conversation and a first look at how games generate worlds, in one activity.

Tile, endless world and planet modes from the same rules.
Walk on the land or fly a plane over it.
Export an island as a 3D model for a game, a 3D scene or VR.
No install, no per-seat license. Student work is private by default.

Set up a free classroom

Common questions

Is Terrain Studio free?

Yes. It runs in your browser and there is no paid tier. A free account adds saving and keeping exports in your files, but nothing on this page is behind a paywall.

Does my child need an account to try it?

No. The demo on this page is the complete app with a starter island. Make a free account and the island you changed comes with you as your first project.

Will it run on our computer?

On most. It needs a browser with 3D graphics (WebGL 2), which every current Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari has. It checks the graphics card when it starts and lowers its quality on slower machines, and the Performance panel can turn it down further.

What ages is it for?

Ages 9 through high school. The first minute works for anyone; the noise and climate settings reward older students.

Can they use what they make somewhere else?

Yes. An island exports as a 3D model file that game engines, 3D editors and VR viewers can open, and as pictures and height maps.

What subject can I log this as?

Most families log it as geography or earth science. Elevation, sea level and climate zones are geography, seeds and noise are computer science, and the models are 3D design. The table above lists specifically what is covered, so you can pick the label your records need and point at the evidence.

Where to go next

Start with Terrain Studio

Trying it costs nothing and takes about five minutes. An account is what makes the work last.

Try it now, no account Make a free account

Terrain Studio is one of the making apps on the platform. It is a place to make things, not a course, and it is not a substitute for a teacher: it is at its best when an adult asks the questions above and takes the answers seriously.
Based on Procedural Terrains by ZyFou, used under the MIT license. Source.
Page last reviewed September 2026.