Sandboxels
neal.funCreated by R74N, not Neal. Has been live on http://sandboxels.r74n.com as an independent project for several years. Just now hosted by Neal. Important distinction.
R74N wrote about its new home here https://sandboxels.r74n.com/new-home
it doesn't answer the first question I have, which is basically "why". not in any sort of hostile sense, just that it would be very interesting to hear the back story behind this move.
I thought I remembered something about that
Hello
Idverafaliurbehf Iuhefhd Deb Wiufhuisdh Cubs I h Acdibdci SubuDVLBDCUbsduclbsudbcuisDbcilsdbcuibcluisdabcbslcas ScasejkckbS Echoiseieohcewoicosei hcaecho Eh E ChoeiScoh ascetic Insouciant back Cal Echo Ea
As a fan of both Neal and R74n this was an unexpected collaboration!
I can highly recommend building your own falling sand simulator. It's really fun to see how such simple rules create emergent behaviors. Sand pixels try to move down, then diagonally down. Water does the same, then tries sideways.
Me messing around with it eventually resulted in a game I'm now working on full time (think Noita meets Factorio): https://store.steampowered.com/app/2764460/Sandustry/
This is an old R74n project that has been moved, not a real collab.
Out of curiosity: Do you use a high level language (like C#) or do you have low level optimizations on (e.g. assembly level)? I imagine that there has to be some kind of map that keeps track of which pixels are "active" and need to be updated, but I wonder how do that efficiently.
Actually even higher level than that: it's all JavaScript, but it relies heavily on multithreading (see the linked Noita talk, which uses the same model). But basically:
The world is divided into chunks and the threads are processing them simultaneously in an even-odd checker pattern to avoid race conditions. When all pixels settle in a chunk it falls asleep and can be skipped altogether until an active pixel enters and wakes it up again.
this doesn't answer any questions about this game, but I found this GDC talk about Noita pretty interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prXuyMCgbTc
Yes, that talk has been instrumental for my game. Highly recommended!
how is working with hooded horse?
Awesome. I wasn't planning on signing with a publisher but now I'm really happy that I did.
Scammer get scammed
This looks really cool. I'd love to read your dev blog if there is one?
Also see https://sandspiel.club
Though my favorite is Powder Game: https://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/
It has a little man you can control to jump around the landscape!
Falling sand games bring back a lot of nostalgia. If you're interested, you should check out dan-ball's version which is one of the progenitors of the genre. Over the years he's added a ton of features, elements, and interactions, to the point where it now has a fluid mechanics simulation for air!
Ha55ii's powder game is perhaps the best of the genre, and the ease of sharing made for a pretty cool online community circa 15 years ago. I remember various calculators / computers created in powder game, along with a bunch of artistic efforts.
If you didn't know, Dan-ball has a variety of fun free mobile games that are all great.
for context, this game was first built in 2019 by R74N. it looks like neal.fun has taken over maintaining/hosting its web version, while the Steam version continues development
I accidentally made soap once but haven't been able to repeat it. Lye plus oil or butter doesn't seem to work at least :/ Also, haven't been able to make lye – at least ashes plus water doesn't work.
Things that I have made:
* Bronze from copper and tin
* Brass from copper and zinc
* Rose gold from copper and gold
* Electrum from gold and silver
* Solder from tin and lead (while trying to make pewter)
* Thermite from rust and ground aluminum (or directly from scrap metal)
* Reduced iron from thermite, ignited with magnesium and a fuse
* Reduced iron from rust
* Steel from rust and charcoal
* Batter and dough from flour, water, etc
* Caramel from sugar and butter
* Mayo from oil, vinegar, and egg yolk
no offense, but in settings you can use the unhide all feature to show every element rather than having to manually create them
But that’s not the point, obviously! The entire fun is about figuring out what you can do by combining stuff.
Here's the official announcement about the move to neal.fun:
https://sandboxels.r74n.com/new-home
It doesn't explain why though, which is the most obvious question.
Wow, this is... kinda like the Noita engine but without the exploding yourself every 5 seconds. Probably going to spend the next several hours getting zero useful RL tasks done now, thanks again Neal.
Noita descends from the lineage of both Rogue and Falling Sand Game.
My geology classes certainly did not mention sedimentary layers consisting of glass, quicklime, ash, salt, gingerbread, melted butter, and toast, from bottom to top.
that's a grad student topic
Minecraft introduced me to the idea of tuff. This gives me more ways to play with it.
I still don't know what it is.
It's a rock formed from volcanic ash.
Sort of igneous, because it came out of a volcano, but sort of sedimentary, because it starts out as an accumulation of powder that becomes a solid piece.
Falling sand games always remind me of the game Clonk. As a kid, I enjoyed digging tunnels, flooding them with water, all physics based. Great times.
See also: The Powder Toy (https://powdertoy.co.uk/)
Was not expecting it to be a single index.html. Pretty cool:
Awesome. Eagerly awaiting Line Rider.
We have a couple of them on the HN Arcade, but I have added this one as well. https://hnarcade.com/games/games/sandboxels Might be time to add a category "Falling Sand Game"...
Shshjshhshhsshyhgfcfghchgcfhgjgvgygylyugyykkfytcgkyvghvhlgvhgv
I heated the water inside the hole of the letter 'd' and the steam escaped through the sand. <3
I've seen a lot of cellular sandbox simulations but this one really dials things up to eleven!
For someone interested to try this out algorithmically: https://adventofcode.com/2018/day/17
> Instead of the original R74nCom/sandboxels repository, mods will now be submitted to R74nCom/Sandboxels-Mods. All existing mods have been moved over.
Wait does that mean Sandboxels will become closed source?
It's not open source and, as far as I can see, this has been the license for at least 2 years https://github.com/R74nCom/sandboxels?tab=License-1-ov-file
Yeah, no thanks.2. You may not use our content for any commercial purposes without our explicit permission 4. We are free to use any content you create using our content for any commercial or other purpose. Content you create includes, but is not limited to: - User-generated content - Derivative works”
It hurts I like men black men
I feel like I've played multiple versions of this game, but I can't remember the names of any of them... powder... toy? Might be one?
i remember playing one similiar a lot as a kid, the one i played at least is called dust by dan-ball [1]. It seems to be still playable
Note to self: Do not open neal.fun links anymore…
https://neal.fun/stimulation-clicker/ absolutely destroyed me a few months ago.
I found a hack to finish it faster (that does not involve using the console…). Enter responsive mode, resize window to a very small size: the DVDs will hit the walls very fast.
haha it's amazing how over time there's so much going on on the screen but all you really look at is the little upgrade button
Hi im king and eapstain
Lots of fun references here - the Minecraft world border, and green goo looking “strange matter” from Kurzgesagt
Guys stop gooning
I still fondly remember fsgforums, where I was banned for impersonating the typical forum noob.
Fond memories of the Confetti Factory screensaver from After Dark.
I love this game!
67
Hello
Sup gang
Thanks Neal. Is fun.
always enjoy neal's stuff. is he part of R74N?
This is amazing. Some objective would be great
how do we access the original version? the neal.fun one is more laggy, and the design is a bit worse. does anyone know the link?
It moved. The old location redirects to neal.fun now.
This looks a lot like Powdertoy
Hi
unblock please
Hello
Lebron
Im banned
Hahaha
Hi ppl
Hello I know where you live
Me too
You can goon me
I like that
Ok daddy
this is cool.
Hi
Hi
Hello