Sandboxels

(neal.fun)

102 points | by 2sf5 7 hours ago ago

21 comments

  • halcdev 2 hours ago

    Created 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.

    • SLWW 26 minutes ago

      I thought I remembered something about that

  • phailhaus an hour ago

    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!

    https://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/

    • bijection 25 minutes ago

      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 more artistic efforts.

  • hopfog 2 hours ago

    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 tries 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/

    • PoorRustDev 2 minutes ago

      how is working with hooded horse?

    • thih9 34 minutes ago

      This is an old R74n project that has been moved, not a real collab.

  • bovermyer 3 hours ago

    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.

    • wlesieutre 3 hours ago

      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.

  • bstsb 4 hours ago

    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

    https://sandboxels.r74n.com/new-home

  • anon_cow1111 3 hours ago

    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.

  • simonw an hour ago

    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.

  • Sharlin 2 hours ago

    My geology classes certainly did not mention sedimentary layers consisting of glass, quicklime, ash, salt, gingerbread, melted butter, and toast, from bottom to top.

  • Lwrless 3 hours ago

    See also: The Powder Toy (https://powdertoy.co.uk/)

  • zem 3 hours ago

    I've seen a lot of cellular sandbox simulations but this one really dials things up to eleven!

  • JKCalhoun 3 hours ago

    Awesome. Eagerly awaiting Line Rider.

  • Trannosaur 3 hours ago

    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?

  • rgbrgb 4 hours ago

    always enjoy neal's stuff. is he part of R74N?

  • danw1979 3 hours ago

    Thanks Neal. Is fun.

  • spidrahedron an hour ago

    this is cool.