Sandboxels

(neal.fun)

176 points | by 2sf5 11 hours ago ago

30 comments

  • halcdev 6 hours ago 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 5 hours ago ago

      I thought I remembered something about that

  • phailhaus 5 hours ago 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 5 hours ago 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 artistic efforts.

    • moritonal 35 minutes ago ago

      If you didn't know, Dan-ball has a variety of fun free mobile games that are all great.

  • hopfog 6 hours ago 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 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/

    • thih9 5 hours ago ago

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

    • PoorRustDev 4 hours ago ago

      how is working with hooded horse?

  • Evidlo 3 hours ago ago

    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!

  • deepfriedrice an hour ago ago

    Was not expecting it to be a single index.html. Pretty cool:

    https://github.com/R74nCom/sandboxels/blob/main/index.html

  • Sharlin 6 hours ago 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.

  • anon_cow1111 7 hours ago 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.

  • bstsb 8 hours ago 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

  • gatkinso 39 minutes ago ago

    I still fondly remember fsgforums, where I was banned for impersonating the typical forum noob.

  • Sharlin 2 hours ago ago

    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

    • LukTheDuck 2 hours ago ago

      no offense, but in settings you can use the unhide all feature to show every element rather than having to manually create them

  • bovermyer 7 hours ago 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 7 hours ago 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.

  • simonw 5 hours ago 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.

  • Lwrless 7 hours ago ago

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

  • frizlab 4 hours ago ago

    Note to self: Do not open neal.fun links anymore…

  • JKCalhoun 7 hours ago ago

    Awesome. Eagerly awaiting Line Rider.

  • zem 7 hours ago ago

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

  • LukTheDuck 2 hours ago ago

    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?

  • Trannosaur 7 hours ago 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?

  • danw1979 7 hours ago ago

    Thanks Neal. Is fun.

  • rgbrgb 8 hours ago ago

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

  • spidrahedron 6 hours ago ago

    this is cool.