4 ms·

:) Love seeing this at the top of HN! This project, along with sandspiel (by the same creator), are some of my biggest inspirations! If you're not aware, there

:) Love seeing this at the top of HN! This project, along with sandspiel (by the same creator), are some of my biggest inspirations! If you're not aware, there's a relatively deep technical explanation of how sandspiel was built which I found interesting. If you're into orb.farm then you'll probably find it interesting, too: https://maxbittker.com/making-sandspiel https://maxbittker.com/making-sandspiel And, shameless plug, I've been teaching myself Rust/Bevy/ECS lately and am creating a simulation ant farm. The project is still in its infancy, and is nowhere near as cool as these, but https://meomix.github.io/symbiants/ https://meomix.github.io/symbiants/ for some ants that scurry around and emergently create piles of sand. Pan/Zoom launching in a couple of hours, feeding them hopefully in the next week or so. If you have ideas for simple features I'd love to hear them or if you want to follow along with the project check my profile for a Discord link.

phailhaus 3y ago
I am a sucker for falling sand games, thanks for making this. Makes me want to make my own, I've been brainstorming ideas of complex "ecosystem" games for a while but never thought to just use a sand engine!
- mystickphoenix 3y ago
  If you haven't been exposed to it, check out Noita. It's a falling sand action roguelike where the entirety of the world is simulated.
  - phailhaus 3y ago
    Haha, already got it! Super hard though, if it wasn't for mods I'd never play that game.
    - miohtama 3y ago
      Always backup your saves
DonHopkins 3y ago
Also check out Sandspiel Studio, which lets you explore, edit, and define your own rules with a Scratch-like block visual programming language! https://studio.sandspiel.club/ https://studio.sandspiel.club/ Making Sandspiel (maxbittker.com): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34555913 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34555913 https://maxbittker.com/making-sandspiel https://maxbittker.com/making-sandspiel https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34561910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34561910 DonHopkins 3 months ago | parent | context | favorite | on: Making Sandspiel I am a huge fan of Sandspiel, which Max described in this article from 2019, and recently I was delighted to discover that he and TodePond have been doing a huge amount of wonderful work since then. What happens when you combine Sandspiel with a Scratch-like blocks based visual programming language that lets you look inside and see how rules work, tweak and modify them, and even define your own rules for different types of particles? And then form a community around it for sharing and learning from each other and building on top of each other's work. Here is Max's and TodePond's brilliantly ambitious visually programmable sequel, Sandspiel Studio! https://studio.sandspiel.club/ https://studio.sandspiel.club/ Here's my profile, where you can play with the version of Max's flower growing rule that he shows here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyYITDq1oo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyYITDq1oo ...to grow underground potatoes and fancy flowers: https://studio.sandspiel.club/user/clanzgor8006109mtjooi348t https://studio.sandspiel.club/user/clanzgor8006109mtjooi348t I've written more about Sandspeil Studio and related topics of artificial life, cellular automata, and visual programming, and quoted some interesting discussion with Max and TodePond from their Discord server (they actually already knew about most of this stuff, but they love it as much as I do), in the "Ask HN: What weird technical scene are you fond/part of?" discussion, in reply to api's comment about Digital Artificial Life: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33698163 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33698163 api 67 days ago | parent | context | favorite | on: Ask HN: What weird technical scene are you fond/pa... Digital Artificial Life -- as in evolving program ecosystems, artificial chemistries or cellular automata that can manifest life-like phenomena, etc. Haven't done much with it in a while but was very into it in college. It's both a minor scientific field (would probably be grouped under both theoretical biology and AI research) and a hobbyist field with some really interesting projects. DonHopkins 67 days ago | prev [–] That's one of my long time interests and hobbies, which I write about on HN and discuss with other people frequently. I'm supposed to be doing something else right now so I'll quickly drop a few disorganized quotes and links here. (Sorry I didn't have time to be more concise!) A few years ago I ran across Max Bittker's beautiful "Sandspiel", which is a delightful cellular automata toy that simulates sand and other rules: https://sandspiel.club/ https://sandspiel.club/ A few days ago I saw him tweet some amazing stuff that resonated with me, which then led me to discover what he's been working with Lu Wilson (TodePond): Sandspiel Studio -- user definable rules using a block based visual programming language. https://twitter.com/maxbittker https://twitter.com/maxbittker "working on goth fungus kidpix": https://twitter.com/maxbittker/status/1593868837111451649 https://twitter.com/maxbittker/status/1593868837111451649 Lu Wilson (TodePond): https://twitter.com/TodePond https://twitter.com/TodePond Sandspiel Studio: https://studio.sandspiel.club/ https://studio.sandspiel.club/ Sandspiel introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecCVor7mJ6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecCVor7mJ6o Sandspiel Studio in 60 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOA-lR3Xc34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOA-lR3Xc34 Rainbow Sand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGTsy79wx4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGTsy79wx4U Huegene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltpkO7jcFOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltpkO7jcFOY Flower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyYITDq1oo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyYITDq1oo TodePond's Spellular Automata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU We had a great discussion on the Sandspiel Studio Discord server, where I posted some interesting links: [lots more links and info in the original post:] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34561910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34561910 Also be sure to check out TodePond’s amazing videos and software! For example, "Screens in Screens in Screens": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4OIcwt8vcE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4OIcwt8vcE "Top 9 Ways to Make Sand": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDyvjkAs5-Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDyvjkAs5-Y "Top 9 Ways to Make BIG Sand": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mbs0sx3z2A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mbs0sx3z2A "Tourism 2: Off-Road": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU "Spellular Automata": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU There's so much more, and I think you’ll love it all as much as I do: https://www.youtube.com/@TodePond/videos https://www.youtube.com/@TodePond/videos London Creative Coding - Feb 2023: The Spatial Programming Pipe Dream - Lu Wilson: https://youtu.be/L2U_Sd1qMJ4?t=2579 https://youtu.be/L2U_Sd1qMJ4?t=2579
Nezteb 3y ago
I love ants and replicating their behavior in code! You might like these projects: "Coding Adventure: Ant and Slime Simulations" by Sebastian Lague: Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-iSQQgOd1A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-iSQQgOd1A Code https://github.com/SebLague/Ant-Simulation https://github.com/SebLague/Ant-Simulation "C++ Ants Simulation 1, First approach" by Pezzza's Work: Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81GQNPJip2Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81GQNPJip2Y Code: https://github.com/johnBuffer/AntSimulator https://github.com/johnBuffer/AntSimulator
- SeanAnderson 3y ago
  Thank you for the resources! I'll add them to my list of bookmarks. :)
  - harrisi 3y ago
    This is maybe a bit too specific to Clojure and more generally about concurrency in it, but Rich Hickey introduced Clojure with an ant simulation demonstration. The video quality is not great, but there's an article (sadly not up anymore, but on the way back machine): https://web.archive.org/web/20160409080236/http://juliangamble.com/blog/2011/12/28/clojure-gui-demo-of-ants/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160409080236/http://juliangamb... Video directly: https://youtu.be/dGVqrGmwOAw https://youtu.be/dGVqrGmwOAw
dang 3y ago
Discussed here: Making Sandspiel - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34555913 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34555913 - Jan 2023 (10 comments) Making Sandspiel - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19793835 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19793835 - May 2019 (9 comments) Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696291 - Dec 2018 (185 comments)

phailhaus 3y ago

I am a sucker for falling sand games, thanks for making this. Makes me want to make my own, I've been brainstorming ideas of complex "ecosystem" games for a while but never thought to just use a sand engine!

mystickphoenix 3y ago
If you haven't been exposed to it, check out Noita. It's a falling sand action roguelike where the entirety of the world is simulated.
- phailhaus 3y ago
  Haha, already got it! Super hard though, if it wasn't for mods I'd never play that game.
  - miohtama 3y ago
    Always backup your saves

DonHopkins 3y ago

Also check out Sandspiel Studio, which lets you explore, edit, and define your own rules with a Scratch-like block visual programming language! https://studio.sandspiel.club/ https://studio.sandspiel.club/ Making Sandspiel (maxbittker.com): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34555913 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34555913 https://maxbittker.com/making-sandspiel https://maxbittker.com/making-sandspiel https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34561910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34561910 DonHopkins 3 months ago | parent | context | favorite | on: Making Sandspiel I am a huge fan of Sandspiel, which Max described in this article from 2019, and recently I was delighted to discover that he and TodePond have been doing a huge amount of wonderful work since then. What happens when you combine Sandspiel with a Scratch-like blocks based visual programming language that lets you look inside and see how rules work, tweak and modify them, and even define your own rules for different types of particles? And then form a community around it for sharing and learning from each other and building on top of each other's work. Here is Max's and TodePond's brilliantly ambitious visually programmable sequel, Sandspiel Studio! https://studio.sandspiel.club/ https://studio.sandspiel.club/ Here's my profile, where you can play with the version of Max's flower growing rule that he shows here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyYITDq1oo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyYITDq1oo ...to grow underground potatoes and fancy flowers: https://studio.sandspiel.club/user/clanzgor8006109mtjooi348t https://studio.sandspiel.club/user/clanzgor8006109mtjooi348t I've written more about Sandspeil Studio and related topics of artificial life, cellular automata, and visual programming, and quoted some interesting discussion with Max and TodePond from their Discord server (they actually already knew about most of this stuff, but they love it as much as I do), in the "Ask HN: What weird technical scene are you fond/part of?" discussion, in reply to api's comment about Digital Artificial Life: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33698163 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33698163 api 67 days ago | parent | context | favorite | on: Ask HN: What weird technical scene are you fond/pa... Digital Artificial Life -- as in evolving program ecosystems, artificial chemistries or cellular automata that can manifest life-like phenomena, etc. Haven't done much with it in a while but was very into it in college. It's both a minor scientific field (would probably be grouped under both theoretical biology and AI research) and a hobbyist field with some really interesting projects. DonHopkins 67 days ago | prev [–] That's one of my long time interests and hobbies, which I write about on HN and discuss with other people frequently. I'm supposed to be doing something else right now so I'll quickly drop a few disorganized quotes and links here. (Sorry I didn't have time to be more concise!) A few years ago I ran across Max Bittker's beautiful "Sandspiel", which is a delightful cellular automata toy that simulates sand and other rules: https://sandspiel.club/ https://sandspiel.club/ A few days ago I saw him tweet some amazing stuff that resonated with me, which then led me to discover what he's been working with Lu Wilson (TodePond): Sandspiel Studio -- user definable rules using a block based visual programming language. https://twitter.com/maxbittker https://twitter.com/maxbittker "working on goth fungus kidpix": https://twitter.com/maxbittker/status/1593868837111451649 https://twitter.com/maxbittker/status/1593868837111451649 Lu Wilson (TodePond): https://twitter.com/TodePond https://twitter.com/TodePond Sandspiel Studio: https://studio.sandspiel.club/ https://studio.sandspiel.club/ Sandspiel introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecCVor7mJ6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecCVor7mJ6o Sandspiel Studio in 60 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOA-lR3Xc34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOA-lR3Xc34 Rainbow Sand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGTsy79wx4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGTsy79wx4U Huegene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltpkO7jcFOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltpkO7jcFOY Flower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyYITDq1oo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyYITDq1oo TodePond's Spellular Automata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU We had a great discussion on the Sandspiel Studio Discord server, where I posted some interesting links: [lots more links and info in the original post:] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34561910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34561910 Also be sure to check out TodePond’s amazing videos and software! For example, "Screens in Screens in Screens": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4OIcwt8vcE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4OIcwt8vcE "Top 9 Ways to Make Sand": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDyvjkAs5-Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDyvjkAs5-Y "Top 9 Ways to Make BIG Sand": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mbs0sx3z2A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mbs0sx3z2A "Tourism 2: Off-Road": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU "Spellular Automata": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU There's so much more, and I think you’ll love it all as much as I do: https://www.youtube.com/@TodePond/videos https://www.youtube.com/@TodePond/videos London Creative Coding - Feb 2023: The Spatial Programming Pipe Dream - Lu Wilson: https://youtu.be/L2U_Sd1qMJ4?t=2579 https://youtu.be/L2U_Sd1qMJ4?t=2579

Nezteb 3y ago

I love ants and replicating their behavior in code! You might like these projects: "Coding Adventure: Ant and Slime Simulations" by Sebastian Lague: Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-iSQQgOd1A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-iSQQgOd1A Code https://github.com/SebLague/Ant-Simulation https://github.com/SebLague/Ant-Simulation "C++ Ants Simulation 1, First approach" by Pezzza's Work: Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81GQNPJip2Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81GQNPJip2Y Code: https://github.com/johnBuffer/AntSimulator https://github.com/johnBuffer/AntSimulator

SeanAnderson 3y ago
Thank you for the resources! I'll add them to my list of bookmarks. :)
- harrisi 3y ago
  This is maybe a bit too specific to Clojure and more generally about concurrency in it, but Rich Hickey introduced Clojure with an ant simulation demonstration. The video quality is not great, but there's an article (sadly not up anymore, but on the way back machine): https://web.archive.org/web/20160409080236/http://juliangamble.com/blog/2011/12/28/clojure-gui-demo-of-ants/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160409080236/http://juliangamb... Video directly: https://youtu.be/dGVqrGmwOAw https://youtu.be/dGVqrGmwOAw

dang 3y ago

Discussed here: Making Sandspiel - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34555913 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34555913 - Jan 2023 (10 comments) Making Sandspiel - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19793835 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19793835 - May 2019 (9 comments) Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696291 - Dec 2018 (185 comments)