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/

Making Sandspiel (maxbittker.com):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34555913

https://maxbittker.com/making-sandspiel

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/

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

...to grow underground potatoes and fancy flowers:

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

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/

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

"working on goth fungus kidpix":

https://twitter.com/maxbittker/status/1593868837111451649

Lu Wilson (TodePond):

https://twitter.com/TodePond

Sandspiel Studio:

https://studio.sandspiel.club/

Sandspiel introduction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecCVor7mJ6o

Sandspiel Studio in 60 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOA-lR3Xc34

Rainbow Sand:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGTsy79wx4U

Huegene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltpkO7jcFOY

Flower:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifyYITDq1oo

TodePond's Spellular Automata:

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

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

"Top 9 Ways to Make Sand":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDyvjkAs5-Y

"Top 9 Ways to Make BIG Sand":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mbs0sx3z2A

"Tourism 2: Off-Road":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlsJ3FqNYU

"Spellular Automata":

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

London Creative Coding - Feb 2023: The Spatial Programming Pipe Dream - Lu Wilson:

https://youtu.be/L2U_Sd1qMJ4?t=2579