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One of the best things I've seen in a long time on here. It reminds me of a few different games; "Little Big Planet", "The Incredible Machine" and of course "Factorio" but this synthesises the best part... Inventing machines!
Very impressive!
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Machine_(seri...
This looks amazing. Several times in the last couple of decades, as graphics and physics engines have evolved, I've built little prototypes whose main goal was "this should work using real physics and mechanics", and then built things like marble machines. Games like Crayon Physics always felt so limiting; they were only about things bouncing off each other. I'd like gears that turn and mesh, light that diffracts, mo…
This is fantastic. I would have absolutely loved this as a kid. Thanks for all of your hard work!
Again, AMAZINGLY COOL project, not wanting to take anything away from that. Just want everybody to be able to learn about it, even if they are not mouse users, not sighted, etc.
This looks amazing! Please consider making your website more accessible... the menu cannot be focused with the tab key, the images in your gallery do not have alt attributes. Those are some low hanging fruit you can correct. The overall strategy of toggling the main content with CSS might need some aria announcing so folks at least know different stuff is on screen as you move from one thing to another. Again, AMAZIN…
This is so cool. It would be great to use this as a teaching tool so students can visualize things. Keep at it man.
Yeah, as an introduction to programming, it could even be used with very, very young kids, apparently people are born with an intuitive physics module (babies are surprised by things that don't make physical sense), so who knows? Maybe someone may claim one day that she has been programming since age 2!
Love your work from the little I have tested now.
Anyway I can contribute for translating into other languages?
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Yeah, as an introduction to programming, it could even be used with very, very young kids, apparently people are born with an intuitive physics module (babies are surprised by things that don't make physical sense), so who knows? Maybe someone may claim one day that she has been programming since age 2!
My son have been programming since he just got 2 years. Started with code.org, then codeSpark and now scratchJr on iPad. Everything have to be visual, and small doses every week. Love your work from the little I have tested now. Anyway I can contribute for translating into other languages?
Thanks for the offer, I'm dealing with so many moving parts here (pun intended) I hadn't even considered it. I think the most helpful would be translating the documentation, if you'd like to do that. Or posting a video explaining how to build something in the other language you speak would be great too.
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Thanks and that pong game is a great idea for my next machine, unless someone beats me to it! If I recall correctly the very first thought that led to this project was thinking about how to formalize mechanical devices, they have a language of sorts to describe chess games, same with choreographed dance I think. I was thinking how can I do that for machines without all the extra stuff like heat and friction, but I pi…
Could you elaborate a bit more on “formalize mechanical devices”? That has really piqued my interest especially since you mentioned dance choreography as an example. Do you have any examples/prior art you found interesting? One of the topics I occasionally like to think about is how to formally describe manufacturing steps in some structured/programming language. Maybe your program could be it. Would love to hear oth…
It made me remember yesterday's post about SparkFun's new Al La Carte thing ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24920043 ) - and now I want a service that lets me design a machine in this using it's "standard parts", and then order a physical version of it :-)
I wonder if some combination of lego/mechano style components, 3D printing, and magnetic electrical connections for batteries/switches/leds/motors could work? (Somewhat like this: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/178314466469771331/ which I had as a kid way back...)