I get 1-2 FPS running this in Chrome on macOS Mojave.
Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL
71–80 of 193 posts
Re: Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL
#72Fun little game! 42FPS on my iPhone X, too. And best of all no excessive heat
Re: Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Games like SimCity, Animal Crossing, and Minecraft are good examples where the experience of "playing" isn't necessarily about translating the game from an "initial" state to "end" or "win" one. I think the parent comment makes a good point that if you do define games as the mentioned, this and a few other things certainly doesn't necessarily fit with the definition. Still, games are often a fill-in word for many int…
Where it especially blurs the line is when the sandbox/toy is sufficiently advanced that one can invent their own games. For example, Garry's Mod is not a "game", but millions of hours have been spent playing games in it. Does the game need to impose the rules, or is it sufficient to allow the players to impose their own? If the former, then what of games that normally impose rules strictly, but include cheat codes t…
If a user imposes their own rules, to make their own game, that would be a "game", just a user-defined one.
Will this user-defined game need to have an objective (i.e. a win condition) to be a "game"?
Or, is just making up rules, without any direction, purpose, objective or "win-condition", enough to make it a "game"?
Re: Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL
#74A nice bit of web programming. The smoke effects look cool. Pity solids don't conduct heat - the first thing I always try and do in these is boil a pot of water. If you've never seen this kind of thing before, the canonical PC example is The Powder Toy, which is so amazing I wish there a 3D Minecraft-like version. But it's really CPU-heavy even in 2d.
also.. mites don't reproduce..
They do eat wood though.
Re: Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is unfortunate that you're downvoted. At one point, there was an article on HN discussing games, including what made a "game" a "game" — and one of the article's requirements was that there must exist some risk of losing. Otherwise, you're just messing around or following predefined steps towards an end, but there is no challenge. Not that that can't entertain , but plenty of things entertain that aren't games. (E…
There can be a challenge even without an explicit win condition or chance of losing. It is the challenge of discovery.
Is a discovery a "win"? Sure, it's user-defined.
"Challenge" implies an objective or purpose.
Re: Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL
#76Site is got down of big HN hug I guess
Re: Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL
#77Wow! This thread brings back some fond memories. Long ago, I came across a tiny Java applet linked on Fark to a Japanese forum post. Everyone loved it but I found it annoyingly small. It was barely 300px x 400px. I had been coding my senior thesis in Java and had recently learned how to use a Java decompiler. So I downloaded the applet, decompiled it, spent a few minutes figuring out exactly where the dimensions were…
This is easily one of the oldest and most enjoyable games I've played. Thanks for the work you've done!
Re: Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is unfortunate that you're downvoted. At one point, there was an article on HN discussing games, including what made a "game" a "game" — and one of the article's requirements was that there must exist some risk of losing. Otherwise, you're just messing around or following predefined steps towards an end, but there is no challenge. Not that that can't entertain , but plenty of things entertain that aren't games. (E…
Not unfortunate at all; arguing definitions is rarely useful or interesting, and "game" has dozens of worthy contenders that disagree with GP and with the article you read. E g.: Sid Meier's famous definition: "a series of interesting decisions". (But what would he know?)
Says "arguing definitions is rarely useful"; argues a definition usefully. :-)
FWIW I asked the question because I'm designing a simulation "game" without explicit win-conditions, but I'm concerned it won't be very engaging without them. e.g. Minecraft added monsters (to survive the night), and the enderverse.
Re: Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL
#79Love the performance, no trouble with 60fps. The swirly wind, fire, and smoke effects are beautiful! It’s also the only part here with which I would not know how to get started building, could anyone share their thoughts on the implementation?
Re: Sandspiel – A falling sand game built in Rust and WebGL
#80Is it really a "game" if there's no goal or "win" condition? Or is it a "webtoy" or "simulation" (or... "sandbox". Think it's a sandbox).
My point of view is that a game is something where you play within some parameters or structure.
Yes, rules are needed for a game. But is it enough?
e.g. there are rules to writing a syntactically correct program; ways to drive a car; use a GUI. Does that make them games?
If a user can make a game out of them, what do they add, to make it into a "game"? Is the thing added an objective of some kind (i.e. a win condition)?