alt.hn

2/9/2026 at 3:31:09 PM

Sandboxels

 https://neal.fun/sandboxels/

by 2sf5

2/9/2026 at 8:44:41 PM

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.

by halcdev

2/10/2026 at 9:58:55 AM

R74N wrote about its new home here https://sandboxels.r74n.com/new-home

by huntercaron

2/10/2026 at 7:00:32 PM

it doesn't answer the first question I have, which is basically "why". not in any sort of hostile sense, just that it would be very interesting to hear the back story behind this move.

by zem

2/12/2026 at 5:56:22 PM

Hello

by rizzlersigma

2/12/2026 at 5:56:50 PM

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by rizzlersigma

2/9/2026 at 10:15:48 PM

I thought I remembered something about that

by SLWW

2/9/2026 at 8:49:46 PM

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/

by hopfog

2/9/2026 at 10:07:37 PM

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

by thih9

2/10/2026 at 2:10:31 PM

Out of curiosity: Do you use a high level language (like C#) or do you have low level optimizations on (e.g. assembly level)? I imagine that there has to be some kind of map that keeps track of which pixels are "active" and need to be updated, but I wonder how do that efficiently.

by thunfischtoast

2/10/2026 at 11:47:16 AM

This looks really cool. I'd love to read your dev blog if there is one?

by g105b

2/9/2026 at 10:39:37 PM

how is working with hooded horse?

by PoorRustDev

2/12/2026 at 5:58:18 PM

Scammer get scammed

by rizzlersigma

2/9/2026 at 9:33:06 PM

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/

by phailhaus

2/9/2026 at 10:17:13 PM

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.

by bijection

2/10/2026 at 2:19:07 AM

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

by moritonal

2/9/2026 at 6:48:12 PM

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

by bstsb

2/10/2026 at 12:35:18 AM

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

by Sharlin

2/10/2026 at 12:38:10 AM

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

by LukTheDuck

2/10/2026 at 8:39:57 AM

But that’s not the point, obviously! The entire fun is about figuring out what you can do by combining stuff.

by Sharlin

2/9/2026 at 9:34:14 PM

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.

by simonw

2/9/2026 at 7:38:26 PM

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.

by anon_cow1111

2/9/2026 at 8:57:52 PM

My geology classes certainly did not mention sedimentary layers consisting of glass, quicklime, ash, salt, gingerbread, melted butter, and toast, from bottom to top.

by Sharlin

2/10/2026 at 7:03:46 PM

that's a grad student topic

by zem

2/9/2026 at 7:37:05 PM

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.

by bovermyer

2/9/2026 at 8:11:28 PM

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.

by wlesieutre

2/10/2026 at 7:26:14 AM

Falling sand games always remind me of the game Clonk. As a kid, I enjoyed digging tunnels, flooding them with water, all physics based. Great times.

by davidkunz

2/11/2026 at 5:40:05 AM

We have a couple of them on the HN Arcade, but I have added this one as well. https://hnarcade.com/games/games/sandboxels Might be time to add a category "Falling Sand Game"...

by yuppiepuppie

2/9/2026 at 7:46:02 PM

Awesome. Eagerly awaiting Line Rider.

by JKCalhoun

2/10/2026 at 2:33:07 PM

I heated the water inside the hole of the letter 'd' and the steam escaped through the sand. <3

by dizhn

2/9/2026 at 7:29:41 PM

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

by zem

2/10/2026 at 10:48:35 AM

> Instead of the original R74nCom/sandboxels repository, mods will now be submitted to R74nCom/Sandboxels-Mods. All existing mods have been moved over.

Wait does that mean Sandboxels will become closed source?

by lai0602

2/10/2026 at 3:12:45 PM

It's not open source and, as far as I can see, this has been the license for at least 2 years https://github.com/R74nCom/sandboxels?tab=License-1-ov-file

by slig

2/10/2026 at 3:49:53 PM 

  2. You may not use our content for any commercial purposes without our explicit permission

  4. We are free to use any content you create using our content for any commercial or other purpose. Content you create includes, but is not limited to:
 
   - User-generated content
   - Derivative works”
Yeah, no thanks.

by soulofmischief

2/9/2026 at 7:57:44 PM

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?

by Trannosaur

2/9/2026 at 9:12:27 PM

i remember playing one similiar a lot as a kid, the one i played at least is called dust by dan-ball [1]. It seems to be still playable

[1]: https://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/

by IvanKloss

2/9/2026 at 10:41:52 PM

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

by frizlab

2/9/2026 at 11:26:07 PM

https://neal.fun/stimulation-clicker/ absolutely destroyed me a few months ago.

by simonw

2/11/2026 at 12:16:07 AM

I found a hack to finish it faster (that does not involve using the console…). Enter responsive mode, resize window to a very small size: the DVDs will hit the walls very fast.

by frizlab

2/10/2026 at 7:45:15 PM

haha it's amazing how over time there's so much going on on the screen but all you really look at is the little upgrade button

by zem

2/10/2026 at 8:43:05 AM

Lots of fun references here - the Minecraft world border, and green goo looking “strange matter” from Kurzgesagt

by promiseofbeans

2/13/2026 at 6:08:33 PM

Hi

by CyberJCL

2/10/2026 at 2:14:52 AM

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

by gatkinso

2/10/2026 at 10:48:51 AM

Fond memories of the Confetti Factory screensaver from After Dark.

by jl6

2/10/2026 at 8:08:08 AM

This is amazing. Some objective would be great

by Ef996

2/9/2026 at 7:44:14 PM

Thanks Neal. Is fun.

by danw1979

2/10/2026 at 12:36:33 AM

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?

by LukTheDuck

2/11/2026 at 4:56:21 PM

It moved. The old location redirects to neal.fun now.

by angry_albatross

2/12/2026 at 5:53:08 PM

Hello

by rizzlersigma

2/9/2026 at 7:07:29 PM

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

by rgbrgb

2/9/2026 at 11:05:37 PM

[dead]

by leorr

2/10/2026 at 11:47:05 AM

This looks a lot like Powdertoy

by ctm92

2/12/2026 at 5:53:25 PM

Hello I know where you live

by rizzlersigma

2/12/2026 at 5:54:11 PM

Me too

by nannwnwn

2/12/2026 at 5:54:44 PM

You can goon me

by rizzlersigma

2/12/2026 at 5:55:49 PM

I like that

by nannwnwn

2/12/2026 at 5:58:01 PM

Ok daddy

by rizzlersigma

2/11/2026 at 3:49:34 PM

Lebron

by nannwnwn

2/11/2026 at 3:43:14 PM

Im banned

by nannwnwn

2/13/2026 at 5:24:23 PM

Hahaha

by rizzlersigma

2/12/2026 at 5:36:51 PM

Hi

by nannwnwn

2/12/2026 at 5:36:37 PM

Hi

by gugsfu

2/12/2026 at 6:04:11 PM

Hello

by rizzlersigma

2/9/2026 at 9:12:38 PM

this is cool.

by spidrahedron