11 comments

  • falsaberN1 13 hours ago
    It's kind of like Wireworld, a cellular automaton type, similar to Conway's Life but more oriented to circuits. I always loved these things.
  • jacquesm 1 day ago
    What a beautiful visualization. I will try this on my electronics loving child, see if it takes.

    If at all possible: add resistors and capacitors. With those two added you can make many more interesting circuits (Schmitt triggers, a-stable stuff).

    • rafinha 1 day ago
      Hi, thanks! Today the game is focused on digital logic, It would be fun to put resistors, capacitors or maybe transistors, maybe as a mod, but the algorithm would be a little different, would need analog simulation which I'm less familiar with.

      Would probably be slower but doable, fun mod for the future!

      • atroon 1 day ago
        If you are mapping the lines where each pixel has resistance and capacitance (presumably quite small values) could you add a new pixel type with editable resistance / capacitance and hide it behind a graphic of the schematic representation (i.e. the zigzag of a resistor like --\/\/\-- or capacitor like --|(-- ?

        Your current algorithm would need to be able to accept a wider range of values but it seems like it would work from a math standpoint.

      • jacquesm 1 day ago
        Nand gates you already have and they can take the place of transistors for now, so C's and R's would bring the most options at once. And LEDs, but those should be very easy.
  • zamadatix 1 day ago
    This seems awesome! I wish this had come out a few weeks ago so I had time to tinker with it waiting for the Turing Complete rewrite. I particularly like the implementation of Elmore delay to give some meaning to the spatial layout.

    I'm not 100% sold on the bitmap editing style of circuit layout vs something like the automatic wire pathing in Turing Complete though. It's something I'll need to play with to get a real opinion on though.

    Purchased to have some fun with this weekend. Thanks for publishing the source as well!

    • its-summertime 1 day ago
      Disclaimer: I've only played before the release of the propagation.

      Across all the Zach-like and other games I've played around with, the wire management in Circuit Artist I'd say feels very fair and intuitive, and not obstructive to gameplay.

      The developer is very accepting of feedback and it showed up a lot, with quality of life features showing up constantly (e.g. being able to automatically draw bus lines, with corners et al).

      Worst case, you can copy the circuit into your favorite image editor, make edits there, and paste it back into the game (Or use Netpbm/other software to programmatically generate circuits) (Or make a library of circuits to copy from using any other app that can handle images).

      The flexibility of the idea of MS Paint + circuit is taken to its complete logical conclusion.

  • pjc50 1 day ago
    Having Elmore delay in this is fantastic - many "proper" educational simulators don't bother with this important aspect. It also forces people to deal with fanout, as you say.

    Plus it looks really cool with the neon.

  • simgt 1 day ago
    What a gem. That seems super fun and I love the Paint aesthetic :)
  • ckmiller 1 day ago
    I've written simulators as a career for more than a decade, and I'm stunned at what a good job you've done. The simulation engine is excellent and the visualization is prettier (and more intuitive!) than any I've ever seen.
    • rafinha 4 hours ago
      Wow, thanks for the kind words!
  • random_duck 1 day ago
    Oh wow, this is such a great project! I love how we can elegantly simulate propagation <3 Congratulations, I will defiantly purchase it from stream just to help it's development.
    • random_duck 1 day ago
      Also, I will strategically wait until the sale is over because this deserves full price.
  • NwtnsMthd 1 day ago
    Love the aesthetic, even more, that you published the source! I bought a copy on Steam, thank you for your work!

    Any plans to add more advanced campaigns, say, to build up to a simple processor?

    • rafinha 1 day ago
      Hi thanks! Sure, certainly! I also want to eventually add some physics-based levels for fun, with like a box2D sim interacting with the circuits (with N circuit ticks = 1 box2D "tick"), or even little games on top of the circuit, but I need these tutorial campaigns first otherwise the step curve is way too high.
  • goku12 1 day ago
    Beautiful work on an interesting subject!
  • boobsbr 1 day ago
    Holy moly.
  • SilentM68 1 day ago
    This is nice. I wish I had something like this when was taking Electronics courses. The visual component would have been very helpful. Merging this with a course on electronics would be a great resource.