SandPond Sequel

Hello! and welcome back! to the weekly...

🟩🐸 TODEPOND TIMES 🐸🟩

What's new this week?

Dragon

The next video is going to be about an engine that lets you make cellular automata using a 🐉 Drag & Drop user interface. Last week, I made the behind-the-scenes inner-workings of the engine. This week, I have been building the actual user-interface! Finally!

It's really taking longer than I hoped... So I'm sorry that the video isn't ready yet... But I think it will be worth it!

Normally, when I make stuff for videos, I discard the code afterwards. But this time... I am aiming to be able to continue work on the engine (and make more videos with it) in the future. In some ways, I see the engine as a sort of 'sequel' to SandPond (my original engine). I am applying things that I have learned from previous videos, like:

🦕 Big Sand (performance)
🦠 Cells in Cells in Cells (splitting cells)
🧳 Tourism and 🚩 Tourism 2: Off-Road (user-interfaces)
💧 Water (directional elements)

... and even older videos, like:

🤡 Faking It (symmetries)
💬 SpaceTode → JavaScript (interpreting+emitting code)

It almost feels like it's all been building up to this point! I guess that's why I'm spending a bit more time and attention than usual. Hopefully it's worth it!

Three Dimensions

By the way... I see this new engine as only ONE sequel of SandPond. I actually see SandPond going in the 2 different directions in the future:

(a) 2D + Drag&Drop + Cell-Splitting
(b) 3D + Big + Fast

The upcoming video is all about (a) - the 2D engine. It aims to be accessible to use, and does some fun stuff with splitting cells. I have also been thinking a lot about making a different engine for (b) - something that could process huge 3D simulations, but harder to code for.

I have always been in two minds over which way to take SandPond. So... why not do both? I eventually will!

BerdRoost

I am trying to get ahead on the next-next video! I've planned out the structure of that video, and I have my list of things to code (as soon as I finish the current video).

The video will be 'taken over' by a bird for the day, so Flora Caulton quickly pulled together some bird animation assets for me! They look great!

*chirp*

Discord

Our discord server is going really well! Please do feel free to join/lurk if you want.

Activity really shot up, so I restructured the server a bit. My main motivation for this is to make the server as welcoming as possible. I don't want it to be overwhelming for new or returning members. To achieve this, I want - not too many channels, but enough so that messages get spread out between them neatly. I don't want to become one of those servers that has tens and tens of different channels for different topics. I think that could be 'a bit much'.

I'm thinking of making a little welcome video for the discord server. Like, a secret mini episode of the SandPond Saga. I think this could help the place to feel more special, and worth looking after. Who knows!

Thank you to everyone for making it a welcoming, kind, and fun place so far!

And thank YOU for continuing to support me and my projects into February 2022! I appreciate it more than you could know! The year is just getting started, and I'm excited to get things Done! See you next week... 🐸🐉🐦