Today I’m releasing Castles Made of Castles – a building tool where the pieces are the same as the whole.
Castles Made of Castles was commissioned by, and first playable at, the Now Play This festival in London. Game events offering commissions or exhibitor fees are rare, so I’m really grateful for the opportunity. Since the festival it’s been waiting around for me to tie up a few loose ends, and now that Push Me Pull You is finished, I’ve found the focus to give it a proper release.
Castles mixes fractals and voxels. Like most of my work on this site, the idea came from some pencil and paper fractal castles I had drawn. Originally I envisioned something like a 3d version of my fractal machine; a bunch of sliders that controlled tower spacing, height or whatever. Once I started working on the algorithm I realized I just need a quick way to place blocks, and decided a minecraft/infiniminer style interface would be better.
Making another ‘sciencevsmagic.net’ project after so long was lots of fun. The work on this site is quite consistent, with very similar constraints, and I let that guide my design. It felt very natural to fill Castles out with click and drag, infinite zoom, undo/redo, random colors, and storing all the data in the URL.
If you make a nice castle, please post it in the comments.
this is fantastic!
i wish the creation would be separate from preview as it quickly gets cumbersome to figure out what goes where
You can press ‘t’ to hide/show all the fractal blocks.
I made a fractal cube and it’s pretty: http://naturalmath.com/fractalcube/
Easy interface, fun toy. Thanks for making and sharing!
What I can’t figure out is how to change the shape to produce what you posted, the longer lines for example.
Each of the images I posted is also a link to that Castle, so by clicking through and undoing/redoing you can see how I made it.
The only thing that changes the shape of the blocks is the shape of the Castle changing as more blocks are placed.
This taxes my computer a bit
Jesus
wow this is cool no one would know if this website even existed if it were not for vsauce
I didn’t know that Victorian balconies are self similar
whoops forgot url:
http://gg.gg/frykp
look at it directly from the side to see the balconies
look at this
https://sciencevsmagic.net/castles/#7u7uqqqqLS0t3AIAAMAAQAAMIAIICIACMAAIJAMJCIECMECIMCIICIJCINAIRCERCEVEENEIEEEMCEUAIQCEQEEIEIAEEJEEAEAIGEAGAIEAJGAJCARCAZAERAEZCAVCAdEANGANEEEGEEEAMGAMCAUCAcCAQCAYAEQAEYEAQEAREAVEAUEAEGAEIAEEEOGEOIEOEEPGEPIEPEEGGEGIEGKEGGEWEEWEEeCEWCEeCEmAESAEaAEiAEqAAYAAgCESCEaCEiEEaEESGESEEKGEKGEKIEKEECGECIECKECIAAIELGELEELGETEETEEbCETCEbCEjAETAEbAEjAErAAZAAhEEXCEXCEfCEnEEfGEXAUAEEREIREMREEVEIVEMVEEUEIUEMUEEQEIQEMQ
GUYS I MADE THIS :O https://sciencevsmagic.net/castles/#7u7uqqqqLS0t2AAICAMEANEAEEAMCAICAACAJEAVCAVCARAARAEACEEAIACIEAEJCENCINAIJCMEAMACMNAMJCQECQNAQJAQACUECUNAUJAUACYECYNAYJAYACAQEAIEARCAZGAVEAdGAMEAUEAcIAMEAlIAVCAhCAYGAIGARCcNCcEAcJAcACgNCgECgMAgJAgAAgICgICgACgJEgMEgEEgNCgRAgRCgVEgVAkACkECkNAkJ
OMG GUYS I DISCOVERED A BEAUTIFUL CUBE!!!!!!!!!! :O
https://sciencevsmagic.net/castles/#7u7uqqqqLS0t2EAECAVCAJAAIAEJAETAICCAACEEEEGCIGCEXCENCAMCEOAEKCELCECCIPAILAAREEPEANAEAEEMEEVCERCEICIKEIOEIXCIT
OMG THAT DOES LOOK BEAUTIFUL
Can you add a feature where you can make your own color schemes?
This is one I am proud of: https://sciencevsmagic.net/castles/#+PnbC5ZIe=Do3CIJAIJCINCIAAIACIECIIAIICIMEINEIEEIMEIUCIUAIQCIQEIQEIIEIAEIJEIRCIRAIRCIVEIVAMAAQAAUAAYAAcAAgAAkAAoAAsAAwAA0AA4AA8A
I made this
https://sciencevsmagic.net/castles/#7u7uqqqqLS0t2CEEEAECAMEAMCEMEEEEEMGEMGIMEIMEIUEEUGEUGIUGMUIIUGIcIMUGMcIIcIMcIQcKMcIMkIQkKQcKMkKQkCELAETAILCILAITCETCITCIbEITCMTEMTCMbEIbEMbGMbEMjEQbGQbEQjGMjGQjIQjGQrGUjGUrIUjIQrIUr