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A 3D voxel game engine written in APL
117 points by sph 9 hours ago | 10 comments
  • Vedor
    APL game engine is indeed an unusual thing. I don't know much about APL, and never used it (toyed with J back in the days though). I am really interested in the development process and the challenges posed by using APL for that kind of project.

    Also, I really appreciate that the ReadMe file doesn't try to sell this project as something more than it actually is - a buggy passion project. Such honesty is, I feel, relatively rare nowadays.

    • renyicircle
      The author has written two blog posts about their game (the latter is more about APL than the game itself though). You may find these interesting

      https://homewithinnowhere.com/posts/2026-03-06-voxel-game.ht...

      https://homewithinnowhere.com/posts/2026-05-10-one-line.html

      • hallole
        Sweet, thank you! Don't know why they didn't post this, it's the bit I'm most interested in.
        • kcroarkin
          Author here. A video of me presenting this will be uploaded in a week or so, will reply with it here if it’s of use.
      • Vedor
        Oh, nice, thank you!
    • DrewADesign
      It’s crazy what people make games out of. When I was in a game design university program, one of my classmates used to make complete games (including a JRPG style adventure game) using excel formulas. Not even VBA, which would still be insane… just a bunch of formulas.
    • threethirtytwo
      Is this what programming has become? We no longer admire the technical achievement itself and we only admire honesty.

      Because any technical achievement is easily replicated by AI.

  • Littice
    A voxel world is a pretty good sales pitch for APL: the weird-looking part is the notation, not the model.
  • ankitraj1224
    [flagged]
  • tsouth2
    [dead]
  • jkwang
    [flagged]
  • eric_khun
    shameless plug, been working a a voxel editor to create voxels that you could use to decorate a home for a a little creature you have to take care of(a la sims). if anyone has some feedbacks, would be happy to take them!

    https://kamio.ai/studio

    • arendtio
      Why not make a Show HN? In this thread, it feels a bit misplaced, even though it looks cool.