FACTORIES, CITIES, CODE & MATERIALS

Make one small system work.

Connect an extractor, plan a small city, paint a material experiment or change a line of code. Choose a project where the result of one decision is visible before the next expansion.

8 projectsCompare the choices ↓Read the companion note ↗

Sandspiel project image — Original scene published as Screenshot.png in Max Bittker’s Sandspiel repository. This is the project’s illustration.

A PLACE TO BEGIN / Sandspiel

Start with one good session.

A small container and one material make a readable first experiment. Its palette and pause control let you inspect a result before adding another condition.

Meet Sandspiel ↗

Choose what you want to change

Sandspiel changes a simulated material scene. shapez routes shapes into a hub. Micropolis and OpenTTD connect infrastructure across a map. Bitburner and Untrusted expose code, with different goals: ongoing automation in one, constrained level puzzles in the other.

Trace the smallest complete example

Follow one item from source to destination in shapez, one bus through its orders in OpenTTD, or one editable statement into the Untrusted playfield. If that example does not work, inspect the break before copying it. A large system can repeat the same small mistake in several places.

Keep the result before leaving

Micropolis uses a single local game record. Bitburner provides export/import, while Sandspiel’s creation and sharing actions need their own check. The shapez link is a demo with restrictions. Before starting a large project, read the save panel and preserve a backup through the actual game interface when it offers one.

THE OPTIONS AT A GLANCE

Choose the next game.

Compare all 36 ↗

Game	Why try it	Pace	Progress
Sandspiel ↗Web-native	Drawing small experiments and watching materials interact.	Open-ended material simulation	The project supports sharing creations. A local autosave or offline guarantee is not established here; keep work through the host’s actual available controls.
shapez ↗Web-native	A production puzzle for people who enjoy tracing a working system.	Running factory simulation	The menu exposes save/import functions, but demo restrictions apply. Verify the active build’s options before relying on transfer.
micropolisJS ↗Browser port	A city simulation with a map, construction tools and a budget to inspect.	Running city simulation with pause	Save writes one localStorage game record; Load is available from the opening interface. No file-export menu is established here.
OpenTTD ↗Browser port	Planning routes, building networks and learning a detailed simulation.	Ongoing simulation	Check file export in this particular port before a long game.
Freeciv-web ↗Browser adaptation	City building, research and a campaign you can settle into.	Turn-based campaign	Depends on the selected server and account.
Bitburner ↗Web-native	A longer desktop session with reading, JavaScript and resource planning.	Incremental programming	Browser saves use IndexedDB. Options provides export/import for moving or backing up a game; keep a separate export.
Untrusted ↗Web-native	Reading and changing small pieces of JavaScript to solve a visible puzzle.	Code-editing puzzles; level behavior varies	The source records level progress and editor state locally. Keep the same host and browser profile; no cloud sync is promised.
Particle Clicker ↗Web-native	A pointer-driven incremental game with short historical research notes.	Incremental management	Uses localStorage, with a Save now control. Without storage, the source warns that a refresh loses progress.