1 Line → 16,384 Cells: The Square Fills Itself | 12 Satisfying Simulations, No Talking

About this piece

Each chapter starts with a rule that fits in one sentence. Each ends when the picture is done: a maze that digs itself and then lights its shortest path, sixteen balls that drift out of step and land together, one line that fills a square with a rainbow, a lightning bolt that forks until it hits the rim, eight colors fighting for one ring, and a music box that plays a lullaby pin by pin.

The rules, the code and the sound are all original. No chapter is steered toward a picture; what you see at the end is what the rule produced.

The music box chapter plays a public-domain lullaby (Brahms, 1868) on pins that the disc itself plucks. The ring war and the ball tank are my own take on the elimination videos people love: every border and every bite is decided by the rule, not by me.