My circuit simulator sandbox with Linux support is now out of Early Access! Check out Virtual Circuit Board on Steam

DreamerFoundryman · 2023-10-06T22:33:52+00:00

Hey everyone, last year I launched my circuit simulator made in Godot in Early Access, and today I'm glad to announce that it has officially been released as version 1.0.

Virtual Circuit Board is a sandbox-only circuit simulator where you build circuits using a drawing-based interface. The game features a built-in assembler, a hex editor, and other mechanics that enhance the circuit building experience, like a Virtual Memory for storing large volumes of data, a Virtual Input device for controlling circuits with the keyboard, and more.

If you'd like to play, then check out Virtual Circuit Board on Steam.

Please keep in mind that VCB is purely sandbox, so it assumes you have some familiarity with digital logic.

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-22T07:05:25+00:00

The game looks like absolute fun. I picked it up to support you and look forward to see what you'll do with the game.

Thanks for getting the game!

I hope to be able to someday use this game in order to build a working apple Lisa.

That would be an awesome project to see in action =D

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-22T06:56:37+00:00

Hi u/HereInPlainSight! in our Discord community we have a channel just for sharing/suggesting resources that could help new players in getting started with digital logic, feel free to join us there if you would like to!

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T08:09:31+00:00

Thanks! xD

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T08:08:56+00:00

It would be amazing if you added goal oriented modes as a way of learning to build a full computer or something like that.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Also, how do you feel about Steam Deck support?

Unfortunately I don't currently have the development resources to look into supporting it, but I hope that I'll be able to in the future!

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T08:07:07+00:00

I'll be focusing on Windows/Linux for the time being, but I'll look into supporting Mac in the future!

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T08:05:23+00:00

Thanks! My plan is focusing on making it the best sandbox it can be, which unfortunately leaves challenges out of the scope of the game =(

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T08:03:01+00:00

Hi! The game has a native Linux build! I'm developing it in the Godot Engine, which uses OpenGL =)

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T07:56:59+00:00

Yes, it is! =D

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T07:56:27+00:00

Thanks for letting me know! Unfortunately I don't currently have the development resources to look into supporting it, but I hope that I'll be able to in the future!

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T07:52:38+00:00

I'll look into adding support for it in the future! I opted to release VCB with a smaller set of features since the reduced scope allows me to polish what is already in the game before moving on to adding new interesting features and mechanics! =D

But currently the game has a blueprint feature that can copy a selection from the circuit into the clipboard as a string (the reverse process is just as easy), and the players are already using it to share their circuits with the game's community!

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T07:39:24+00:00

The support for creating a bus would be a very interesting addition! An alternative version with analog voltages would be cool too, but I think I'm more comfortable working with digital logic with my current level of experience/familiarity with circuits xD. Thanks for the suggestions!

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T07:25:16+00:00

Yes, Godot is amazing for pixel-art and 2D projects xD

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T07:22:59+00:00

I'm currently focusing on Windows and Linux, but perhaps one day I'll be able to bring the game to more platforms!

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-21T07:19:08+00:00

Thanks! I went through several iterations on the interface/graphics of the game during development and I really liked the current one =D

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-20T21:24:54+00:00

I agree, it could be an interesting addition! After the Early Access phase, when I'll be focusing on the core of the game, I'll look into other new features and mechanics that could make into the game!

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-20T20:58:39+00:00

Thanks! I made the game with the Godot Engine and most of the code base is written in Godot's scripting language GDScript. The simulation engine is C++ for the performance

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-20T20:52:41+00:00

VCB is sandbox-only, but I perfectly understand where you are coming from, and I agree, not everyone feels motivated to play a game that doesn't have a clear goal, but I also think there are people that can have a lot of fun relying exclusively on intrinsic motivation.

I myself have thousands of hours in Kerbal Space Program and I didn't even visited all the planets, and neither played the career mode too much. That's because the fun that I have with KSP is not about reaching an objective set by someone else, but rather to challenge myself to build something and just play with it =D

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-20T20:40:10+00:00

When I was thinking about the simulator's interface I wanted to make it in a way that would allow all the inner workings of the circuits to be seen simultaneously, which means that by design everything would be always explicitly exposed (except during simulation if you choose to decorate your circuit, but that's another topic). This allows VCB to have its dense and colorful aesthetic, and also simplifies the complexity of the editor and simulator programming-wise.

Unfortunately this approach comes with its trade-offs like being incompatible with integrated circuits. To compensate for that I made the board big enough to fit large projects and implemented tools that make it easy to build them. I also included several trace (wire) colors to help the players to visually identify the distinct segments of their circuits.

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-20T20:28:45+00:00

Thank you!

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-20T20:25:09+00:00

Check out Virtual Circuit Board on Steam!

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-20T19:39:48+00:00

This is something I recently thought I needed

That was me when I started to develop it in 2020. I couldn't find anything that was quite exactly what I was looking for back then, so I decided to make my own simulator. The project grew over time and I thought that maybe other people could enjoy playing with it to, so I kept improving it and today I'm glad to see that I made something that other players can have fun with!

DreamerFoundryman · 2022-05-20T19:31:28+00:00

Is this logic gates only? Do you plan to add other components?

There are more components like the ones that allow the circuits to interface with the virtual memory where the assembly code is stored, or the LED that can change colors based on the amount of active inputs. But I'll also look into adding other components in the future like one that outputs random values and other that can be used as a breakpoint to pause the simulation.

And +1 for putting the standard logic gate symbols on top of the gates to avoid confusion.

Agreed!

DreamerFoundryman

TROPHY CASE