Infinite Browser Universe Manyland Hits 8 Million Placed Blocks

j_philipp (803945) writes Manyland [Here's the twitter feed and a FAQ] is an HTML5 / JavaScript-based MMO universe created by a community and two indie developers from Europe. Everything in the world can be freely drawn and placed: From the cars, animals, plants, houses, bridges, to everyone's own bodies. Like Wikipedia, by default areas are editable by everyone (and removing a block leaves dust which can be used to undo the removal). Since the opening a year ago, over 100,000 different creations have been made, and now, over 8 million blocks placed. Some features are for logged-in users only, but the whole thing is free to explore for everyone, and it's just sucked away quite a few minutes for me.

Comments

If Minecraft is anything to go by

[Anubis IV]

So, 8 million blocks, and 100,000 creations means 80 blocks per creation. If Minecraft is anything to go by, that'd be the equivalent of about a 5x5 house that was 4 blocks tall...and had no roof. I suppose that's a "creation", but if that's all they're averaging, they're not doing so hot. Pretty much everyone I've ever seen play Minecraft manages to do better than that in the first few minutes, and by the end of their first sitting, they've usually expanded on it substantially.

Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by

[khellendros1984]

It looks like you also draw the individual sprites that make up the blocks, so there might be a 2-block "creation" that's a motorcycle for your character to ride. It's all in 2D anyhow, so 80 blocks goes much further than if you had to account for a 3rd dimension.

Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by

[j_philipp]

Oh you're right, this is not yet the scale of Minecraft, it's also very different, as you will see when exploring. Every distinct block is hand-drawn by the person, ranging from 19x19 pixels to 38x38 per drawing, with multiple animation cells and sometimes scripts attached to blocks, and numbers indeed don't measure the great things people have built... have a look at this screenshot gallery or explore the world and its many areas a bit to get an impression. Here's the City of Twilight or Green Mountain for instance, which you can add to too.

Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by

[j_philipp]

(Sorry, City of Twilight link should be this)

Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by

[j_philipp]

Some people are building a continuous airlevator into the sky. I believe I've been as far as 50 kilometers up high. The quest continues!

Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by

[JWSmythe]

If you find one that goes too high, it'll send you to intermission. I went for quite a while, and there was always something there. It's like My Little Pony, Minecraft, and Mario Brothers were thrown in a blender and thrown on a Geocities page. :)

Re:If Minecraft is anything to go by

[Opportunist]

Eww. I'm eating here.

Re:Infinite universe with 8 million blocks?

[NotInHere]

60^-1 plutos per cubic light year aint much. More than 8 million blocks yes, but our universe is pretty empty too.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=...
http://www.wolframalpha.com/in...

If you've ever been stuck between two superclusters you know what I mean.

compilers, have you heard of them?

[Anonymous Coward]

HTML5 and JavaScript universe on a C++ compiled browser, that's not interpreted enough. Yo hipsters I heard you like JavaScript so if you run Manyland in WebKit.js you can interpret while you interpret.

Giant 2D side-scroller

[Animats]

This is Minecraft reduced to a 2D sidescroller. With the graphics of the 2D sidescroller era.

If you go too far down, you can fall off the bottom of the world.

Re:Infinite universe with 8 million blocks?

[Opportunist]

Yeah, and no gas station in sight...

They surpassed Minecraft in stuffs and griefing

[AlabamaCajun]

Within the 2 minute time I was transported to several different lands most likely the system overload. Then once stable, something left on the trail by others morphed me through several different avatars and turned off aswd. Then out of nowhere I was transported to someones trap. I rarely played mario so I;m not familiar with the powerups. Great place to get your mind sucked away.

Thanks Slashdot...for making me hooked on ManyLand

[MindPrison]

I never knew of this universe before I read it here, I decided to try it out on my Linux box, and it worked straight away.

Unfortunately I ended up building areas for hours and hours, before I knew it...I think I ended up rebuilding Hyrule's many castles, doh! Thanks a lot, yet another addiction I really didn't need in my life.

Phun aside, I'm thinking Little Big Planet here, except in LBP we could even create our own games (simulate Pac-Man, Tetris..space invaders etc...) and people came up with the coolest stuff - and before you knew it...there was MILLIONS of levels in LBP. I think that's whats missing in this game, but hey...maybe there already is something similar there...and I just didn't find it?

Re:Thanks Slashdot...for making me hooked on ManyL

[sosh101]

Possible in manyland too! See e.g. manyland.com/newpolis manyland.com/blancnoir manyland.com/livingisland (there are loads more)