This week on the channel +444K views this week

ThatGuyGlen's Noita viewers have plenty to say about the wands

His development documentary has passed 380,000 views, tracing how a pixel experiment became a roguelike built for discovery.

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ThatGuyGlen Story of November 10, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.

How 3 Programmers Made Gaming’s Most Complex Pixel Simulation

Things we can learn from the video

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6:22The engine combines falling-sand pixel simulation with rigid-body physics to make materials and solid objects interact.
8:27Chunks, multithreading and world streaming keep the continuous world manageable without simulating every pixel constantly.
10:03Early god-game and sandbox experiments expose the gap between an impressive simulation and meaningful gameplay.
12:25A Spelunky-inspired roguelike structure gives unpredictability a purpose through challenging runs and permadeath.
18:01Herringbone Wang tiles help generate a seamless world containing deliberately hidden secrets.
20:26Players push wand crafting and physics interactions beyond expectations, while later updates add spells, enemies and areas.

Is simulating every pixel really Noita's biggest trick? In ThatGuyGlen's comments, players are making a case for something else: the wand-building system, and the extraordinary trouble it lets them create.

His only new upload this week, "How 3 Programmers Made Gaming's Most Complex Pixel Simulation", follows Petri Purho, Arvi Teikari and Olli Harjola through a problem that clever programming couldn't solve on its own. They could make materials interact. Giving players a reason to explore those interactions took considerably more experimentation.

Glen explains how abandoned ideas, including a god game and a Terraria-like sandbox, eventually gave way to a Spelunky-inspired structure with procedural generation and permadeath. The documentary includes a sponsored smartphone segment. Beyond the technical explanations, its payoff is watching a simulation acquire rules that make its chaos worth learning.

The upload has reached roughly 384,000 views and supplies about two-thirds of the channel's daily viewing. Commenters trade familiar accounts of discovering a wand and promptly ending a run; others discuss elaborate spell creations or recall building their own falling-sand toys. Several point out that the simulation is only the beginning of Noita's appeal.

Across the channel, daily views are comfortably above their usual level, while subscribers were unchanged over the week. GVG and Slope's Game Room also drew substantial weekly viewing among nearby gaming channels; My Life in Gaming is enjoying an above-usual daily audience too.

Glen's older Kerbal Space Program and Lethal Company documentaries remain his next busiest uploads, extending a very particular theme: how a promising experiment becomes a game people can make their own stories inside.

Published on Trari

Where next?

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What viewers say

"Every single pixel is simulated" is the selling point, but as you play it you realise that is the least of what makes it great.
@mithrals6659See it on YouTube
"Oh, whats that Wand?"
*dies*
- average Noita run
@ScarkYTSee it on YouTube
I think a lot of programmers made their own janky falling sand toy applications - I remember one year I made one as effectively an interactive birthday card for my twin brother and sister :)
@ShadowquackerSee it on YouTube

6 more comments

every pixel is simulated and coded to specifically end your runs in the most ridiculous and funniest ways possible
@carzdroidSee it on YouTube
I think the most unique and best part of noita is actually its wand building system. I genuinely think that it is the only one of its kind with the level of complexity, freedom and interaction it offers.
@SUPERMAX-f8xSee it on YouTube
This is fantastic. I love how it shows that you start with small ideas, refine them, combine them, and then put a ton of work into making something fun in cooperation with people exploring it. You don't just sit down and bang out a game with amazing emergent complexity in one go.
@cwmaguireSee it on YouTube
I played Bloody Zombies back then but didn't know it was from one of Noita's developers, that was a great discovery
@AladatoSee it on YouTube
Noita is a game that keeps on giving. Every few runs I learn something new, find something new, do something new, build something new.
It's a world with no boundaries (wink wink) & is the perfect sandbox for limitless creativity.
@Determ1nat1onSee it on YouTube
I still haven't won a run of Noita. I dont think I ever will 😅
@PandasaurusR3xSee it on YouTube