I asked for this game in 2011

The question

I wanted a terrain, a big mountain, and an unlimited water source near the top. The water should follow the shape of the land and find its own way down until it reached the ocean. "Is this possible in Unity, and if so, how would I go about achieving it?"

One of Unity's developers answered: it could be done, but it would take serious research in any engine. There was also a shortcut: run the water as a grid that only stores how high the water stands at each point. No overhangs, no caves, just height.

My reply ended with: "it will be on the very bottom of the todo list."

Fifteen years later

It's the whole game. The water in MUCKWORKS runs on exactly that kind of grid. It flows downhill, fills every hole, follows the channels you dig and wears your dirt walls down. Where it meets lava, the lava turns to stone.

From Dust let you move the land and watch the water decide what happens next. I loved that, and I wanted to be in that world instead of floating above it.

So in MUCKWORKS you are a worker, not a god. You see the job in first person, you carry a shovel and a sprayer, and every bit of dirt you move came out of a hole somewhere. You don't do it alone: one to six players, tuned for four, on the same job site, with the same water.

That changes what the game is about. The channel you dig floods the field your friend is draining. The wall someone builds turns into a reservoir. A breach isn't game over, it's the next job, and usually somebody's fault.