Games / Building automation sandbox

Brick/BAS

Apparently I wanted to play with air handlers after work, too. A little brick-built BAS sandbox, now with a career mode, made just for fun.

Status: Playful prototype
Year: 2026
Role: Design + development
Built with: Godot · GDScript · LDraw · baskStream SDK

brick-bas school in Equipment mode, with ductwork over the classrooms and a VAV's readout and temperature trend open — A brick school mid-morning, with one VAV's live readout and trend.

Because it sounded fun

Take a small school, build it out of bricks, and give it some HVAC equipment to tinker with. That is pretty much the premise. brick-bas is a side project for playing around with building systems in a more literal way.

There are two ways to play. Creative is the sandbox: build, connect ductwork, open up equipment, and wander through the result as a tiny minifigure. Career turns it into a small controls contracting business, with service calls to troubleshoot, installs to design on a budget, and tune-ups that cut a wasteful building's energy bill.

The simulation is simplified, but the basics hold up: VAVs and air handlers sized from room loads, real sequences like supply-air and static pressure resets, economizers and demand ventilation, and faults like stuck dampers and loaded filters. Still a toy to explore, not an engineering tool.

Play it right in your desktop browser with a keyboard and mouse. The web version runs on the simulation, and your builds stay in this browser, career included. Download a backup from the game menu if you want to keep a copy or move it to another device.

Things to play with

Build a little world

Walls, doors, windows, floors, and furniture make up a workshop, an office, or a small school, all ready to rearrange. Or start from an empty lot.

brick-bas Build mode with the parts tray of room, wall, floor, door, and window tools under a furnished school — Build mode and its parts tray, with the walls cut away around the view.

Tinker with equipment

Put together an AHU or VAV with fans, filters, coils, and dampers. Open the casing and have a look inside.

brick-bas equipment workbench assembling an air handler from a damper, filter, cooling and heating coils, and a fan — An air handler on the workbench, section by section, with its size and price.

Connect the ductwork

Zone a room and the ducts route themselves, or route them by hand. Click any unit for its live readout and trends. Even a tiny brick school needs air.

brick-bas ductwork through the school with a VAV box's casing lifted to show its damper and coil — Ductwork, and a VAV with its casing lifted off.

Run a contracting business

Career mode is a job board of service calls, installs, and tune-ups. Test before you replace parts, beat the deadline, keep the rooms comfortable, and earn stars that unlock bigger jobs.

brick-bas career job board listing service calls, an install, and a tune-up, with rank, stars, and bank balance — The job board. Stars from each job unlock the next tier.

A brick-bas service call: the minifigure under a VAV, with a service panel showing a damper test result and repair options — A service call. The damper test shows the actuator isn't driving the blade.

brick-bas job results showing three stars, the objectives met, and the fee earned — Fixed, closed out, and paid.

Take a walk

Switch to Explore and see the building at minifigure height. Open a VAV, turn a thermostat down, or just inspect your handiwork.

A minifigure in a brick-bas classroom next to the thermostat, with a prompt to adjust it — At minifigure height, with the classroom thermostat in reach.

Updates

October 1, 2026

Career mode

brick-bas has a career now: service calls, installs, and tune-ups for a small controls contractor, on a fuller simulation and a reworked interface.

Career mode adds a small contracting business. The job board has ten jobs in three tiers, plus endless on-call service calls. Service calls hide real faults, like a stuck damper or a loaded filter: test the equipment, replace the right part, and close out before the deadline. Installs hand you an empty building and a budget. Tune-ups hand you a wasteful building and ask you to cut its energy bill.

The simulation has a lot more to it: BAS sequences like optimal start, supply-air and static pressure resets, economizers, and demand ventilation; equipment sized from room loads; energy and comfort meters; and a time-lapse to get through the day. Creative mode is still a plain sandbox.

The interface was rebuilt around a single design system and a proper typeface. On desktop, the game can also read a live Niagara station through baskStream, read-only, and animate what you build from real points.

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