Play the Game of Life
The Game of Life is not really a game in the usual sense. It's a set of rules that governs "cycles of life" and was created by John Conway from Cambridge University.
This classic game became well-known after it was mentioned in a Scientific American article in 1970. At the start of each cycle, a cell can either stay alive, die, or come into life, all based on its neighboring cells. The game is not played by one player, but rather the rules themselves evolve it.
It can be fun however, to watch the little cells evolve and progress based on the initial sequence. See what interesting patterns you can find.
How Do You Play the Game of Life?
To start immediately, click the random button to draw a random group of "alive" cells. Click play to watch the evolution unfold.
You can also select cells to be alive or dead while the game is paused.
Rules of the Game
During every cycle of the game, a cell is determined to be alive or dead in the generation based on how many of its neighbors are alive.
If a living cell has 0 or 1 immediate neighbors that are alive, that cell will die.
If a living cell has 2 or 3 immediate neighbors that are alive, that cell will stay alive.
if a living cell has 4 or more living neighbor cells, that cell will die due to overpopulation.
For a dead cell, if it has 3 alive neighbors, it will begin the next cycle alive.
