How to use the Game of Life
- Draw live cells by clicking or dragging on the board, or pick a ready-made pattern such as the glider, the pulsar or the Gosper gun.
- Press «Play» and watch it evolve. «One generation» moves ahead a single step, and «Pause» stops the simulation.
- Change the speed, the board size or the rule, and try «Random» to start with a board full of random cells.
- When the board becomes stable, falls into a repeating cycle or runs out of live cells, we let you know.
What is the Game of Life?
The Game of Life is a cellular automaton invented by the British mathematician John Conway in 1970 and popularized by Martin Gardner in Scientific American. It isn't a game you win or lose: you set up the starting position and the rules do the rest, with nobody else stepping in.
The board is a grid of squares, each holding a live or dead cell. In every generation, a live cell survives if it has two or three live neighbors (among the eight squares around it) and dies otherwise; a dead square comes to life if it has exactly three live neighbors. From such simple rules come shapes that stay still, that oscillate, that travel across the board (gliders) and even guns that keep producing gliders.
You can also try other rules built on the same idea, such as HighLife or Day & Night. Everything is computed on your device and nothing is sent to any server.
Things to keep in mind
- The board has a fixed size. With wrapped edges, whatever leaves one side comes back in on the other; without wrapping, whatever reaches the edge dies out against a wall.
- Large patterns, such as the Gosper gun, need a board of at least 48 × 48 to fit completely.
- A finite board has none of the infinite space of the original game: some shapes (like the R-pentomino) end up differently from what you would see on an unbounded plane.
- Your settings (size, speed, rule) are saved only in this browser. The drawing is not saved.
Frequently asked questions
What are the rules of the Game of Life?
A live cell with two or three live neighbors stays alive; with fewer than two it dies of loneliness and with more than three it dies of overpopulation. A dead square with exactly three live neighbors comes to life.
What is a glider?
It is a five-cell shape that moves diagonally across the board, advancing one square every four generations. It is the best-known pattern in the game.
Which patterns are worth trying?
The glider and the lightweight spaceship move; the blinker, the toad, the beacon, the pulsar and the pentadecathlon oscillate; the block and the beehive stay still; the R-pentomino, the acorn and «Die Hard» grow in unexpected ways; and the Gosper gun fires gliders.
What do rules like B3/S23 mean?
It is a way of writing them: B lists how many live neighbors make a cell be born (3) and S how many make it survive (2 or 3). Changing those numbers gives other universes, such as HighLife (B36/S23) or Seeds (B2/S).
Is it free? Do I need to install anything?
It is free, needs no sign-up and runs right in your browser, on your phone too.