Game guide
Life
Your goal
Explore how a pattern of living cells evolves. This is a simulation: there is no opponent, score target or conventional winner.
How to play
- Draw an initial pattern or choose Glider, Blinker or R-pentomino. Start the simulation to advance generations automatically, or use the step button for one generation.
- Every cell has eight neighbours, including diagonals. An empty cell becomes alive with exactly three living neighbours.
- A living cell survives with two or three living neighbours. With fewer it dies from isolation; with more it dies from overcrowding. All changes happen together.
- Opposite edges are connected: a pattern leaving one side can interact with cells on the other. The board behaves like a wrapped surface.
Controls
Computer
Draw with the mouse. Starting a stroke on an empty cell adds life; starting on a living cell erases. Use the start/pause, single-step, speed, random-fill and clear controls.
Phone or tablet
Draw with a finger on the field. Open settings for speed and preset patterns. Pause and use single-step when you want to inspect a change carefully.
Progress and the end of a game
- The statistics show the current population and generation. Stable shapes stay still; oscillators repeat; moving patterns travel across the field.
- The simulation pauses when it detects a repeated state. You can edit the pattern and start again. Clearing or loading a new setup begins a new experiment.
Useful tips
- Try a three-cell horizontal line: it alternates between horizontal and vertical. A 2×2 block stays unchanged.
- Change just one cell in a preset and compare the result. Slow down or single-step to see which neighbours cause births and deaths.