The Game of Life is a cellular automaton created by mathematician John Conway. A cellular automaton is a type of simulation. In the Game of Life, there is a grid of cells in which each cell is either dead or alive. In this example, black squares represent living cells and white squares represent dead cells. As the simulation runs, cells switch between being dead and alive based on a set of rules:
- Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies.
- Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies.
- Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives, unchanged, to the next generation.
- Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours will come to life.
These rules generate complex interactions. Click the canvas to start the simulation with randomized cells. Clicking the canvas again will restart it.
Game of Life by p5.js Contributors and the Processing Foundation is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.