In 1970, a British mathematician John Horton Conway devised a zero player game called “Game of Life” which is a kind of cellular automaton. A cellular automaton is a discrete model of computation studied in automata theory. Usually it contains a regular grid of cells and each cell has a finite number of states. Those sates can be defined by some very simple rules but when interact with each other according those rules, the result could be way more complicated than you expected. For Game of Life there are four rules:
1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbors dies, as if by underpopulation.
2. Any live cell with two or three live neighbors lives on to the next generation.
3. Any live cell with more than three live neighbors dies, as if by overpopulation.
4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbors becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction
In processing, those rules can be easily achieved and the visual outcome generated from them is astonishing. This project is based on this computation model. I tried to make it more interactive and make a game with it. I did some exploration and finally finished two different sketches. One is the drawing tool and the other is the survival game, in which user need to control the little “creature” to hide form its enemies.
1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbors dies, as if by underpopulation.
2. Any live cell with two or three live neighbors lives on to the next generation.
3. Any live cell with more than three live neighbors dies, as if by overpopulation.
4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbors becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction
In processing, those rules can be easily achieved and the visual outcome generated from them is astonishing. This project is based on this computation model. I tried to make it more interactive and make a game with it. I did some exploration and finally finished two different sketches. One is the drawing tool and the other is the survival game, in which user need to control the little “creature” to hide form its enemies.
IniInitial Exploration, attempted to code Game of Life in processing
Version 1, using GoL as a drawing tool, user can draw lines and shapes and in this version I give different colors to different states. When a cell is born, it will turn red. If it remains alive, it will be yellow. At the moment of its death, it will turn blue and if it was dead, it will be black.
Final version, the survival game. In the game, player need to use left and right key to control the glider and keep away from its enemies. The cover used John Conway’s photo.
Code of thefinal version, which was writtern using Processing
