Game of Life
Conway’s Game of Life is a fascinatingly simple system, designed by British mathematician John Conway in 1970.
With four rules that mimic human life in aggregate, it can give birth to quite complex patterns and shapes.
The Task
The task today is to study & to recreate Game of Life in p5.js. You can refer to the rules on Wikipedia and use this p5.js sketch as a starting point. Here’s is an idea. For his 100 day challenge, Pine did a Game of Life with colors. The system begins with a few cells of simple colors, and as the system evolves, each new cell following the reproduction rule — any dead cell with exactly three live neighbors becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction — gains a new color by blending the surrounding 3 colors. Another idea is to give the game a new dimension.
When we began Codecember, we weren’t very clear what this month-long challenge would lead to. But as we continue to write the prompts, a pattern emerged. We illustrate a simple idea everyday and you take the idea further on the dimensions of space, time, color or texture, eventually making it your idea in the process of recreation and remixing. Have fun playing with the idea and see you tomorrow.
When you are all done, post your work on Twitter with the hashtag #codecember and #day9. Remember to include a link to the source code, so others can learn from your creation. We look forward to seeing your sketch!