I first learned about John Conway’s Game of Life during the lockdown. The world paused, and I started reading more — about math, play, systems. I was deep into Game Maker, DIY board games, and Homo Ludens when I found it.
Game of Life isn’t a game you play — it plays itself. You set the starting shape, then watch how it changes: cells live, die, or are born, depending on a few simple rules. It’s calm, strange, and says a lot without saying anything.
Years later, I made my own version. Not to improve it — just to understand it better by rebuilding it. Sometimes, making a thing is the best way to learn how it works.
The rules:
- Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if by underpopulation.
- Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
- Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overpopulation.
- Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.