Goal of the game is to play all the cards in such an order that at least one alive cell is left. A card can kill some cells and create new ones, according to the rule written on the card. Each digit after the S on the card means that a living cell with exactly as much living neighbors will live, otherwise it will die. Each digit after the B on the card means that in empty cell with exactly as much living neighbors, a new living cell will appear.
For example, B3/S23 means cell survives only with 2 or 3 neighbors, no more, no less; and born when there is exactly 3 neighbors.
Author of Game of Life, John Horton Conway, has died on 11 April 2020 at the age of 82. After hearing about it, I have decided to try and make something Conway-inspired for LD (while following the LD theme), so here it is.
There is also an option in game to add your own custom levels or entire level pack. It would be great if someone would share his/her levels in comments:)
Loved it, great use of the theme and the Game of Life. I really liked the presentation of the project with well laid out interface. I too find cellular automata fascinating and have made games exhibiting it in the past, a good memorial :)
@thearchitect Yes, it's a reference to Nier:Automata name:) Originally I wanted to call it something like "Life Ever Changing" or "Game of Life Ever Changing". Eventually decided against it because, among other things, technically, only B3/S23 is Game of Life, all other rules are "Life-like".
@thermacon Levels are probably not very inventive, because I made them all jst in one day. So, most levels have similar theme of balancing "good" and "bad" cards. There is an editor in the game, so I hope some one will come up with and share something more initeresting/challenging with it :)
I am very glad you included the hover over tool to highlight which cells would die and which would survive. this meant that while still engaging my brain, it didn't then also leak out of my ears. nice concept and a refreshing theme.
@fizzget Thanks. The need of preview option was pretty obvious from the beginning. But it took some experimenting to figure the right symbols to denote dying and born cells.
Very timely. Good game but the way I engaged with was semi randomly howevering over the cards and seeing which would kill the least. I was looking for good and bad cards mainly and hitting a good balance. OVerall very polished!
The preview feature is a lifesaver for me, I'm hilariously bad at the Game of Life. I ended up playing it the same as homoludens.
I like the simple, minimal feel of this game and how it turns the Game of Life into ... well... a puzzle game! I wonder if it would be interesting to have an endless mode with randomly generated cards also.
Great tribute to a great mathematician. The clean UI is really nice. The puzzles are engaging. the B/S notation is a little tricky to wrap my head around, but you circumvent this by highlighting cells on mouse over. Well done!
Played this before ratings were turned on. Now rated, really like it, simple but effective, takes a bit of playing about with the get working properly.
Really impressive game! I like the concept and simple interface. I hope you keep it going and publish a the game with more levels. I could easily imagine that on the app store. Amazing!
I found this game from your comment on @wrsh07 's Life Based game, and I am so glad I did. I absolutely love Conway's Game of Life and I am thrilled to find a puzzle variation of the rules! Really outstanding work, and so in line with the theme, and I must say a moving and appropriate tribute to John Horton Conway. -- Zen
Увидел твою игру на dtf) Очень круто! Иногда все получается почти случайно, но часто приходится планировать свои ходы наперед. Поначалу казалось, что показывать какие клетки останутся живы после хода - слишком просто, но без этого мозг можно было бы сломать на более поздних уровнях.
This game is really lovely. I like the idea of playing cards to change the rules; this is such an excellent concept. I can imagine so many directions to take it.
Wow, this is REALLY well-done. This is my favorite Ludum Dare game so far. I'm a little jealous that you incorporated the Game of Life in such an interesting way- I had some similar ideas but my game ended up not being quite as interesting as yours. But mostly I'm just happy for you! Seriously great job.
@szieberth-adam Oh, finally a custom level! Very interesting. Good looking, hard, but not too hard. I was like, hah, easy... what, how many B8/S8-s? :)
Honestly one of the most fun games I've played so far, but then again I really like seeing how Celluar Automata can be used in this way. Simple, sleek, and well made. My first 5/5 game.
Comments33
I too find cellular automata fascinating and have made games exhibiting it in the past, a good memorial :)
Really happy to see some "advanced" puzzle-like concepts like yours!
Also liked the simple interface, signs and feedbacks are clear, so the game feels really clean! Good job!
BTW, purely out of curiosity, is the name a reference of Nier:Automata ? XD
There is an editor in the game, so I hope some one will come up with and share something more initeresting/challenging with it :)
I like the simple, minimal feel of this game and how it turns the Game of Life into ... well... a puzzle game!
I wonder if it would be interesting to have an endless mode with randomly generated cards also.
Here is my level:
```
===
B1/S1; B2/S12; B234/S234; B2345/S1234; B3/S0; B3/S34567; B8/S8*3;
######
##########
############
##### #### #
##### #### #
############ #
########### #
########## #
######### #
##### #
#### #
## #
## ##
##
#### ########
```