Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Conway's Game of Life

Conway's Game of Life

Created by: John Conway

http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/




In 1970, John Conway, a British Mathematician created a program called Life where a simple design created on a grid would come alive and evolve autonomously based on a four simple rules:

Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by underpopulation.

Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.

Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.

Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell.



The player is given a grid of empty cells and creates patterns by activating cells, giving them "life" and setting the stage for the evolutionary pattern dictated by the four rules above. Once the player activates the game it begins evolving autonomously, leaving the player with control only over how fast the next generation is displayed.



While at first I was only interested in seeing what my designs would become, before too long I found myself becoming attached to the small lit up cells. As they moved around the game board, I began thinking of them as actual living beings. I started hoping that the stationary blocks would be visited by the moving "gliders" so they could spread and became sad when that same event lead those blocks to their extinction.

It's interesting to see how a player can become attached to an object by allowing them to influence it, then putting it at risk. Much like a parent with their child you don't want to see the end of it's life cycle. This seems to be a very useful mechanic for getting a player emotionally involved with their creation, but it doesn't seem like one that can be fun on its own.

Tomorrow we'll see how Positech Games handled this problem (if they saw it as one) when I review Gratuitous Space Battles, a game that combines Passive Control with Unit Design and Behavior Modification.

1 comment: