mwharrisjr / game-of-life

A simple python implemenation of John H. Conway's Game of Life that runs in Linux and Windows terminal/console.

Conway's Game of Life

The Game of Life is a cellular automaton created by John H. Conway in 1970. The game is a zero-player game in which an initially configured 2D grid of cells evolves according to the Game of Life ruleset.

Built using Python 3.5, this implementation of Conway's Game of Life allows the user to easily run the Game of Life using a 2D grid of choosen number of rows and columns in either a Linux or Windows terminal/console.

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT license.

Ruleset

Using the following ruleset the 2D grid of cells will evolve from generation to generation until it reaches a static state of either all dead cells or a mix of still, oscillating, or moving (spaceship) cells.

1. Underpopulation - If a live cell has is surrounded by less than two surrounding neighbours it dies and does not make it to the next generation.
2. Equilibrium - If a live cell is surrounded by two or three living neighbors the cell stays alive and makes it to the next generation.
3. Overpopulation - If a live cell is surrounded by more than three living neighbors the cell dies and does not make it to the next generation.
4. Reproduction - If a dead cell is surrounded by three living neighbors the cell stays alive and makes it to the next generation.

How to Run

This project is built using Python 3.5 and requires that the user has at least Python 3 installed in order to run the program. Python 3+ can be installed here.

In order to run this project the user must open a terminal/console and navigate to the project folder and then into the script directory. Once inside of the script directory simply run python main.py in order to begin the program.

Once the program has been started the user will be prompted to input the number of rows and columns to make the Game of Life grid.