Conway’s Game of Life Simulator Online

Play Conway’s Game of Life online. Draw cells, run classic patterns like Glider and Gosper Glider Gun, change Life-like rules, export or share your board, and explore cellular automata in your browser.

Controls

12 gen/s
25%

Tip: click or drag to toggle cells • Shift = erase • Ctrl/⌘ = draw • Pan mode drags the view • keyboard: arrows move, Space/Enter toggle

Simulation

Generation: 0
Population: 0

Game of Life patterns to try

Load classic patterns instantly, including still lifes, oscillators, spaceships, guns, puffers, methuselahs, and growth patterns.

Still lifes

Stable patterns such as Block, Beehive, Loaf, Boat, and Tub do not change from one generation to the next.

Oscillators

Oscillators repeat on a fixed cycle. Try Blinker, Toad, Beacon, Pulsar, and Pentadecathlon to compare periods.

Spaceships

Spaceships translate across the grid. Glider, LWSS, MWSS, and HWSS are useful starting points for motion and signal experiments.

Guns

Gun patterns emit moving objects again and again. Gosper Glider Gun and Simkin Glider Gun demonstrate long-running growth.

Methuselahs

Methuselahs are small seeds that take a long time to settle. R-pentomino, Diehard, and Acorn are classic stress tests.

Growth

Growth patterns keep creating activity on large boards. Breeder-style seeds and switch engines are good examples to explore with zoom and pan.

Import and export Game of Life patterns

Paste an RLE pattern, Life 1.06 file, or plaintext pattern to load it into the simulator. Export your current board as RLE, PNG, SVG, or a shareable URL.

Supported: RLE, Life 1.06 coordinate files, and plaintext with O/#/1 for live cells.

RLE and SVG are copied into this box for reuse.

Rules explained visually

Each generation checks the eight neighboring cells around every square and applies four simple outcomes.

Underpopulation

A live cell with 0-1 neighbors dies.

Survival

A live cell with 2-3 neighbors survives.

Overpopulation

A live cell with 4+ neighbors dies.

Reproduction

A dead cell with exactly 3 neighbors becomes alive.

About this simulation

Release Updates

v1.2 (May 19, 2026)

  • Added visible Zoom in, Zoom out, Fit to screen, Pan mode, and Reset view controls.
  • Added a larger pattern library with still lifes, oscillators, spaceships, guns, methuselahs, and growth patterns.
  • Added Import / Export tools for RLE, Life 1.06, plaintext, SVG, PNG, and shareable URLs.
  • Added visual rule cards explaining underpopulation, survival, overpopulation, and reproduction.
  • Added quick jump links and expanded FAQ coverage for easier scanning.

v1.1 (February 7, 2026)

  • Added one-click examples (Glider, R-pentomino, Gosper Gun) for faster starts.
  • Added keyboard canvas controls: arrows to move, Space/Enter to toggle, Shift/Ctrl/⌘ modifiers supported.
  • Added Copy as Image for quick sharing of current board state.
  • Added a visible Full Screen mode for distraction-free simulation.
  • Improved simulation performance with cached rules, buffered stepping, and frame-coalesced drag rendering.

This simulator runs fully client-side in your browser. You can explore Conway’s Game of Life and related rules, save/share board states by URL, and now also share snapshots as images.

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What is Conway’s Game of Life?

Conway’s Game of Life is a playful, visual way to explore how complex behavior can emerge from simple rules. It is a grid-based simulation where each square, or cell, is either alive or dead. At each step, the grid updates based only on the local neighborhood around every cell. Even though the rules are minimal, the system can produce surprising patterns like moving “gliders,” repeating oscillators, and intricate long-term structures. This simulator lets you watch those patterns unfold in real time and experiment with different starting designs.

The classic Game of Life uses the rule set called B3/S23. That shorthand means a dead cell is born if it has exactly three live neighbors, and a live cell survives if it has two or three neighbors. Any other case dies off. Because every update is simultaneous, the grid behaves like a tiny world with its own physics. It is a great introduction to cellular automata, emergence, and rule-based systems often discussed in computer science, mathematics, and complexity science.

How to use this simulator

  • Draw cells by clicking or dragging on the grid. Use Ctrl/⌘ to force draw and Shift to erase.
  • Press Play to start the simulation, then adjust the Speed slider for faster or slower generations.
  • Step advances a single generation, which is handy for studying small patterns.
  • Try one-click examples like Glider, R-pentomino, and Gosper Gun to see classic Game of Life behavior.
  • Toggle Wrap if you want the edges to connect like a torus, which changes how patterns travel.
  • Experiment with rules such as HighLife (B36/S23) or Seeds (B2/S) to create new behaviors.
  • Share your setup by copying a link that preserves the grid, rules, speed, and wrap mode.

Why it matters

Beyond being fun to watch, the Game of Life is a classic example of emergent behavior. Researchers and educators use it to illustrate how local rules can create global structure, a concept that appears in topics like ecology, network theory, and artificial life. It also has historical importance in computer science: the Game of Life is known to be computationally universal, meaning it can simulate logic and computation with the right patterns. For students, it is a hands-on way to build intuition about algorithms, discrete time steps, and simulation modeling. This version runs entirely in your browser, so your designs stay private and the experience is instant.

References & Further Reading

External links open in a new tab. Not affiliated with Starlight Tools.

Game of Life FAQ

What is the Game of Life simulator?

It is an online cellular automaton simulator where you draw live cells on a grid and watch each generation update under Conway’s rules or another Life-like rule set.

How do I make a glider?

Use the Glider preset in the pattern library, or draw the five-cell diagonal glider shape and press Play.

What is the Gosper Glider Gun?

The Gosper Glider Gun is a famous pattern that repeatedly emits gliders, creating unbounded growth on a large enough board.

What does B3/S23 mean?

B3 means a dead cell is born with exactly three live neighbors. S23 means a live cell survives with two or three live neighbors.

Can the Game of Life run forever?

Yes. Some patterns vanish, some stabilize, and some keep producing activity indefinitely.

Is Conway’s Game of Life Turing complete?

Yes. With suitable patterns, Life can represent logic and computation, making it Turing complete.

Can I import RLE patterns?

Yes. Paste RLE into the import box and use Import Pattern.

Can I export my pattern?

Yes. Export as RLE, SVG, PNG, or a shareable URL.

What is the difference between wrap and infinite grid?

Wrap connects opposite edges of this finite board. An infinite grid keeps expanding without borders.

5 Fun Facts about the Game of Life

Gliders never stop

The tiny five-cell glider drifts diagonally forever, advancing one cell every 4 generations—first proof that Life supports self-moving “spaceships.”

Classic mover

Guns = infinite growth

The Gosper Glider Gun (a preset here) spits out a new glider every 30 generations. Its discovery in 1970 was the first pattern with unbounded growth.

Endless stream

R-pentomino chaos

Five cells placed as the R-pentomino thrash around for 1,103 generations before settling into 116 still lifes and oscillators—try it from the Examples row.

Long fuse

Life = universal computer

With glider streams as signals, Life can build logic gates, memory, even full CPUs. Your browser grid can, in theory, simulate any computation.

Turing complete

Wrap changes destiny

Enable Wrap and the grid becomes a torus: gliders loop endlessly instead of escaping, and some “dying” patterns become oscillators.

Toroidal twist

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