Colorful Matter

Colorful Matter

"Game of Life" in Color

What is "Colorful Matter"?

"Colorful Matter" is a colored version of "Game of Life".

White cells on the board are dead, all others are alive. For each new round (generation), the current generation is used to determine which cells will be alive or dead.

The rules

A living cell remains alive in the next generation if two or three of its eight neighboring cells are alive. If there are fewer than two or more than three, it dies.

A dead cell comes to life if exactly three of its neighbors are alive, otherwise it remains dead.

The board

The board is a toroid, i.e. the three right neighbors of a cell on the right edge are on the left edge. The same applies to the top and bottom edges.

The size of the square board can be adjusted.

The sequence of generations

leads to the next generation (single steps).

starts the automatic sequence with ten generations per second or resumes it after a pause.

pauses the sequence.

resets the board to the start pattern.

The start patterns

There are various start patterns to choose from.

Because the rules are deterministic (i.e. not random), the course of the game is always the same with the same start pattern and the same board size.

It therefore depends on a good start pattern that leads to an interesting game.

What do the colors mean?

In the start pattern, all living cells are black.

In each generation, the newly "born" cells are given a new color. After a certain number of generations, the colors repeat.

How can you influence the course of the game?

You can click or tap on individual cells at any time to change their status (alive or dead). On smartphones, this is easier if you zoom in a little.

You can create a start pattern before the game starts. Or you can change the cells during the game.

What are the game objectives?

In the simplest case, you choose a random start pattern and enjoy the course of the game. It is a matter of luck how many generations it takes until the game reaches a stationary final state (with static patterns and oscillators only).

While the game is running, you can influence a sequence of events at will by changing cells.

You can also experiment with start patterns that lead to a beautiful final state or an empty board over the longest possible path. The "F-Pentomino" is an example of this.

You can pay attention to the board sizes for which the start pattern you have found "works".

It is also interesting to search for start patterns that lead to moving objects. The "Glider" and the "Spaceships" are examples of this.

If you have found a good start pattern, feel free to send a screenshot to the e-mail address below.